1. Your first login
After registering your domain and web hosting service with Madrona Hosting you would have received an email with your login credentials and a URL for your control panel. I would look like the following, if you didn’t receive an email, please check your spam folder to make sure it didn’t end up there. If you are unable to find the email please open a support ticket and we’ll get your login credentials out to you right away.
Dear New Customer,
PLEASE READ THIS EMAIL IN FULL AND PRINT IT FOR YOUR RECORDS
Thank you for your order from Madrona Hosting! Your hosting account has now been setup and this email contains all the information you will need in order to begin using your account.
If you have requested a domain name during sign up, please keep in mind that your domain name will not be visible on the internet instantly. This process is called propagation and can take up to 48 hours. Until your domain has propagated, your website and email will not function, we have provided a temporary url which you may use to view your website and upload files in the meantime.
New Account Information
Hosting Package: Basic – WordPress
Domain: testdomain.info
First Payment Amount: $0.00 USD
Recurring Amount: $0.00 USD
Billing Cycle: Annual
Next Due Date: 1/1/2022
Login Details
Username: USERNAME
Password: PASSWORD
Control Panel URL: https://hosting.madronahost.com:8443/
Once your domain has propagated, you may also use https://www.testdomain.info:8443/
Server Information
Server Name: hosting1
Server IP: 54.188.6.149
If you are using an existing domain with your new hosting account, you will need to update the nameservers to point to the nameservers listed below.
Nameserver 1: ns1.madronahost.com (54.188.6.149)
Nameserver 2: ns2.madronahost.com (54.203.168.77)
Uploading Your Website
FTP Hostname: testdomain.info
Webpage URL: http://www.testdomain.info
Email Settings
For email accounts that you setup, you should use the following connection details in your email program:
POP3 Host Address: mail.testdomain.info
SMTP Host Address: mail.testdomain.info
Username: The email address you are checking email for
Password: As specified in your control panel
Thank you for choosing us.
—
Madrona Hosting
http://whm.madronahost.com
2. Welcome page
When you login for the first time you’ll be presented with the Plesk welcome page.
Since your site will be preconfigured you can choose to skip most of these and remove the welcome screen if you wish by clicking the brush icon in the upper right corner.
Once closed you’ll be presented with the websites and domains view where you will have access to all your tools.
3. Setup SSL certificate and renewal
Once your domain registration has completed you’ll need to create your SSL certificate. First go to your “Websites and Domains” panel. If you still have the welcome screen you may choose the ‘secure’ option
Or from your domain dashboard choose SSL/TLS certificates
In the page to create your certificate add your email address, this will be embedded in your SSL certificate for notifications regarding your certificate.
Choose wild card domain, this is so the certificate can be used to encrypt your primary site as well as any subdomains you may create in the future. You may want to also protect your email services as well with the certificate.
If you are managing DNS outside of Madrona Hosting you will need to create a DNS entry for the SSL certificate challenge. Follow the instructions on the page and then hit reload.
If you are hosting DNS with Madrona Hosting you may go ahead and hit reload as the DNS entry will be created for you.
Once your certificate has been successfully installed you will need to do a few more things to make sure you site remains protected.
Enabled HSTS which will prevent users from accessing your site via unencrypted HTTP.
Also enable “Keep Websites Secured” this will automatically renew your SSL certificates 30 days before they are due to expire.
4. Check on your website.
Now that you have an SSL certificate lets go to your control panel, navigate back to “websites and domains” and lets check your wordpress site. If all went well you should be able to view your website by clicking on ‘open in web’ or selecting the preview option.
5. Setup Complete
Basic setup of your website is now complete. Feel free to explore our knowledgebase to learn more about your hosting options and capabilities.
If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact us either via email or by opening a support ticket.