---
title: "Welcome aboard: your next steps!"
date: "2014-12-02"
category: "guides"
slug: "welcome-aboard-next-steps"
---

Thank you for choosing ApisCP hosting. This guide walks you through the essential steps to get your domain connected and your site live. It should take about 10-15 minutes.

## Domain Setup

Your hosting account is the server that runs your website. Your domain name is the address that points visitors to it. Before your site goes live, you need to connect the two.

### New Domain Registration

If you purchased a new domain during signup, everything is already configured. Skip ahead to **Getting Started**.

### Moving a Domain from a Previous Provider

At minimum, your domain's nameservers must be changed to **ns1.apnscp.com** and **ns2.apnscp.com**. This is done through your domain registrar -- the company where your domain is registered and renewed.

If your previous host bundled domain registration with hosting and you cannot change nameservers independently, you will need to transfer your domain to a different registrar first.

### Transferring Registrars

A registrar transfer moves your domain to a neutral third-party, separating it from your old host. This is recommended because some providers make it difficult to release domain names after service termination. **Always transfer your domain before canceling your old hosting.**

Transfers are available through [domains.apnscp.com](http://domains.apnscp.com) (free transfer, $10/year renewal). Alternatively, use any registrar you prefer -- [Namecheap](http://www.namecheap.com), [Gandi](http://gandi.net), [Hover](http://www.hover.com), [GoDaddy](http://www.godaddy.com), etc. Keeping all your domains with one registrar simplifies management.

Registrar transfers take 3-10 business days. Once complete, update your nameservers to **ns1.apnscp.com** and **ns2.apnscp.com**. DNS changes will be active within 24 hours.

## Getting Started

### Setting Up Email

You can either forward email to an external address or deliver it locally:

- **Forwarding:** See [[creating-a-forwarded-e-mail]] (note: less reliable than local delivery)
- **Local delivery:** Create a new mailbox via **User** > **Add User** in the [[logging-into-the-control-panel]], or attach an email address to an existing user via **Mail** > **Manage Mailboxes**

For instructions on accessing your email, see [[accessing-e-mail]].

### Getting Your Site Online

Upload your website files to the [[where-is-site-content-served-from]] for your site, which is `/var/www/html`. If starting fresh, [WordPress](http://www.wordpress.org) is a popular choice -- just remove the default `index.html` first. You can also edit files directly via **Files** > **File Manager** in the control panel.

> **Preview your domain** before changing nameservers by overriding DNS locally. See [[previewing-your-domain]] for instructions.

## Additional Configuration

### Adding More Domains

Additional domains can be [[creating-addon-domain]] to your account via **DNS** > **Addon Domains**. Follow the same nameserver setup described above. Place addon domain content under `/var/www` rather than `/var/www/html`. See [[where-is-site-content-served-from]] for details.

### Understanding Permissions

ApisCP uses a separate, non-privileged user for the web server, improving security by restricting what the web server can access. This requires setting appropriate permissions for PHP applications. For a quick overview, see [[permissions-overview]]. If you already understand Linux permissions, set directories that need write access to `717`. See also [[enabling-write-access]].

### Building Custom Software

You can build and run any software necessary for your website. C applications will [[compiling-programs]] under `/usr/local`. Package managers for common languages work out of the box: `gem install`, `pear install`, `perl -MCPAN -e 'install'`, and `pip-python install` require no additional configuration.

### Running Services

You can run up to 10 services from the [[accessing-terminal]] that listen on external TCP sockets. See [[listening-ports]] for details.

For specific setup guides:

- [[installing-wordpress]]
- [[running-redis]]
- [[running-node-js]]
- [[django-quickstart]]
- [[setting-rails-passenger]]
- [[running-mongodb]]
