First 5 Things to Do After Buying a VPS

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have:

• Received your Hostxpeed welcome email
• Your VPS IP address
• Your root username (hxroot) and password
• SSH client installed (PuTTY for Windows, Terminal for Mac/Linux)

Step 1: Log in to Your Hostxpeed Client Area

First, access your Hostxpeed account:

1. Go to https://hostxpeed.com/client
2. Enter your email and password
3. Navigate to My Services
4. Click on your active VPS service

Step 2: Change Your Root Password

For security, change your default root password immediately:

1. In your service detail page, scroll to SSH Access section
2. Click the Change button
3. Enter current password, then new password
4. Click Save

Or via SSH command:

ssh hxroot@YOUR_SERVER_IP -p 22

passwd

Step 3: Update Your Server

Always run system updates on a fresh VPS:

apt update && apt upgrade -y

For CentOS/Rocky Linux:

yum update -y

Step 4: Create a New Sudo User

Using root for daily tasks is risky. Create a regular user with sudo privileges:

addusername

usermod -aG sudo username

For CentOS/Rocky (wheel group):

usermod -aG wheel username

Step 5: Set Up SSH Key Authentication (Optional but Recommended)

Generate an SSH key on your local machine:

ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096

Copy the public key to your server:

ssh-copy-id username@YOUR_SERVER_IP

Bonus: Enable Firewall

Secure your server immediately:

ufw allow 22

ufw enable