Default Documents

At EPhost, you have the ability add and edit the default document(s) for your websites. A default document is the first page of the website. e.g. index.html When you type in a domain name like, www.ephost.com, the web server needs to know which particular page in your website should come first and be shown to a user. This is accomplished by setting a default document. In fact, several default documents are established in a priority order.

WARNING: It is not necessary in most cases to edit the default documents. By changing the order of the default documents, you could break your website. No long term damage would be done but you should test your website after making changes.

Windows Hosting Plans

Current they are set to this by default. They work top down, in order, if a page cannot be found, it uses the next one and so forth.

• index.cfm
• Default.asp
• Default.aspx
• index.php
• index.html
• index.htm
• default.html
• default.htm
• _holding.asp (This is only used for welcome pages)
• _holding.htm (This is only used for welcome pages)

Adding and Editing the Default Documents:

1. Login to your account.
2. Click the green 'Control Panel' button
3. Click the Web Icon
4. Click on website you wish to modify settings
5. In default document box (on the Home Tab), choose order
6. Click 'Update'

Linux Hosting Plans

NOTE: Often it's not necessary to make any modifications to the 'default order' on a Linux hosting plan as most are running a PHP based program that takes care of this setup during the install. However if there is a need to make a change it is done in the .htaccess file of the directory of the website you wish to modify.

1. Login to your account.
2. Click the green 'Control Panel' button
3. Navigate to the Files section and click on 'File Manager'
4. Locate the .htaccess file, if you don't see it, look for the 'setting button' on the top right of the page, click on it an select 'Show Hidden Files (dotfiles)'. If you don't see the .htaccess file or this is a new directory you may need to create the .htaccess file. by clicking on the '+ FILE' in the upper left, name the file .htaccess
5. Select the file and click on 'Edit' from the top menu
6. You can then enter the following to change your default page

   #Alternate default index pages
   DirectoryIndex first.html index.htm index.html index.php

7. Be sure to Save and Close

Also See: Website Features KB's | Domain/DNS KB's | HOW TO KB's | Email Settings POP3 / IMAP | Check email online | Email Troubleshooting | Adding an email to your hosting account WINDOWS / LINUX

Contact Support

If you are still having issues, please contact us for further help.
1-877-EPHOST1 | support@ephost.com