So now that you've gone to all this work, filled out
all the forms, created this Instant Web Site, you're
probably wondering "Just what exactly have I done ?"
and "What do I do now ?". Well fair enough, lets start
with the first question.
You've joined the ranks of thousands of individuals
and companies by deciding to put up a web site.
- By signing up with InfoStreeet's Instant Web
Sites you now have the following:
- An FTP
account on one of InfoStreet's computers
- 25 Mbytes of disk space (can be expanded)
- Use of our web server and your share of computer
recourses
- A fast T1
link to the internet
- Your own URL
- Up to 60,000 hits
per month (can be expanded)
![[InfoStreet's Instant Web Site Bungy Image]](/w/webster/tr_gifs/hotst_bn.gif)
- You can use all of these in your web site:
- Other tools/services we provide:
- Search capabilities on your site, updated
daily
- Site usage statistics, number of hits, who
visited, what pages were looked at etc.
- Daily backups
- Comprehensive help
pages
- HTML examples, lots of images, and backgrounds
you can use
- Tools to help
you back up your directories, lock and unlock
your web site directories, re-index your site
for searching and other things to help you manage
your site.
InfoStreet has set up everything you need for your Web
Site, all that is left for your to do is to build it.
Following the steps
1 thru
7 below will get you started.
![[InfoStreet's Instant Web Site Bungy Image]](/w/webster/tr_gifs/bungy_bn.gif)
The first thing to do, is make sure you have FTP set
up and running on your home machine. Using FTP is a
crucial part of using your Instant Web Site. It is how
you will transfer files to and from your instant web
site account. If you do not have FTP set up on your
home system, now is the time.
Check
here if you are unfamiliar with how to set up or
use FTP.
Now that you have FTP up and running it is time to login
to your Instant Web Account and have a look around.
Your account is the key to your Instant Web Site. In
fact, it is i your web site once you place your HTML
and other web files in it. Your account is strictly
an FTP account which means you will need to use FTP
to access it.
- 1) Connect to our machine ( www.instantweb.com
) with FTP and type in your account name and password
when requested. If you need help, check
here for more information on using FTP with
your account.
- 2) As soon as you log in you will be placed
in your account. This is what we call your home
directory. It is where you will place the HTML files
for your web site. You'll notice there are a number
of files and directories there already. It is up
to you to determine the structure of files and directories
that will make up your web site, however we have
created a directory structure of all the common
things people use in web sites to make managing
your site easier.
- 3) Please do not change any of the files
that are already placed there, as they are necessary
for the proper functioning of your site. (Except
the Welcome.html file)
- 4) Now that you are logged in, use FTP
to move around your account and become familiar
with your files and directories.
Here is a
detailed description of all the files and directories
in your account. You will of course add to these
as you build your web site.
The Welcome.html file is the most important file in
your account. This is your Web Site Homepage. This is
the page that will come up when you type in your URL.
You created a basic Welcome.html page when you signed
up for your Instant Web Site, but may want a more complex
page. To do this, you need to create a new Welcome.html
page on your home machine, then transfer it to your
IWS account, and replace the Welcome.html page that
is there with your new one.
You do not have to name your homepage Welcome.html,
however we recommend that you do, because the web
server is set up to automatically show this page,
when people type in your URL. If you change the name
of your page, make sure you add this name to the end
of your URL so the web server brings up the correct
page.
![[InfoStreet's Instant Web Site Bug Image]](/w/webster/tr_gifs/bug_ic.gif)
Now that you are familiar with your Instant web account
and how to use it, you are ready to start building your
web site.
The first step is the create the HTML
files that will be part of your web site. You need
to create these files on your home machine. You can
either create them by hand with a text editor, or
use one of the many HTML editors available. For those
of you not familiar with how to do this, please see
our World
Wide Web Help pages.
Please be aware you cannot interactively make changes
to your files once you place them in your IWS account,
so make sure your files are completely finished, including
correct links, gifs, and formatting before you place
them in your account.
![[InfoStreet's Instant Web Site Forms Image]](/w/webster/tr_gifs/forms_bn.gif)
Once you have finished creating your HTML files, you
need to place them on InfoStreet's machines in your
Instant Web Site account.
- 1) Use FTP to login into your IWS account
- 2) Use FTP to transfer your html files
from your home machine to your IWS account
- 3) FTP can be used change the name of your
file, overwrite an existing file, to change to a
different directory, or make new make new directories.
Most of you will probably be working on PC systems
where you have a limit of 8 characters and a .htm
extension. We recommend changing the extension of
your HTML files from .htm to .html once you have
placed them in your IWS account, since the server
defaults to this extension.
- 4) After placing your file in your IWS
account, you should be able to see it by typing
in the correct URL for your Web Site.
- 5) When you are all finished, disconnect
from your IWS account and exit your FTP session
Your Instant Web Site is not currently set up to allow
you to make changes to the files once you place them
in your account. To change a file, you need to use FTP
to download the file from your IWS account to your home
machine, make the changes you need on your home machine
and then use FTP to upload the file back to your IWS
account.
- Use FTP to login into your IWS account
- Download the file you want to modify from your
IWS account to your home machine
- Make what ever changes you want to the file
- Use FTP to transfer the modified file back to
your IWS account. Make sure you replace the old
file with the new file. This will happen automatically
if the file name is the same.
- Remember to change the file extension from .htm
to .html (of course you can always use the Rename
htm to html tool we have provided in the tools
page.
- Disconnect from your IWS account and exit your
FTP session
Now that you have spent all this time making your web
site, you want to tell the world about it.
Have fun!!
