Why Is My Website Showing cPanel's Default Web Site Page?

In cPanel & WHM, every cPanel account must at least own one web virtual host containing two hostnames:

• the primary domain name for the account
• the equivalent www. subdomain of the primary domain name for the account

When a new cPanel account is created with a primary domain of say, webcomm.dev, the HTTP requests for the hostnames webcomm.dev and www.webcomm.dev will retrieve the same hosted content.

Why am I seeing this page?

The Default Web Site Page is a placeholder page for domains that haven't been properly configured to resolve to a server hosting the website.

If you visit a website and see this, it is likely due to the fact that the domain has not been configured for the specific IP address your machine is resolving the domain to.

Typically, when you or your web visitor requests content from a remote host at a hostname, your local machine resolves the hostname to an IP address.

Then connects to the host with that IP address.

If the DNS is not properly configured, cPanel will show this page.

If you are the owner of the website, ask these questions below as part of your troubleshooting steps.

They are intended to assist you to determine the reason why you are seeing this page when trying to access a domain.

1. What IP address is the domain resolving to, from my workstation?

You can use the ping on Windows (via the command prompt), macOS (via the Terminal app), and Linux (via Terminal) to ping the domain:

To ping the specified host:

ping host

To ping a host a specific number of times:

ping -c count host

To ping `host`, specifying the interval in `seconds` between requests (default is 1 second):

ping -i seconds host

To ping `host` without trying to lookup symbolic names for addresses:

ping -n host

To ping `host` and ring the bell when a packet is received (if your terminal supports it):

ping -a host

So:

ping -c 5 $google.com

PING google.com (142.251.45.46): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 142.251.45.46: icmp_seq=0 ttl=116 time=148.305 ms
64 bytes from 142.251.45.46: icmp_seq=1 ttl=116 time=151.293 ms
64 bytes from 142.251.45.46: icmp_seq=2 ttl=116 time=148.565 ms
64 bytes from 142.251.45.46: icmp_seq=3 ttl=116 time=148.062 ms
64 bytes from 142.251.45.46: icmp_seq=4 ttl=116 time=147.723 ms

$google.com represents your domain and .com represents your TLD.

142.251.45.46 is the IP address your local machine resolves the domain name to.

Run

man ping

for help.

2. Which IP address is associated with this domain by my cPanel?

When your hosting account was created, a welcome email was sent to you.

In it is the information you need to:

• access your cPanel & WHM (if a reseller)
• IP address(es) for your apex (A) record and name-servers (NS)
• etc.

It is expected that you will make changes at your DNS t get the domain to work with your web server.

Customers can also find the IP address associated with the cPanel account next to the Shared IP Address when accessing the Server Information page in the cPanel interface.

Hosting resellers will see the IP address associated with their account under the IP Address column when accessing the List Accounts page in the Web Host Manager interface.

But the best place to get this information as a cPanel user would be at cPanel >> Domain >> Zone Editor >> Manage Zone.

The Zone Editor interface displays a list of your domains and their corresponding DNS zone records.

Visit Leaf DNS and ensure that the records (A record & nameservers that are authoritative for your domain) you have at these location matches what you have at your domain's DNS dashboard.

For name-servers, run a "dig" command such as:

dig ns google.com

dig is a network administration command-line tool you can use to query the Domain Name System (DNS).

Replace "google.com" with your domain.

If this differs, make the desired changes to your DNS.

If you are not sure what to do, please do contact our technical support team.

3. When did I clear my browser cache last?

If you have recently moved your hosting account or changed a web hosting provider, one of the first tasks after this process is to clear your browser and local machine caches.

Depending on your browser and/or workstation, there are several ways to get this done.

How to clear your DNS in macOS® 10.10.4+

To clear your DNS cache if you use macOS X version 10.10.4:

• Click Applications.
• Click Utilities.
• Click Terminal.

  Or simply hit the command + tab, then search for Terminal.

• Run the following command: sudo killall HUP mDNSResponder

If the command succeeds, the system does not return any output.

How to clear your DNS in macOS 10.10.1, 10.10.2, and 10.10.3

To clear your DNS cache in macOS X version 10.10 through 10.10.3:

• Click Applications.
• Click Utilities.
• Click Terminal.

  Or simply hit the command + tab, then search for Terminal.

• Run the following command: sudo discoveryutil mdnsflushcache

If the command succeeds, the system does not return any output.

How to clear your DNS in macOS 10.7, 10.8, and 10.9

To clear your DNS cache if you use macOS X version 10.7, 10.8, or 10.9, perform the following steps:

• Click Applications.
• Click Utilities.
• Double-click Terminal.
• Run the following command: sudo killall HUP mDNSResponder

If the command succeeds, the system does not return any output.

How to clear your DNS in macOS 10.5 and 10.6

To clear your DNS cache if you use macOS X version 10.5 or 10.6:

• Click Applications.
• Click Utilities.
• Double-click Terminal.
• Run the following command: sudo dscacheutil flushcache

If the command succeeds, the system does not return any output.

How to clear your DNS in ChromeOS

To clear your DNS cache if you use ChromeOS:

• Open a new Chrome tab.
• Enter the following address chrome:internals
• Hit the Enter key.
• From the menu, select DNS.
• Click the Clear host cache button.

If the command succeeds, the system will perform any DNS lookups again.

How to clear your DNS in Ubuntu

To clear your DNS cache if you use Ubuntu:

• Run the following command: sudo systemd flush caches <
• Run the following command: sudo systemd statistics

If the command succeeds, it will return results with an empty cache.

How to clear your DNS in RHEL distros

To clear your DNS cache if you use CentOS or related Linux releases (for example, CloudLinux™ or AlmaLinux OS), run the following command:

systemctl restart dnsmasq service

If the command succeeds, the system does not return any output.

Please run a web search on the most recent guide on how to clear the browser or local workstation cache using the instructions.

Then revisit the domain.

If you are still seeing the default website page still appearing after clearing the browser cache, contact our support team for assistance.

How to clear your DNS in Windows 8

To clear your DNS cache if you use Windows 8:

• On your keyboard, press Win+X to open the WinX Menu.
• Right-click Command Prompt and select Run as Administrator.
• Run the following command: ipconfig flushdns

If the command succeeds, the system returns the following message:

Windows IP configuration successfully flushed the DNS Resolver Cache

How to clear your DNS in Windows® 7 or 10

To clear your DNS cache if you use Windows 7 or 10:

• Click Start.
• Enter cmd in the Start menu search text box.
• Right-click Command Prompt and select Run as Administrator.
• Run the following command: ipconfig flushdns

If the command succeeds, the system returns the following message:

Windows IP configuration successfully flushed the DNS Resolver Cache

How to clear your DNS in Windows XP®, 2000, or Vista®

To clear your DNS cache if you use Windows XP, 2000, or Vista:

• Click Start.
• On the Start menu, click Run.
• If you do not see the Run command in Vista, enter run in the Search bar.
• Run the following command in the Run text box: ipconfig flushdns

If the command succeeds, the system returns the following message:

Successfully flushed the DNS Resolver Cache

4. Have I added this domain to my cPanel account?

Domains hosted by cPanel & WHM server need to be on the host machine.

If the domain (whether it is a primary, add-on, or alias domain) has been added to the server, the system will automatically assign an IP to it.

If the domain is still using an IP address not bound to the server but the content is on the server and you tried to access it, this might happen.

If the server's internal or external IP address has been misconfigured, this might likely happen.

If the machine is running a NAT environment and a public IP address has been added in the "Add New IP" instead of the internal IP address, then assign the address to a domain, this might happen.

There may be other reasons why this may happen.

But often than not, one of the steps above will help get this resolved.