After choosing a web host, the users are given some passwords along with other technical details. For new users, all this can be quite confusing, as they have to figure out the whole thing on their own.

Point Your Domain at Your Host
The email sent by host contains the addresses of the nameservers. For instance, ab2.host.com is a nameserver's address. After locating it, log in to the domain name registrar's site. Configure your domain option and replace the registrar's default nameserver with that of the web host.

Visit your domain. If your configuration was successful, a message will be displayed. Sometimes, it take a day or two for the name change of the nameserver.

Test Your FTP Account
The next step is to upload your website using an FTP program and  a test page. The simplest way to create a test page is to type “this is a test” in notepad and save it as index.html.

Connect to the host's FTP program via your own FTP program. Once connected, look for an existing index.html file. Overwrite this file with your own index.html file. On visiting your site, if you see the text you wrote in your file on the browser, this means that everything worked out the way it was supposed to. Now this text can be replaced with the real content that has to be put on your website. Some of the good FTP programs that are available for free are Cute FTP, Smart FTP among others.

Set Up an Email Address
cPanel is a program used by the web hosts that allow you to configure your account. The way to access it is mentioned in the host's email. Its address is something like www.domain.com:1028/cpanel. If you are using a firewall, you need to disable it in order to reach this page. After you reach the cPanel page, you will be prompted for a username and password, followed by a screen full of icons.

To create an email account, click on the email icon. To check the email, an account has to be added in your email program.

Other functions of cPanel
cPanel makes it easier to do anything you want to with your site, this may range from the addition of FTP accounts to creation of databases. The exact functions of cPanel vary from website to website. It is designed to stop you from messing things up, so do not be scared to experiment.