Table of Contents
About DreamHost Hosting
DreamHost is one of the leading web hosting providers that offers green web hosting in 2020. It is owned by New Dream Network and is based in the United States with its headquarters in Brea, California. DreamHost offers the following: shared hosting, virtual private servers hosting, dedicated servers hosting, and domain name registration. It has servers in Ashburn Virginia.
DreamHost Nameservers
It is a nameserver for domains managed by DreamHost. The nameservers dictate where all the DNS records used by your domain are managed. They usually are set up as follows:
ns1.dreamhost.com 64.90.62.230
ns2.dreamhost.com 208.97182.10
ns3.dreamhost.com 66.33.205.230
What is panel.dreamhost.com?
It is a link used to sign up for G Suite in your DreamHost panel.
What is DreamHost DH-FEE?
There are several means of making payment to DreamHost, namely: credit cards, electronic checks, PayPal, mailed checks or money orders. These methods take varying durations for the payment to clear, but when it finally clears, it is applied to your account, and DreamHost sends you a receipt to your account profile’s email address. Bank statements usually present the charge as coming from DreamHost-DH-FEE.com
What is DreamHost Happy Hosting?
DreamHost Happy Hosting is also known as DreamHost shared hosting. It is a type of hosting that involves server sharing; several users share the resources of the server.
How to login to WordPress on DreamHost
Having successfully installed WordPress, DreamHost will send you a login link in your primary email address. For instance:
example.com/wp-login.php
All you will need to do is replace ‘example.com’ with your actual domain name.
Method 1
Login using the auto-login feature in the panel
If you have DreamPress, you can simply auto-login to your WordPress Dashboard from your panel and follow the following steps:
Open the Managed WordPress page
Click ‘manage’ on the right of the DreamPress site
Click ‘open WP-Admin’ button
If you directed to your wp-login page instead, go to the Contact Support page and select from the category tab, the option to submit a support ticket.
Method 2
Login if you installed WordPress using the One-Click Installer
You receive an email after installing WordPress using the One-Click Installer. In the email you will find a link to log into your WordPress site, you will then need to set your password for the first time, thereafter, you can be able to log in with the link.
How To Force Https On DreamHost
To force your site to redirect to https, you start by creating a configuration fileand then adding some code to it. The configuration file will be different depending on the type of server you are using; either Apache or Nginx
When you add an SSL certificate to your website, the URL visitors use to view your site, will changes from HTTP to HTTPS. The ‘S’ makes sure that your connection is encrypted.
With the addition of SSL certificate you should be able to force all your URLs on your site to automatically redirect to the HTTPS version.
For example if someone visited:
The URL will be automatically directed to:
NB: you will not be able to use the ‘Redirect option’ on the panel with an SSL certificate since this removes hosting from the domain. The only way is to create a custom file to redirect your site to https.
Forcing using .htaccess file
If using Apache servers, login to FTP or SSH to create an .htaccess file for your site and then add the following code. It also forces directly linked resources such as images, css, etc. to use https:
Forcing using redirects.conf file
If using Nginx servers you need to manually create a redirects.conf file via FTP or SSH then add your redirect code as follows:
Redirecting a single file
This redirects requests from example.com/oldfile.html to example.com/newfile.html
To redirect non-secure traffic to HTTPS
This redirect forces your site to load HTTP version to ensure your visitors’ connections are encrypted.
To redirect an entire site
This code redirects requests to your site to example.com. Just change example.com to any site you wish to redirect to.
Forcing HTTPS with WordPress
To force any HTTP request on your WordPress, add code to your WordPress .htacess file. You can use the two code options below. Use the first code; if it fails then try the second one.
Option 1
Option 2
Ensure you change example.com to your actual domain name
Forcing HTTPS with DreamPress
To force HTTP request on your DreamPress site to redirect to HTTPS, add the following code to your WordPress .htaccess file:
DreamHost SSH
SSH also called Secure Shell is a cryptographic network protocol for securing network connections over an unsecured network. All your connections with SSH are secured because they are encrypted instead of being just plain text.
You need to use an SSH client to connect to the server to be able use SSH. When you have connected then you manually run commands within a terminal application.
How to use SSH on DreamHost
- Enable Shell access
First, change your website user to a SHELL user in the DreamHost panel, the shell user is the username you will use to log into your server.
- Open up a terminal application
This is the program you will use to type shell commands. Open the terminal to view a blank screen. Enter any command to log into your server.
- Locate your hostname
You will need to know your host name before you log into your server by SSH. Hostnames differ depending on the type of server your site is on. For example:
If your site is hosted by DreamHost, you can log into a specific website by changing ‘example.com’ to your actual domain name.
Another example,
server.dreamhost.com – ‘server’ is the name of your shared server.
Ensure you use the correct server name for your specific site or server.
Log in to your server- type in ‘ssh’, followed by your shell username, @ sign, and then your server name. It should appear like this, for example:
Or
Ensure you change example.com to your specific domain, or server.dreamhost.com to the particular server you are connecting to.
You will then be asked to enter your Shell user’s password to login.
How to Set Up Email On DreamHost
What you need:
An active hosting plan or a paid email add-on plan
All hosting plans on DreamHost offer free email except Starter Shared hosting plans; which you need to add a paid email plan to get up to 5 email addresses.
Creating an email address:
Start by opening the manage email page then click on ‘Create New Email Address’ tab.
You will need to enter the desired email address in the ‘Email Address’ field and select the domain (from the dropdown list) you would like to add the email address to.
Enter the name for your mailbox and create a password or choose the option of having the password generated for you.
Click the Create Address button. You will receive a confirmation message that the address has been added successfully.
You are now set to configure your email client to start sending and receiving emails.
How to Connect To FTP on DreamHost
To connect to FTP on DreamHost, first, log in to your DreamHost account.
- Click on the Domains dropdown menu in the sidebar and select ‘Manage Domains’. You will see under each domain you have that is hosted with DreamHost a WebFTP option.
- Click on the WebFTP to launch FTP client.
You can make simple adjustments on your website like uploading or downloading files using FTP.
How to Create Subdomain On DreamHost
Start by signing in to your DreamHost Web Hosting Panel
- Click on ‘Domains’, then ‘Manage Domains’ you will get a list of all your domains linked to the hosting account. On top of the page, click on ‘Add Hosting to a Domain/ Subdomain’.
- In the domain to text field, fill the name of your subdomain. You can adjust the setting depending on how you want to configure your subdomain. You can also create a new user in the subdomain or use an existing one.
- When you are finished selecting your desired settings, Click the ‘Fully host this domain’ tab and the subdomain will be created.
You will get a success message with the username and password for SFTP. The DNS generally takes time to propagate after which you will be able to use the domain but you have to ensure that your main domain is connected to the DreamHost name servers for the subdomain to work.
How to Upload Website On DreamHost
You can upload your website from your previous provider by the following steps:
- Create a DreamHost account
- Backup your website files and upload them to DreamHost
- Check if your website at DreamHost is working before updating DNS
- Point your DNS to DreamHost
Creating a DreamHost account
Sign up for any DreamHost plan of your choice. While signing up, select the option to add your current domain to your new account.
Backing up files and uploading them to DreamHost
Use FTP or Wget to back up all your website files, databases, and emails from your previous host.
Log in to your DreamHost server using FTP client and upload your website file to the server. To upload your database you need to create a new MySQL in your DreamHost panel and then use phpMyAdmin to import the database. If your SQL is more than 64MB you can only import it via SSH from command line.
Checking your site at dream host before updating DNS
Since you have now moved your website to DreamHost you want to ensure it meets your desired appearance and function. You have the option of viewing your site as it appears on DreamHost’s servers via the ‘hosts’ file on your computer or by creating a ‘mirror’ domain, which will be a dreamhosters.com subdomain.
Pointing your DNS to DreamHost
By now, all your website and all its files are on DreamHost’s servers, but you are still hosted at your previous hosting provider. The only step you need to take is to update your DNS to point to DreamHost.
NB: you can transfer registration from your previous host at a later date.
How to Transfer Domain to DreamHost
If you wish to transfer your domain from another hosting provider to DreamHost you can follow the steps below:
- Get your Authorization code
It is also called ‘authcode’ or ‘EPP key’. You must have this code, because it was designed to prevent fraudulent domain transfers by ensuring that the person doing the transfer is the rightful owner. Without this code you cannot transfer your domain.
- Unlock your domain name
For any transfer to happen you need to unlock your domain in the control panel of your current domain registrar.
- Remember the 60-day domain rule
Remember you can only be able to transfer your domain it has been more than 60 days since you first registered it with your previous registrar.
- Turn off whois domain privacy (if it is turned on)
You need to turn off privacy so that DreamHost can recognize that you are the rightful owner of the domain. You will be able to enable your domain privacy again when you start the domain transfer process.
- Ensure you have access to your admin email address
This means, make sure the whois info of your domain name is correct, especially the admin email address because all the vital transfer emails, like Form of Authorization(FOA) email will be sent in the email address, when you transfer your domain.
- Approve your domain transfer
Initiate domain transfer in the DreamHost panel and approve it start with the FOA email. It will then about 7-10 days for your domain to be transferred to DreamHost.
My name is Nate Reiner and I am the editor here at 10Webtools. I have 8 years of experience using 50+ different web tools ranging from podcast, web hosting, email marketing, and much more. I previously managed a team offering support services to a large conglomerate that utilized tens of software solutions. I now run this blog full-time and when I am not reviewing or testing software, I enjoy riding bikes and supporting my clients achieve internet success. You can reach me directly at [email protected]