I’m not sure why, but my cpanel is not opening at present.

If you could check at your end that would be great, thanks!

That was a recent support request we received at our Outsourced Technical Support services for Web Hosts.

Not able to access cPanel can be really frustrating for any website owner.

Today, we’ll see the top causes that would prevent cPanel opening in a browser and how we fix them.

Top reasons for cPanel not opening

Domain control panel is of great help in managing a website. And, using panels like cPanel, Plesk, Webmin etc. to update domain settings saves time and effort.

But at times, due to reasons like server firewall, wrong domain dns, server load, etc. cPanel do not open.

Now, we’ll see these different causes in detail.

1. IP block on the server

One of the common reason for cPanel access failure is IP block on the server.

Most cPanel hosting servers maintain a firewall to avoid hackers. When there is a suspicious access from any IP address, it immediately blocks it to avoid further misuse.

These IP blocks can happen due to various reasons like:

1. Using wrong cPanel user name or password multiple times.
2. Using wrong email account login or password in webmail.
3. Incorrect email client settings.
4. Too many failed logins in the website.
5. Attempt to scan ports on the server.

If server blocks your IP address, you will not be able to access the website via browser, ftp, etc. too.

2. Wrong DNS

Secondly, cPanel do not open when you are connecting to the wrong server. This happens when your domain has wrong dns records and points to wrong server IP address.

As a result, when you access the cPanel link “https://domain.com:2083“, server may not accept your login details and you see error.

This usually happens when you migrate the domain to a different server, or change dns of your domain. Note that the dns propagation usually takes 24-72 hours to complete.

3. Hosting Account status

Yet another possible reason relates to the status of your hosting account in the server. Typically, web hosting providers suspend accounts for billing issues, malicious activities, etc. They do send email notifications in most cases. But, if in case you have missed the email, you will have problems accessing cPanel of suspended domain.

Similarly, when your account has crossed the allowed disk space limit on the server, cPanel access will have problems.

4. High server load

At times, high server load can block users from accessing cPanel.

Server administrators can set a maximum load value until which server allows cPanel access. If the load on the server becomes higher than this limit, all cPanel access fails. This is a security mechanism to prevent the server crash.

In other words, when you have problems accessing cPanel, it is worth to check for server load as well.

[And, if you server is constantly under high load, our Support Engineers can help you to make server load stable.]

5. Port restrictions

CPanel and WHM works on ports 2083 and 2087 respectively. These are non standard ports and some internet providers block them. As a result, people will have trouble accessing cPanel and WHM.

Similarly, in custom dns providers like CloudFlare, the IP address from which access comes changes instantly. Because of this, server treats the access as malicious. Thus, server rejects cPanel access.

How to fix cPanel not opening problem ?

Now, we’ve seen the top reasons that would cause cPanel failure. Making cPanel accessible is a bare minimum necessity of any hosting provider. We’ll see how our Hosting Support Engineers do this.

1. IP unblock

Here, we first check and confirm if the customer’s IP is blocked on the server. Thereafter, we dig the reason for the IP block.  Then, we educate customer on steps to avoid further blocks like using correct login details. Afterwards, we unblock the IP address of the customer.

2. Fix DNS

For DNS issues, we check the domain’s cPanel from our end. If cPanel loads, that means the problem lies only at customer’s network. Our Hosting Engineers correct the dns settings of the domain to point to the correct server. During the dns propagation time, we suggest customer to use the cPanel link with IP address as https://serverIP:2083

3. Fix account status

Similarly, we check the status of hosting account on the server. We analyze the disk usage details of the website folders and files. Our Technical Support Engineers advise customer on the steps to save disk space by deleting unwanted backup files, clearing Trash in email folders, etc.

We also help customers to set up proper payment reminders. This helps to avoid payment related account suspensions.

4. Fix server load

For cPanel not loading due to high server load, we need to fix the server first. Here, our Security Specialists analyze the server and find the services that cause load on the server. Usually, we see database servers taking too many resources. So, in such cases, we optimize the database servers first. Similarly, we also tweak other services to bring down the load on the server.

Above all, server stability depends on the resources available on the server too.  That’s why, for servers with heavy websites, we often suggest server resources upgrade as well.

5. Enable Proxy subdomains

Luckily, there are fixes even if your Internet service provider blocks access to cPanel ports.

The workaround for port restriction is to enable a feature in cPanel called “Proxy subdomains“. This setting allows users to access cPanel & WHM services from standard web server ports like 80 and 443.

And, to access cPanel, we need to use the link http://cpanel.yourdomain.com. For this to work, we need to enable “Proxy subdomain” feature from the WHM interface of the server.

Conclusion

“CPanel not opening” is a problem often faced by website owners due to IP blocks, server side restrictions etc. Today, we’ve seen the top reasons for this error and how our Hosting Support Engineers fix them.