The toolbar is designed for anyone wanting a quick, easy way to access their Bluehost hosting account tools. It features buttons linking you directly to everything you need:

• Bluehost cPanel Login
• Bluehost Webmail Access
• Chat with a Bluehost Support Agent
• Link to the Bluehost Knowledge Base
• & more…

Our social media resources are powerful tools to help you. Keep up to date on our Blog, watch new educational videos on our youtube channel, and catch important updates and offers through our Facebook and Twitter pages. And the toolbar is fully customizable!  You can add whatever features you like, such as local weather status, personal email account status, etc… Get more apps and add as many as you like!

Let us know what you think. We hope it helps!

But let’s try to not hold it against the error pages. They may look intimidating, but they’re actually quite helpful if you understand what they represent. Below are the two most common error pages that our customers face. I’ll review what they mean and offer some tips on how you can diagnose them.

404: Page Not Found

This essentially means that the resource (link, picture, post, file, etc…) you’re attempting to view, click, embed or obtain is unavailable. The server attempted to find the specified file and failed.

What should I look for?

1. URL’s are case-sensitive. Verify that your URL employs the correct casing, then try again.
2. Make sure the domain name is entered properly, including any necessary subdomains and subfolders. A common mistake is to either add too much to the URL (e.g. including “/public_html”), or not including the proper subdomain (e.g. domain.com/file.php instead of sub.domain.com/file.php).
3. Verify your files are uploaded to the correct directories. Often files are uploaded to the home directory instead of the public_html directory, making them inaccessible on the Internet. You can check this using your cPanel -> File Manager or your preferred FTP program.

500: Internal Server Error

An Internal Server Error means that the server attempted to handle your request, but something went wrong in the process. Fortunately extensive logs are always kept which make diagnosing these errors pretty straightforward. Simply go to cPanel -> Logs -> Error Logs. You can scroll through entries manually, but often it is easier to search using the IP address listed on the error logs page to locate pertinent information. Press “CTRL” “F” on your keyboard to do so.

What should I look for?

1. Invalid characters in your .htaccess files. This is a special file which allows a user to control certain aspects of the Apache web server. While powerful, it must be very precisely constructed. Your Error Log will tell you if there is a problem and on which line it exists.
2. Invalid permissions are another common cause of 500-type errors. We work to ensure our customers always operate in the most secure web hosting environment possible. This occasionally means certain files are assigned permissions that don’t allow them to be accessed. Generally files or folders with permissions set to “777,” “666″ or any combination where “write” permissions are given to “group” or “world” will result in a 500 Internal Server Error as a security measure.
3. Verify you do not have invalid characters in your index.html, index.php scripts or dependent scripts. Like with the .htaccess, errors occur if these contains errant code or characters. As most websites are comprised of many files, we strongly suggest referring to your error logs for the precise location. You can also replace a suspect file with a version known to be working to see if the switch corrected the problem.

So now you can now diagnose your own site errors in just a few minutes! As always, if you have any questions, you’re always welcome to contact our world-class support department 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Chad K.
Support Communication and Project Coordinator

If you haven’t heard of this before, spam is the common term for unsolicited e-mail messages.  Usually these messages also carry a dangerous payload as well – from viruses to fraudulent scams – which makes them even worse.

Bluehost offers three major solutions for defeating these unwanted emails: SpamAssassin, SpamHammer, and Postini.  All are great products, but selecting the best one for you might depend on your level of technical expertise and the amount of time you can commit to making the solution work.

SpamAssassin is an open source product guided by the Apache Foundation.  Bluehost is committed to open source solutions and SpamAssassin is a great product with a number of configuration options to reduce spam. It does so by scoring messages and rejecting those that appear to be undesirable. SpamAssassin is free to all Bluehost customers.

SpamHammer is another anti-spam tool which uses temporary rejection of messages not from pre-approved senders. This is also free for all Bluehost customers.  One challenge introduced by using SpamHammer is that it can interrupt the instant flow of e-mail most of us are used to. Some e-mails might take a while to be delivered.

Postini is my favorite of the three products because of how well it works and how easy it is to use.  I use it on my e-mail accounts, and Bluehost uses it company wide for all company e-mail addresses.  Although it isn’t free, the cost is so low (currently $1.00 per month) it is well worth the investment.  Postini uses algorithms developed by Google to determine which messages are spam and filters them out (but still allows you to find those rare messages which should not have been filtered).  It does not require any kind of setup, although custom settings can be made.  On most of my accounts I have not even needed to view the settings. The reason Postini works so well is simple:

Imagine you decide to come up with a list of descriptions of spam and block all messages with those attributes.  That works great for a while, but spam changes and evolves rapidly. So you will probably need to update this list of attributes every day to keep up with changing trends.  To solve this problem you get some friends, neighbors, and family together to come up with more criteria.  With more good input, you get better results.

Postini works along these same lines except on a much larger scale.  In this case larger means rules based on billions of messages every day. So when you add Postini to any one of your e-mail addresses you are essentially joining with millions of other friends to combat unwanted e-mail.  That is a statistical recipe for success, and a way for you to make the world a better (and safer) place.

Take a stand today.  Fight spam.  If you need some help, contact us at 888-401-4678 or use our help center.  And if you know how to use these tools, help a friend.

Seth J.
Developer

Our servers are optimized to host WordPress sites and our one-click installer makes it easy to get up and running in seconds. Still, to make it even easier for those new to WordPress, we’ve recently created video series demonstrating how to use it, step-by-step, click-by-click, and uploaded it to our Bluehost YouTube channel. Check it out and let us know what you think!

WordPress began as a blogging tool, but it has evolved over time: now it’s a full-blown content management system (CMS), which means it lets you to build a website without having to learn HTML, CSS, Javascript, etc… Instead you just install WordPress on your Bluehost hosting account and log into an administrative “back-end” tool (or “Dashboard” as WordPress calls it). There you can upload pictures, add text, install free plugins, create pages, change the look and feel of the website, and more! WordPress handles all the complicated coding work for you so all you have to do is click publish.

Still, as with any tool, it does take a few minutes to learn how to use it. Our new WordPress Walkthrough series covers everything you need to know, from how to install it on your Bluehost hosting account to how to build real, functioning web pages. We demonstrate how to:

• create a home page
• change the theme and appearance add a photo gallery
• make a static page
• upload a resume
• add a blog
• install and use plugins
• insert pictures
• remove comments from pages
• and much more…

We’ve tried to make the videos quick, crisp, & clear as they guide you through the process of building a website step-by-step. In fact, you can visit the actual site we created to see the finished product! Check it out here: www.examplewordpress1.com

And we’re making more videos just like this, so make sure you don’t miss out! Subscribe to our Bluehost YouTube Channel, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter! And as always, let us know what you think and what you’d like to see next!