Uploading with FTP
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The process by which files are transferred to the web server is called FTP (File Transfer Protocol). You have unlimited access to your web server via FTP 24 hours a day. You can upload and modify your web pages at your convenience.
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If you are using FrontPage, you must create your new web pages on the "localhost" system. This is accomplished by selecting "create new web," and then entering "localhost" in the line where it asks for the web location. Once you have completed your web pages on your computer, you can then select the "publish web" option from the file menu in FrontPage Explorer. You will be prompted for your IP address and web name and then it will send it to our servers. Please note that you will be prompted for a user ID and password and, depending on your system configuration, it may be the one that we issued you or it may be the one that you entered when you first installed FrontPage. If one does not work, then simply try the other. If you have forgotten what that password was, then you will need to reinstall FrontPage and select a new one.
NOTE: If you are using FrontPage, you should NEVER use regular FTP to upload your files. This will damage the extensions. Stick with one or the other all the time.
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General FTP Information:
- Once the account is created on the server, you should be ready to upload any files you have created for your web site. You can start by installing and running an FTP client, such as WS-FTP (for Windows users), Transmit or Fetch (for Macintosh users).
- If your domain name is registered and fully functioning, then you can use yourdomain.com as the 'Host Name' to access your account with the FTP client. If this does not work, please try using the IP address for your account instead. In any case, you will be required to log into the server with your User Name and Password. Note also that logging in with a Web Browser, such as Netscape or Internet Explorer, will NOT give you access to the entire account. Only an FTP client will give you total access to your account space.
- You will find some files and subdirectories already present in your account space. We recommend not altering the subdirectories in any way (other than depositing files into them, or changing permissions). Until you upload your files, your default page is an index.htm page that we've created for you. This page will disappear when you upload your index.htm/html file. Your index.html file is your 'Home' page, and any viewer who visits the site will see this file initially when entering your domain name on their browser.
- Now you can begin transferring files to the server, but please keep these points in mind when uploading:
- UNIX systems are case sensitive. So a file named test.txt would be a separate file from one named Test.txt. If you can't seem to find a file on the server that you just uploaded, check to see that you are using the right case.
- UNIX filenames also may contain almost any type of character, and sometimes this may confuse FTP clients. If you have trouble retrieving or linking to a file, try using wildcards in FTP to delete it and replace it with a file that doesn't have spaces or other special characters in its name.
- Place all files which you want to access through a web browser into the www sub-directory.
- Our HTTP servers recognize file formats by extension. This means a client retrieving a file named .htm .html .php will see it in HTML format. Make sure that you have the proper extensions when uploading your files.
- CGI scripts must be in the /cgi-bin/ subdirectory (inside your /www directory) and have file permissions set to 'executable'. (chmod to 755). Otherwise they will not run correctly.
- You should upload graphic files (such as .jpg or .gif files) in 'Binary' mode with FTP, and HTML or scripts in 'Ascii' mode in order to ensure that there are no extraneous 'control' characters in your scripts or pages.
- You may create an unlimited number of subdirectories (folders) within your account space to organize your site using the FTP command 'mkdir'. To have a page automatically load up when a browser goes to a directory, name a file index.html (make sure it's lowercase) and place it in that directory. If an index.html file is not present, the Web browser will default to a list of all the files in that directory. This applies to the root directory as well.
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