Installing Wordpress With Cpanel Security Upgrade

In this tutorial I am going to walk you through the process of adding your first layer of security to your blog by changing the default table prefixes in your database.

This is a lot easier than it sounds and I have provided images of every step along the way so you should be fine if you just follow along with this lesson.

Only Follow The Instructions In This Tutorial On A Brand New Installation Of Wordpress.

After completing the steps outlined in the tutorial How To Install Wordpress Using Fantastico.

Your next step is to go back to Cpanel to reset our database tables.

You should still be logged into your cpanel after installing your site, if your still in fantastico just click on the Icon in the top left hand corner, if you need to log into cpanel from your web site follow the steps in the article How To Easily Log Into Cpanel.

Once in Cpanel look for the Legacy File Manager in the Files section, Click on that.

A small pop-up window will appear, make sure you choose the correct domain name and the option to make all files visible before you click Go.

The next screen you will see will display all of the files for your Wordpress site, scroll down until you see the wp-config.php, click on this file link.

In the same screen a sidebar will open up to the right of screen you want to choose the option to Edit File.

After you click on the Edit File link, the sidebar will change to look like the following screen.

You are being asked to choose how you want to edit the file, I just leave the default setting as is, scroll to the bottom of the text and click on the Edit button.

If your not sure what option to choose contact your web hosts support, they should be able to help you.

In the next screen you’ll see the code for the config.php file, you need to find the line of code that says `$table_prefix = ‘wp_’;`

Once you locate that specific line of code you want to change the “wp_” to something different.

I suggest you change it to something with upper and lower case letters and avoid using the letters “wp“. See the image below as an example.

Make sure you keep the underscore at the end of the prefix, If your unfamiliar with underscores it’s simply hold down the shift key and hit the dash on your keyboard.

Once you have changed your prefix click on the Save Changes button on the top right hand of your screen.

You can close the next screen you have finished editing your config file.

The next thing we need to do is add a new user to our website.

Type your domain name into your browsers address bar with /wp-admin at the end of your URL, just as you would if you were to log into your Wordpress dashboard.

You should see a screen asking you to enter your Blog title and email address. Fill in the details and make sure you check the Allow my blog to appear in search engines check box before you hit the Install Wordpress button.

The next screen will give you a new Username and Password, Make sure you copy the password. You will need it for logging into your site on the next screen

Click on the Log In button to the bottom left of your screen.

In the next screen insert your new log in details provided and click on the Log In button.

The first thing we need to do now that we are logged into Wordpress is Add a new user, to do this we need to click on the Add New link under the Users tab on the left of your admin screen.

Next, you will be asked to fill in your new user details, make sure you choose a strong Username with upper and lower case letters and a strong Password with upper and lower case letter, numbers and symbols.

Make sure you choose the Administrator option in the dropdown box and click the Add User button on the bottom left of your screen.

Next, you want to Log Out of your current session and Log In again with your NEW log in details.

After logging back into your site, you want to delete the original user that was set up with the initial install of your site.

To do this we need to go back into our Users and delete the first user that was created. Simply click on the Delete user link.

Complete the deletion by simply leaving the settings as they are and continue by clicking on the Confirm Deletion button below.

Ok were nearly there but we still need to delete the old Wordpress tables, So now that we have our new user with a secure Username and Password, we have to drop the tables that were set up in our default database setup.

Log back into your Cpanel and look under the Databases section for the phpMyAdmin icon, click on it.

In the next screen you will need to choose the database that you are using for your installation, you can check to see if you have the correct database by checking the email that was sent to you after your set up, it will have the database name/number in it.

After opening up the database you will see the list of tables, you will notice the new table prefix’s you created and also a list of the original table prefix wp_

The next step is to click in the box of the Old Wp_ prefix, Do Not check any of the new table prefix’s we created.

It should look something like the following.