How To Access Your New NameHero VPS

If you’ve used a VPS before, then you already know how to access your VPS. However, you might have just migrated to a VPS from shared hosting and are still developing the skills necessary for VPS management. If this is the case, don’t worry. I’m going to show you two ways to access your VPS, depending on whether you want to log in via the graphical user interface, or SSH. I’ll also show you how to reboot your NameHero VPS with screenshots:

Getting your NameHero VPS Details

Because of NameHero’s cloud infrastructure, provisioning a VPS takes a short time. NameHero’s VPS services are also fully managed, which means they need to install the OS and all the associated software like security firewalls, anti-virus, set up log file rotation, and dozens of other little tasks that are essential to a smooth VPS installation.

When I finalized the VPS purchase to host my site WP-Tweaks.com, it was 11:22 am and I received the e-mail with my VPS details at 11:59 am. It took 36 minutes for the provisioning and the installation of the OS and software. Once this is done, NameHero will send you an e-mail with the details as shown here:

I chose to use Interworx as my control panel because of cPanel since it’s free and I wanted to test the new interface.

Connecting to Your Control Panel

The easiest way to access your NameHero VPS is to log into the GUI control panel with the username and password in the e-mail. For me, that’s the NodeWorx control panel as shown here:

You can use the graphical interface for common tasks. But for the real nuts and bolts, you have to log into SSH.

Connecting to the VPS Using SSH

To connect using SSH, you need to first download an SSH client. Like everyone else, I use PuTTY. Open the EXE file and type in the following:

Make sure to use the IP address you got in your initial e-mail. Now click “Open”, and in the following screen, type in “root” as the username, and use the password from the e-mail. Now you have access, and you’re good to go!

Shutting Down, Starting, and Rebooting the Server

Servers are designed to run continuously for years, so this isn’t a function you’ll be using very often. In all the time that I’ve had a NameHero VPS, I’ve never had to reboot my server. But in case you need to do it for whatever reason, you can find the functionality in your NameHero client area when you click on your Managed Cloud plan as shown here:

Note that for this, you don’t need to use the login password for your VPS. You only need your NameHero client area password for your NameHero account.

Next Steps After Accessing your VPS

After you access your VPS, it’s time to harden your server. Disabling root logins is your first priority, as well as changing the SSH port. You might also want to enable or disable certain applications that come installed by default. For example, I let Cloudflare handle my incoming e-mails, so I don’t need an anti-virus that scans for file attachments. As a result, I can safely disable the ClamAV software that uses a lot of memory.

You’ll also want to configure the firewall to allow ports for services you use such as backups, adding the log files to ConfigServer security, and more. You can also install Memcached or Redis to improve your server’s performance if you get a lot of visitors. These and other tasks form the next stage of your VPS journey after you’ve obtained access. It’s going to be a ride!