Reseller Getting Started - Linux (WHM/cPanel)

Welcome to HostBreak.com! We are glad you joined our happy customers family, thank you.

Getting started with your reseller web hosting account is not complicated. The first step is determine what you need to do.

  • Do you already have a web site (or more than one) or are you starting from scratch? If you're starting from scratch, go to step 2 below.
  • Do you need to transfer your web site(s) from a previous host? If so, HostBreak can help you with that. Simply login to customer portal here and open a support ticket. HostBreak will transfer the files for up to 5 domains for free within 30 days of signing up.

Step 2: Change Your DNS

In order to get your web site working, you must change your name servers. This is an easy, but necessary step you must follow to get started.


  1. If you registered your domain name with HostBreak during sign-up, we have taken care of this step for you.
  2. If you have registered your domain name with another company (e.g. GoDaddy, NameCheap, etc.), you must login to their control panel to update the DNS. Or you may send us login/password and we will take care of this for you.
  3. Once your DNS changes have been made, it takes roughly 24-48 hours for your web site to start resolving to HostBreak's servers. To avoid downtime during the move, please read our switching host without downtime guide. If it takes longer than two days for your web site to start working, please contact our support team.

Step 3: Login to WHM/cPanel

WHM (webhost Manager) allows you to create and maintain accounts under your resekler account, The WHM interface allows you to be your own web hosting provider. First to get started, know that you can always access your WHM by visiting the URL:

https://your-server.mywebsitebox.com:2087

See your reseller welcome email for exact address of your WHM control panel.

Enter the Username and Password of your account to login. Only your reseller hosting account's username and password will have a WHM login.

Step 4: Create Packages

A reseller account allows you to purchase a bulk amount of resources, typically a defined limit of Disk Space and Bandwidth for which you can spread out among many different webhosting accounts.

For example, say you ordered a reseller plans with 30GB Disk Space and 400GB Bandwidth then these are your reseller limits. You can create as many accounts as you want, so long as the total Disk Space allotted to the accounts is less than 30GB and the total Bandwidth allotted to the accounts is less than 400GB.

To further illustrate this, say you want to resell 30 webhosting accounts. With your 30GB Disk Space and 400GB Bandwidth you could set up each of the accounts with a 1GB Disk Space/12GB Bandwidth plan and you would have hit your reseller limits. To see this look at the math involved:

30 Webhosting Accounts X 1GB Disk Space Each = 30GB Disk Space - Your reseller limit.
30 Webhosting Accounts X 12GB Bandwidth Each = 360GB Bandwidth

All of your resold accounts do not have to use the same package and resource limits. You can mix and match as you desire. You don't have to consume all of your resource allotments all of the time, you can set up 5 1GB Disk Space/30GB Bandwidth accounts which would consume 5GB Disk Space and 150GB Bandwidth of your reseller limits, leaving you with 25GB Disk Space and 250GB Bandwidth left to disperse for future accounts. The combinations are endless.

Once you have your reseller account, the first thing you need to do before you can start reselling webhosting is create packages or plans for your would-be resold webhosting accounts. The packages define how much Disk Space and Bandwidth your resold accounts can use. This limit would be a subset of your reseller limits. So, another words, if you had a 30GB Disk Space/400GB Bandwidth reseller account, you would NOT want to create a package with 30GB Disk Space/400GB Bandwidth because that would be all of your reseller limits. You want to create packages that divide up your reseller limits resources into smaller units so that you can assign that number of resources to your resold accounts. The smaller you make each individual package limit in your reseller, the more webhosting accounts you can host with that package. But if you make the packages too small, then your would-be clients would likely be turned off by the offering.

To begin creating packages, Find the section labeled Packages in the left frame of your WHM and then find the link for Add a package: This is broken into 3 separate parts.

First, the name of the package: Here you just enter a name for the package. This can be anything, but it is a good idea to name it something you will recognize.

Second, define the resources for the package: The key points to remember here are Quota (Disk Space) and  Bandwidth. As pointed out earlier, you want to define these two aspects as a subset of your overall reseller limits. These are the only two aspects that are defined by your reseller limits.

The other aspects (Max FTP Accounts, Max Email Accounts, Max Email Lists, Max Databases, Max Sub Domains, Max Parked Domains, Max Addon Domains) can be set to any value. There are no restrictions on the values for these aspects.

Third, define the settings for the package: Really none of these values should ever be changed from their default setting. Perhaps if you are from a foreign country (not the USA) and you expect all of your clients to be in the same country, you might set the Locale to better represent the spoken language for that country. But other than that, none of the other aspects should be changed from their defaults.

Now when you click Add the package will be created with your defined aspects.

Step 5: Creating a Hosting Account

Once you have your reseller account set up and you have your packages defined, you are ready to add new hosting accounts to your reseller account.

You can add new accounts to your reseller account directly from your WHM interface. Find the section labeled Account Functions on the left frame of your WHM: And then find the link for Add a New Account. When you click the Create a New Account link the right frame will change to a page where you can create an account. This is broken into 3 main parts.

First, the Domain Information section: Here you define the Domain Name, Username, Password, and Contact Email for the webhosting account. Most of these aspects are self-explanatory. We do recommend using the Password Generator for generating an initial password, a strong password is a key to good account security.

Second, the Package information section: Here you can select the already defined package that you want the account to use. This would set the webhosting account to the resource limits that are defined in the selected package.

Third, the Settings section: Here you can define what language the user's cPanel will be displayed in by default.

The other two sections, DNS Settings and Mail Routing Settings really need to be left alone and left to their defaults. These are advanced settings and if you do not know what you are doing can severely affect functions of the account.

The DNS Settings section will tell you what nameservers your newly created hosting account will need to use. Your client will need this information so that they can point their domain name to our servers. The nameservers will be listed in the section:

When you click Create the web hosting account will be created and you will receive an e-mail telling you the account has been created.

Step 6: Uploading Your Web Site

You can begin uploading to your account now by using an FTP Client or cPanel's File Manager.

  • If you are using an FTP client, put in your site's IP address under the "FTP address" field. Use the username and password sent to you in your welcome email. FTP always runs on Port 21.
  • Once your FTP is connected, go into the "public_html" folder and begin uploading your site. To replace the default place holder page, you must upload an index.html in all lowercase lettering or delete the page and replace it with your own index page.

Step 7: Note These Useful Links

"Before propagation" as it is defined below is the point between when you sign up for web hosting and when the changes to your name servers take effect (usually about 24 hours after you change your name servers).

"After propagation" is once your site is up and running normally.
"During propagation", you should use the "Before propagation" format.

cPanel

Before Propagation: http://your-server.mywebsitebox.com/cpanel (refer to reseller welcome email for "your-server" exact address)
After Propagation: http://yourdomain.com/cpanel 

WHM

Before Propagation:  http://your-server.mywebsitebox.com:2087  
After Propagation: http://your-server.yourdomain.com:2087 
If cannot connect make sure Port 2087 is not blocked on you network firewall.

Webmail

Before Propagation: http://your-server.mywebsitebox.com/webmail 
After Propagation: http://yourdomain.com/webmail 
If cannot connect make sure Port 2095 is not blocked on you network firewall.

WebSite

Before Propagation:http://your-server.mywebsitebox.com/~username/ 
After Propagation:http://www.yourdomain.com

Step 8: Setting up Email Accounts

Please note that by default, you and your clients do not have an email address setup with HostBreak. You will need to configure this yourself in cPanel.

Your POP & SMTP Server address will be mail.yourdomain.com.

Step 9: Get More From Your Hosting Account

Now that you have a reseller hosting account with HostBreak, you have a variety of options:

  • Manage your accounts and billing using HostBill. It comes free with Fantasy Reseller account annual signup and costs only $14/month for the rest.
  • HostBreak resellers can request an eNom or StarGate domain reseller account to manage and sell domains. Open a support ticket to receive your account details.

Step 10: Manage Your Billing

You will be billed automatically for your reseller hosting on the appropriate date after your purchase was completed (i.e. if you pay monthly, you will be billed monthly on the day of the month that you signed up).

To manage your billing, including to update your credit card, view invoices, change your primary email address, etc., please go to http://portal.HostBreak.com/.

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