SkyPoint
Communications is a full service Internet Service Provider.
Creating And Changing a Commercial
Web Site on SkyPoint
Members wanting a commercial
Web site on SkyPoint's server must be subscribed to our PersonalLink, LanLink,
HostLink, or InterLink account and must have a registered domain name. Additional
Web hosting charges apply. Members who have purchased any of our Commercial
Web Packages have a PersonalLink account included in the package.
Professional custom Web
site design services are available through the WebSpan
Design Group, a division of SkyPoint. We offer the latest and best new
Web services, including RealAudio, Shockwave, Java, cgi, secure commerce server
for on-line credit card orders, and many others.
For those users creating
or updating their own Web pages, there is a wide assortment of Web page creation
software on the market. Much of the software can simply be downloaded using
FTP programs. Among other locations, Macintosh choices can be found at http://www.jumbo.com
and at http://www.shareware.com,
while PC platforms are represented at http://CWS.wilmington.net.
Also, many word processors and desktop publishing systems have HTML document
translators. We strongly suggest, however, that you have a good familiarity
with HTML, even if you want to use authoring software to do the work for you.
No software is as good a coder as the human brain, and many packages add garbage
comments every time you edit a document. After a while, your site may become
slow and huge if you are not careful to optimize your code after using an
authoring application!
Remember, every Web page
must run somewhere on the spectrum between total entertainment and total education.
You must decide what "market" you want to reach. A successful Web site is
targeted, visually interesting, neat, easy to use, and informative.
To transfer your web
pages to SkyPoint, you need to use an FTP client program. On MS-Windows, a
common FTP client is WS-FTP, and a common Macintosh FTP client is called Fetch.
The host name to connect to is "ftp.skypoint.com". Use your login name (for
example, if your email address is foo@skypoint.com, then your login name is
foo) and your password; this password is the same password you use to login
and also to get your e-mail. When you connect, you will be placed in your
home directory.
In your home directory,
you have a subdirectory called "www2" or "yourdomain.com." followed by the
domain name. Select the directory and change into it; if you are using a graphical
application, such as on a MS-Windows or MacIntosh system, you will be able
to double-click on the directory name to change into that directory.
Note: It has been
discovered with WS_Ftp (for MS-Windows), the www2 subdirectory does not show
up in the directory listing. If this is the case for you, you can click on
the ChgDir button, or another button that allows you to change the directory
you are looking at, type in the www2 directory name and click on the "Ok"
button; you may need to append the www2 directory name onto the existing directory
listed - be sure to use the proper slash if necessary. This should put you
in the www2 directory.
You will find three subdirectories.
The first directory is called cgi-bin; this is where you put your CGI scripts
to interface with your web pages. (NOTE: All CGI scripts must be reviewed
and approved by the SkyPoint WebMaster, or have come from a designer on SkyPoint's
Known and Trusted Designers List.) The second directory is htdocs; this is
where your put all your HTML files, pictures, and anything else that is displayed
on your web page - more on this later. The third directory is called logs;
there are two files there: access_log and error_log. The access_log shows
you connected to your web page and the error_log shows any errors that may
have occurred - do NOT delete these files, they are necessary!
The htdocs subdirectory
is where you put your HTML files, pictures, etc. The main page needs to be
called "index.html" (without the quotes) or "index.shtml" if you are doing
CGI scripts or counters. The file name MUST be in lowercase letters!
All other files may have
any file name you wish - they do not even have to have the .html extension.
Having the .html extension on your HTML document files is recommended to help
keep the files clear as to what they are. Watch out for upper and lowercase
differences in file names; on the SkyPoint computers, foo.html is not the
same as FOO.HTML or Foo.Html or foo.HTML.
Select the file(s) you
wish to transfer to SkyPoint and send them. With the WS_Ftp program, you have
two arrows in the middle of the screen, one pointing to the left, one pointing
to the right. Your local files are on the left side and SkyPoint is on the
right. When transfering files from your computer to SkyPoint, highlight the
files on the left side and press the arrow pointing to the right.
Caution: HTML
document files are text (ASCII) files and pictures are binary files. Transfer
all HTML files as ASCII and all pictures as binary files!
If you want subdirectories
to keep your files organized, create a new subdirectory using your FTP applications.
You will be asked for a directory name to be made. Change into the new directory
by following the steps you used before to change into the www2 directory.
If you need to delete
a file, highlight the file and click the Delete button or drag it into the
trash. To delete a subdirectory, use your FTP application's rmdir function
(if available).
