Our cloud web hosting, semi-dedicated, and reseller web hosting plans utilize Imunify360 WAF (web application firewall) in front of your websites. This protection is enabled by default and includes multiple features meant to protect your website from malware, malicious traffic, bad actors, and much more.

If an IP address is detected as potentially malicious or was found performing activity which triggers the Imunify360 WAF visitors from that IP will be shown the following message temporarily before being redirected to your website:

"Please wait while your request is being verified..."

This message indicates the Imunify360 WAF is ensuring the traffic & request are legitimate before allowing it to hit your website.

If you would like to disable this protection so this message is never shown to visitors on your website please open a ticket through https://my.hawkhost.com/submittticket.php so our helpdesk team can whitelist your domain(s) through the Imunify360 WAF.

All cloud web hosting, semi-dedicated, and reseller hosting services include enterprise level email spam filtering through SpamExperts. Clients looking to enable SpamExperts on their account can refer to our KB article Enabling SpamExperts through cPanel

Once SpamExperts has been enabled on your domain there are two ways to access the SpamExperts management panel.

Accessing SpamExperts Through cPanel

1. Login to cPanel for your account and once you've logged into cPanel search for the "Professional Spam Filter" interface:
   
   
   
   
2. Under the Professional Spam Filter interface in cPanel click on the Login button to the right of the listed domain:
   
   
   
   
3. After clicking Login you will be redirected to the SpamExperts web interface as the main/primary domain user for this account. You can use this interface to manage all SpamExperts settings, train / release emails, etc.
   
   

Creating Separate SpamExperts Users for External Access Outside cPanel

These steps assume you have already enabled SpamExperts enterprise email filtering on your account.

1. Login to cPanel for your account and once you've logged into cPanel search for the "Professional Spam Filter" interface:
   
   
   
   
2. Under the Professional Spam Filter interface in cPanel click on the Login button to the right of the listed domain:
   
   
   
   
3. After clicking Login you will be redirected to the SpamExperts web interface as the main/primary domain user for this account.
   
   
4. From the SpamExperts web interface scroll down to the bottom left side menu titled "Users & Permissions". Click "Manage Email Users":
   
   
   
   
5. From the Manage Email Users interface click the "Add" button:
   
   
   
   
6. Fill out the provided username, password, and status fields:
   
   
   
   
7. Save your changes to create your SpamExperts user.
   
   
8. You will now be able to use this new username/password you've created to login to https://se001.arandomserver.com directly without requiring going through cPanel first.

RAM/memory upgrades are available on all shared, cloud web hosting, and semi-dedicated hosting services. Any customer with a reseller or cloud compute package will need to contact our sales team for RAM/memory upgrades. Shared, cloud web hosting, and semi-dedicated hosting customers can add memory directly through their client area:

1. Login to your client area at https://my.hawkhost.com/clientarea.php.
   
   
2. Click "Services" from the menu navigation, and from the dropdown select "My Services":
   
   
   
   
3. From your "My Products & Services" page there is an "Actions" menu on the middle-left side of the page. Click "View Available Addons":
   
   
   
   
   
4. The "Product Addons" page will have an option labeled "Additional 1GB of RAM/Memory". Select your service from the provided dropdown list and click "Order Now" to proceed to checkout and complete the RAM/Memory upgrade:
   
   

Unfortunately Cloudflare has formally announced the deprecation of their cPanel plugin, as a result of this notice access to the Cloudflare cPanel plugin will be removed from Hawk Host’s cPanel as of June 15 2022. Cloudflare will continue to serve sites originally configured through the cPanel plugin however you will need access to your direct cloudflare.com account to continue managing and modifying your DNS zones.

To transition all your existing Cloudflare powered sites from cPanel to Cloudflare directly you can login to your account at https://dash.cloudflare.com/login. The email address and password used will be the same ones used when first enrolling through the cPanel plugin. If you do not have your credentials available the form at https://dash.cloudflare.com/login offers password reset and account recovery options.

Any issues with accessing your account or importing your sites can be resolved directly with Cloudflare support through https://support.cloudflare.com/hc/en-us. Unfortunately Hawk Host support is unable to assist with account access or import issues when transitioning to your direct Cloudflare account.

When checking the "Email Deliverability" interface in cPanel it may show a PTR/rDNS error which reads "Problems Exist (Reverse DNS)":

All of our servers already have proper PTR/rDNS records setup. This error message from cPanel is a known bug which has been reported to the cPanel development team. This bug will not cause any issues with email delivery and can be safely ignored.

If you have any further questions regarding this please open a ticket with our support department through your helpdesk account.

We fully support Zend Framework on all of our shared, cloud web hosting, semi-dedicated, and reseller hosting plans. While we do not have a system wide install available for use, all users are able to upload the framework themselves and run it from within their account. All of the required modules are loaded and Zend Optimizer is installed.

We recommend installing it through Softaculous which is available in your cPanel account. If you need assistance installing it please submit a ticket to our helpdesk.

Proactive Defense is a unique Imunify360 feature that can prevent malicious activity through PHP scripts. It is available as a PHP module for Apache and LiteSpeed web servers and analyzes script activity using known patterns like obfuscated command injection, malicious code planting, sending spam, SQL injection etc. This feature is available on all shared, cloud web hosting, semi-dedicated, and reseller hosting plans.

To enable Proactive Defense:

1. Login to cPanel and use the search to locate the Imunify360 interface. Click the Imunify360 icon.
   
   
   
   
2. From the Imunify360 interface, select the Proactive Defense option from the top menu navigation.
   
   

Using Proactive Defense:

1. Proactive Defense offers three modes:
   
   Disabled: Proactive Defense will not be used for your account.
   Log only: Proactive Defense will detect/identify malicious PHP scripts, code, etc. but it will not take action, only log the events.
   Kill Mode: Proactive Defense will immediately kill the PHP script performing malicious activity under your account. Kill Mode also logs events in addition to killing scripts.
   
   
2. When Kill Mode is enabled, any detected malicious PHP scripts and their actions will be displayed under Detected Events. When an event is detected you will be given Action options on how to handle the Detected Event. Options include:
   
   View file content: View the content (code) of the malicious PHP script
   Move IP to the Black List: Block the IP which called the script and prevent it from completing the same request in the future
   Move file to Ignore List (ignore detected rule): Allows you to exclude the file from Proactive Defense analysis for a particular rule. Useful in the case of a false-positive detection, or when debugging a detection issue.
   Move file to Ignore List (ignore all rules): Allows you to exclude the file from Proactive Defense for all rules
   Remove file from Ignore List: Removes the file form your Ignore List and will enable Proactive Defense detection on the file again

Additional reading/details about Proactive Defense can be found on the the Imunify360 Documentation Page

Our cloud compute packages include two options for web based control panels to aid in server management. The two panels currently available are DirectAdmin and cPanel/WHM. When your compute is first deployed your chosen control panel will come pre-installed and ready for use.

To access your cPanel/WHM panel:

WHM URL: https://1.2.3.4:2087 (Replace 1.2.3.4 with your compute IP)
Username: root
Password: Your compute root password (Refer to your "New Cloud Compute Information" email)

WHM User Guide: https://docs.cpanel.net/whm/
cPanel User Guide: https://docs.cpanel.net/cpanel/

To access your DirectAdmin panel:

DirectAdmin URL: http://1.2.3.4:2222 (Replace 1.2.3.4 with your compute IP)
Username: admin
Password: Your compute root password (Refer to your "New Cloud Compute Information" email)

DirectAdmin User guide: https://help.directadmin.com/

Our cloud web hosting, semi-dedicated, and reseller plans do not provide a preview URL. To view your website(s) content on our servers before changing your nameservers/DNS you would need to use the hosts file method on your local computer.

You can find a KB article on how to modify your local system hosts file here: How to modify your computes hosts file to preview a site

Please refer to our updated KB article at https://support.hawkhost.com/Knowledgebase/Article/View/using-php-selector-to-change-your-php-version-modify-extensions-or-change-php-settings for a guide on making these changes.

All shared, cloud web hosting, semi-dedicated, and reseller hosting plans offer the following PHP versions:

• PHP 4.4 (EOL)
• PHP 5.1 (EOL), PHP 5.2 (EOL), PHP 5.3 (EOL), PHP 5.4, PHP 5.5 (EOL), PHP 5.6 (EOL)
• PHP 7.0 (EOL), PHP 7.1 (EOL), PHP 7.2 (EOL), PHP 7.3 (EOL), PHP 7.4
• PHP 8.0, PHP 8.1, PHP 8.2

Any PHP version with (EOL) means it has reached its end of life and is no longer receiving feature updates. Custom security patches are still applied through CloudLinux however it is strongly recommended to not run any EOL version of PHP. We recommend running PHP 7.4 or newer.

To change your accounts PHP version:

1. Login to cPanel for your account.
   
   
2. In the top left search bar, type "Select PHP Version":
   
   
   
   
3. From the Select PHP Version interface use the "My Domains" select your new default PHP version:
   
   
   
   
4. Select your desired PHP version and then click "Set as current":
   
   

From this interface you can also enable/disable various modules specific to your desired PHP version. You can also modify your custom php.ini settings using the "Options" menu from the top navigation. Refer to our KB article for more details on modifying PHP options or extensions

Please note for these changes to take effect on all addon domains you will need to make sure your sites are set to the "inherit" setting through the MultiPHP Manager interface in cPanel.

All cloud web hosting, semi-dedicated, and reseller hosting plans allow you to create an unlimited number of FTP accounts for your service. FTP is a protocol used to transfer files between your hosting account and your local system.

FTP accounts can be created using the FTP Accounts interface in cPanel. Instructions below:

1. Login to your accounts cPanel at https://yourdomain.com/cpanel or https://yourdomain.com:2083
   
   
2. Once you have logged into cPanel use the search to locate the FTP Accounts interface:
   
   
   
   
3. From the FTP Accounts interface in cPanel use the provided fields to create your new FTP user:
   
   Log In: This will be your FTP username
   Domain: Select the domain this user should be tied to from the provided dropdown
   Password: This will be the password used to authenticate with your FTP user. The password should be unique with at least 12 alpha-numeric characters
   Directory: This is the default directory under your web hosting account the FTP user will connect to where files will be uploaded
   Quota: The maximum size of total files allowed to be uploaded and stored by this FTP user in their default Directory
   
   
4. When all the required fields are filled out click the "Create FTP Account" button to add the new user:
   
   
   
   
5. If the account is created successfully your new FTP account will appear under the FTP Accounts section:
   
   

Related Articles:

How do I connect to my account using FTP?
How do I connect to my account using SFTP?

All of our shared, cloud web hosting, semi-dedicated, and reseller hosting plans support enabling DNSSEC. To enable DNSSEC on your domains:

1. Login to cPanel for your hosting account and use the search bar to look for the "Zone Editor" interface:
   
   
   
   
2. From the "Zone Editor" interface select the "DNSSEC" button to the right of your domain:
   
   
   
   
3. From the "Zone Editor DNSSEC" page click "Create Key":
   
   
   
   
4. You will then be met with a popup dialogue window titled "Confirm Create". For most users the default values will be accepted by the registry, but if you do have special requirements use the "Customize" interface. Otherwise, click "Create":
   
   
   
   
5. Once you click create you will be redirected to the "DNSSEC Key Details" page which contains all the DNSSEC information necessary to configure DNSSEC on your domain with your registrar:
   
   
   
   
6. You will now be able to view these DNSSEC keys at any time through cPanel in the Zone Editor:
   
   

Unfortunately the FFmpeg framework/extension is not available on our cloud web hosting, semi-dedicated, or reseller web hosting plans. To utilize FFmpeg it would require using a cloud compute (https://www.hawkhost.com/cloud-compute) which is your own private server environment with full root access.

All shared, reseller, and semi-dedicated services have ModSecurity (Modsec) enabled by default. ModSecurity is a standard ruleset that enables an extra layer of security in front of your sites, keeping them safe from known exploits with software used in our environment. It is generally best practice to keep Modsec enabled.

A 403 error is a common symptom of triggering a Modsec rule. If you find your site hitting a 403 error you can contact our support team and ask we review our logs for the specific Modsec rule you're triggering. We will require you provide your personal IP (https://myip.hawkhost.com) to identify the Modsec rule(s) you're hitting. Once the Modsec rule ID is identified, that specific rule can be disabled through your .htaccess using the following syntax:

SecRuleRemoveById 12345

In the above example you'd replace "12345" with the rule ID identified through our logs by working with our support team.

If you wish to fully disable Modsec this can be done through the ModSecurity interface in cPanel:

1. Login to cPanel for your account and use the top-right search to look for the ModSecurity interface:
   
   
   
   
2. From the ModSecurity interface, locate the domain(s) you wish to disable Modsec. To the right of the domain is an On|Off toggle, switch the status accordingly:
   
   
   
   
3. Modsec will now be disabled and you should no longer see a 403 error on your site(s).

All shared, cloud web hosting, semi-dedicated, and reseller plans include the ability to enable PHP extensions through cPanel using the Select PHP Version interface. To enable PHP extensions:

1. Login to cPanel for your hosting account and use the search to find the "Select PHP Version" interface:
   
   
   
   
2. From the Select PHP Version interface click "Extensions":
   
   
   
   
3. All of the available PHP extensions for your selected PHP version will be shown. To enable an extension, click the checkbox next to the extension. You will then see a dialogue window in the top right of your screen confirming it has been enabled. The checkbox next to the extension you've enabled should also turn blue with a checkmark:
   
   
   

All shared, cloud web hosting, semi-dedicated, and reseller plans support the LiteSpeed Cache for WordPress (LSCWP) plugin at no additional cost. This plugin drastically improves performance of WordPress installations in our environments. In addition to our systems automatically attempting to optimize your sites with caching you can also manually enable, disable, and flag (block) installations for LiteSpeed Cache for WordPress.

To enable LiteSpeed Cache for WordPress:

1. Login to cPanel for your account.
   
   
2. Using the search form and look for the "LiteSpeed Web Cache Manager" interface and click the icon which shows up:
   
   
   
   
3. From the LiteSpeed Web Cache Manager interface select the "WordPress Cache" link under the "LiteSpeed Cache Management" menu:
   
   
4. From the WordPress Cache page, select the "Scan" button to detect all your accounts current WordPress installations:
   
   
   
   
5. Once the scan completes your WordPress installations will appear under the "Discovered WordPress Installations" menu. To the right of your installation(s) is an option to "Enable", click that to enable/install LiteSpeed Cache on your WordPress installation:
   
   
   
   
6. The Cache Status will changed from "Disabled" to "Enabled". Litespeed Cache is now in use on your site:
   
   

To disable LiteSpeed Cache for WordPress:

1. Login to cPanel for your account.
   
   
2. Using the search form and look for the "LiteSpeed Web Cache Manager" interface and click the icon which shows up:
   
   
   
   
3. From the LiteSpeed Web Cache Manager interface select the "WordPress Cache" link under the "LiteSpeed Cache Management" menu:
   
   
   
   
4. Your existing WordPress installations with Enabled cache will be listed. To disable cache, click the "Disable" link on the right side under the "Actions" menu for your installation:
   
   
   
   
5. The Cache Status will changed from "Enabled" to "Disabled". Litespeed Cache is no longer in use on your site:
   
   

To flag (block) LiteSpeed cache for WordPress:

1. Login to cPanel for your account.
   
   
2. Using the search form and look for the "LiteSpeed Web Cache Manager" interface and click the icon which shows up:
   
   
   
   
3. From the LiteSpeed Web Cache Manager interface select the "WordPress Cache" link under the "LiteSpeed Cache Management" menu:
   
   
   
   
4. Make sure the Cache Status is disabled for the installation(s) you're trying to flag (block).
   
   
5. To flag (block) LiteSpeed cache to prevent future installations, click the "Flag" link on the right side under the "Actions" menu for your installation:
   
   
   
   
6. The Flag icon will appear under the menu. This installation will now be excluded from any future LiteSpeed Cache installation attempts until the Flag is removed:
   
   

All shared, cloud web hosting, semi-dedicated, and reseller plans include SSH access. To connect to your account using SSH:

3) Open up PuTTY or your alternative SSH client and enter your domain name or accounts IP into the hostname/IP field:

4) Hit enter on your keyboard or press the "Open' button from PuTTY. The SSH connection will be established to your compute. You'll be prompted with a window to accept a certificate. Hit "Yes" as it is safe to accept this certificate:

5) From there you'll be prompted with a black screen asking for a login, then password. Enter your cPanel Username as the login name and enter the cPanel password from your "New Account Information" setup email. Keep in mind when you type your password nothing will be showing up - this is normal and it is being entered:

If you encounter any issues, please submit a support ticket with our compute support department.

Unfortunately as of cPanel/WHM version 100 they do not support the concept of multiple cPanel users, as a result all cloud web hosting and semi-dedicated hosting plans would have a single cPanel login for the hosting service. It is not possible to create a secondary or less privileged user to provide access to a webmaster or developer. If they require cPanel access your only option is to provide your main cPanel username/password.

Providing a webmaster or developer access to your cPanel hosting account does not give them access to your account's client area/billing portal (https://my.hawkhost.com). The credentials to access your client area/billing portal are different than your cPanel credentials. If desired you can add your webmaster or developer as a user to your client area/billing portal per our guide at How to Add an Authorized User to your Account.

If your webmaster or developer requires access to your account to upload, download, or modify files one alternative option is to provide them an FTP Account. An FTP Account will allow the developer or webmaster to upload, download, or modify files in any given directory (you control their access) so they can work on your site's files without requiring full cPanel access. Please refer to our guide at How to Create FTP Accounts for instructions on how to create an FTP account specifically for your webmaster or developer.

Due to a recent change in policies and standards, multiple websites (including Paypal) are now requiring vendors and e-commerce sites use an SSL certificate signed with the SHA256 algorithm (also referred to as SHA2) and will no longer accept SSL certs signed using SHA1. As a result of this you may need to have your SSL certificate re-issued using the SHA256 algorithm.

To complete this, you'll first need to generate a new key/CSR pair through cPanel (make sure you use a 4,096bit private key). It's important that your new key/CSR match the exact same domain name you used for the original certificate: https://support.hawkhost.com/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/123/0/how-do-i-generate-a-csr--certificate-signing-request

Once your new key/CSR are generated, please open a ticket at https://support.hawkhost.com asking to have your SSL certificate re-issued. Be sure to include your new CSR in that ticket as our support team will need it to complete the re-issue.

Your certificate will then be re-issued using SHA256 (SHA2), at which point we'll also install your new certificate for you.

1. Login to cPanel for your account using https://yourdomain.com:2083 (replace yourdomain.com with your accounts primary domain name)
   
   
2. Once you've logged in to cPanel use the search tool to look for 'Server Application Manager' or 'memcached'. Both terms will bring you to the right interface:
   
   
   
   
   
3. Click the 'Server Application Manager' icon
   
   
4. On the 'Server Application Manager' configuration page you will see a few options listed, including memcached. Next to the memcached line click "Enable" under the "Actions" menu:
   
   
   
   
   
5. It can take up to 5 minutes for your memcached instance to be started. You will need to refresh the page until the status changes to "Online":
   
   
   
   
   
   
6. Your accounts memcached instance socket will be displayed once the application starts:
   
   
   
   
   
   

Header always set Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000" Header always set Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000" 

This header tells the client that interactions with the configured sites should always use HTTPS for one year (31536000 seconds).

Softaculous offers a quick and easy way to clone your existing software installation(s) into a staging environment. Please refer to our blog post at https://blog.hawkhost.com/2018/10/30/creating-a-wordpress-staging-environment-through-softaculous/ for a guide on how to complete this.

Editing your local systems hosts file allows you to manually point a website to a specific IP instead of relying on public DNS resolution. The hosts file is located in the following locations depending on your system:

• Windows 10 – “C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts”
• Linux – “/etc/hosts”
• Mac OS X – “/private/etc/hosts”

Editing your host file on Windows:

1. Click the Windows button and type notepad to bring up the notepad utility.
   
   
2. Right click on notepad and click Run as Administrator
   
   
3. You’ll be asked “Do you want to allow this app to make changes to your device?”. Choose Yes.
   
   
4. In your notepad click File and then Open
   
   
5. Navigate to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts or click the address bar at the top and paste in the path and choose Enter.  If you don’t see the hosts file in the C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts directory then select All files from the File name: drop-down list, then click on the hosts file. 
   
   
6. Once you're viewing the host file add the entries one per line as needed. The correct format to use is:
   
   1.2.3.4 hawkhost.com
   
   
7. In the above example replace 1.2.3.4 with the IP address you want to point your site to and replace hawkhost.com with the domain name you're working with.
   
   
8. Once you have added your hosts entries save the hosts file. Your domain(s) will now be manually pointed to the IPs listed in the host file.

Editing your host file on Mac:

1. Open the Terminal app by using either the Spotlight search or by navigating to Applications=>Utilities=>click Terminal
   
   
2. In the Terminal you just opened type the following command: sudo nano /private/etc/hosts
   
   
3. Type in your user password when prompted
   
   
4. Edit the hosts file using the following format:
   
   1.2.3.4 hawkhost.com
   
   
5. In the above example replace 1.2.3.4 with the IP address you want to point your site to and replace hawkhost.com with the domain name you're working with.
   
   
6. Save your changes by pressing control-o on your keyboard then return to accept the filename. Exit the editor by pressing control-x. This takes you back to the terminal screen.

Editing your host file on Linux:

1. From your command line terminal type the following command: sudo nano /etc/hosts
   
   
2. When prompted enter your password to allow your user the ability to modify/save the hosts file
   
   
3. Edit the hosts file using the following format:
   
   1.2.3.4 hawkhost.com
   
   
4. In the above example replace 1.2.3.4 with the IP address you want to point your site to and replace hawkhost.com with the domain name you're working with.
   
   
5. Save your changes by pressing control-x on your keyboard then y to save the changes and return to complete the save. You will be dropped back to your command line terminal.

The SetEnv directive is not supported by LiteSpeed Web Server at this time however you can set environmental by using the following:

RewriteRule .* - [E:myenv=myvalue]

SPA (Secure Password Authentication) is a propriety Microsoft protocol used with the Outlook email client. As SPA is proprietary to Microsoft and is not widely adopted, Hawk Host does not offer SPA support on our shared, reseller, or semi-dedicated hosting services.

We recommend that clients use SSL/TLS authentication when configuring their email clients. For more details on configuring an email client, please refer to our KB article: