Creating Websites
Free Personal Web Pages
HTML and WWW Publishing
- What is HTML?
- Is HTML a programming language?
- What is a hyperlink?
- What is a URL?
- Do I need to go to school or anything to learn how to write HTML documents?
- How should I go about learning to create an HTML document?
- How can I view the HTML of a web page?
- What do I need to do to create my own HTML document?
- Now that I've created my own HTML document, how do I put it on the internet for others to see?
- Is there a way to find out how many people have visited my page?
- What are some other HTML resources available on the internet?
File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
- What is FTP?
- Can I use FTP with my NTD Athenet dial in connection?
- Why would I want to FTP into NTD Athenet?
- Can I access FTP without a FTP program?
- I've never seen a ftp site with my web browser. What does it look like?
- Does this log me into my account?
- Where do I place my home page files when I'm logged into NTD Athenet Server?
- How do I FTP to my 5 Megs of complimentary space?
- How do I FTP to my FrontPage Web?
- How do I FTP to my domain hosted on your UNIX server?
Web Site Counter
CGI scripts
- What is CGI?
- What is CGI used for?
- Is CGI a programming language?
- What is a CGI-bin?
- What are some good resources on the web for learning about CGI and how to write CGI programs?
Password Protecting HTML Documents
Registering websites with Search Engines
Virtual FTP sites
Free Personal Webpages
How do I use my Personal Webpages?
Every NTD Athenet customer has 5MB of space available for a personal, non-commercial web page. While creating this web page is up to you, there are many programs and tutorials available to help you get started with this. Anyone that has dealt with HTML to any extent will say that it's best to learn the basics, then write all of the code yourself. There are many resources available on the Internet regarding HTML and web design. A search engine is a good place to start, try searching for 'HTML' and/or 'web design'. The returned items from the search will help you out greatly and have links to other web pages with information on HTML. Please refrain from calling technical support with HTML questions.
Some of the basic items recommended for maintenance of your web page are an FTP client for uploading the web page and a TELNET client for easy access to your shell and quick modification of the web page. You WILL need your username and password to access your account, have this available.
For both FTP and Telnet, accessing your home directory (or shell account) on our computers, the instructions are similar.
You will need the following information:
- Hostname: ftp.athenet.net
- Username: your primary NTD Athenet username (example: tsmith)
- Password: your password (example: 123456)
Depending on the FTP program you are using, what is displayed on your screen will be different. Most FTP programs have a Local and a Remote side window. These two windows will display files on your computer and on NTD Athenet's computers.
Your web page and all related files must be uploaded to the public_html directory. If there is no public_html directory, you will need to create one. Most FTP programs have basic functionality, allowing creation of directories. Make sure to double click on the public_html directory before uploading the files.
When uploading files to the public_html directory, make sure that the main html file, is named as index.html. If the file is named as index.html, it will display your webpage immediately when you type in http://my.athenet.net/~username/, otherwise a listing of the files will be displayed in your directory.
Please note: NTD Athenet reserves the right to request web pages, or portions of, to be removed if the material violates copywrite, is objectionable, or generates excessive traffic.
FTP Applications:
HTML and WWW Publishing
What is HTML?
HTML is an acronym for HyperText Markup Language. Your browser reads the HTML for a page and then translates it into what you see on your screen.
So HTML is a programming language?
No. HTML is a formatting language, meaning that it is just a set of commands (called tags) to tell your web browser how to display pages. These tags specify things like font type and size, background color, image sizes, and hyperlinks.
What is a hyperlink?
A hyperlink is a tag in a HTML document that tells the browser to switch URLs if the image or word that is hyperlinked is clicked by the viewer. Clicking this hyperlink will tell your browser to move to the top of this document.
What is a URL?
URL stands for universal resource locator and is usually expressed in the form http://www.domainname.com
Do I need to go to school or anything to learn how to write HTML documents?
No, anyone who can read and follow directions should be able to do some HTML programming. It does take a certain amount of skill and ingenuity to create some of the more complicated web pages that you see on the web; that is why people get paid to create web pages. Any of us could build a shelter that would keep us protected from the elements but that is not to say that any of us could design and build something like the Guggenheim Museum of Art.
How should I go about learning to create an HTML document?
A good first step in learning HTML is to go out on the web and look at the HTML of some fairly simplistic pages. By doing this you can see the general structure of HTML and some of the tags associated with it.
How can I view the HTML of a web page?
Go to the page that you want to see the HTML of and click on 'View' in your browser's menu. Then click on 'Source' or 'Document Source' depending on what browser you are using. You will then be shown something like this (click on image for an enlarged view):
What do I need to do to create my own HTML document?
There are a couple of different ways of doing this. The first would be to learn some HTML and then write the HTML into a new document and save it with an extension of .html or .htm. The other way of going about creating an HTML document is to get a program that creates the HTML code by using WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get - pronounced whizeewig). Using a WYSIWYG editor, you don't need to know any HTML at all though it is helpful. Some popular WYSIWYG editors are Netscape Navigator Gold, Microsoft FrontPage and Adobe Pagemill. You could also use a HTML editor, such as Hot Dog, which isn't WYSIWYG but definitely helps in the construction of HTML documents.
Now that I've created my own HTML document, how do I put it on the internet for others to see?
If you have an account with NTD Athenet, you automatically have 5Mb of space reserved for you on our server. You need to FTP your HTML files to the '/home/your username/public_html' directory on our server and your page will be available for viewing on the internet. The URL for your personal web page will be located at http://www.athenet.net/~your username.
Is there a way to find out how many people have visited my page?
Yes, there are a couple of different ways:
- putting a counter on the page
- viewing NTD Athenet's webserver statistics
Here are some other HTML resources available to you on the internet:
- Yahoo
- The World Wide Web Consortium
- Netscape's Developer Resources
- World Wide Web FAQ
- A Beginner's Guide to HTML
- Dave Corp's HTML Interactive Tutorial for Beginners
File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
What is FTP?
FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol and is used for transferring files around on the Internet. Many different sites and servers on the Internet Provide FTP sites where many different files can be downloaded for free.
Can I use FTP with my NTD Athenet dial-in connection?
Yes, with any of the popular FTP software packages available.
Why would I want to FTP into NTD Athenet?
With every account you have access to 5 MEGS of space on our server. This can be for web pages or any files you wish to place there.
Can I access FTP without a FTP program?
Yes, but its limited. With your web browser you can browse through some ftp sites and view directories and files and download files but uploading files is not possible with a web browser.
I've never seen a ftp site with my web browser. What does it look like?
Click this link to find out: ftp://ftp.athenet.net
Does this log me into my account?
No, using web browsers to log into ftp logs you in anonymously and places you into our public directory.
Where do I place my home page files when I'm logged into NTD Athenet Server?
In your public_html directory.
How do I FTP to my 5 Megs of complimentary space?
If you have your site hosted on the 5 Megs of complimentary space on our server (www.athenet.net/~username)
The first thing that you need to do is download a program to transfer your files from your computer to our server, you can download WS_FTP for free by going to:
ftp://ftp.athenet.net/pub/win95/ws_ftp95.exe
When you open FTP it will ask you some information
- The profile name can be whatever it says; there should be no reason to change this
- The host name/address is ftp.athenet.net
- The host type should be automatic detect
- The username should be the same username you use to connect to us with
- The password is also the same password that you use to connect to us with
- Once you have filled this information in, hit the connect button.
You may have to hit the ChDir button and type c:/ for the files on your computer to show up on the left. The space that we have reserved for you should show up on the right. You will want to place all of your files in the public_html directory and you will want to name your main file, or first file, index.html and remove the index.html file that is already in there.
The location that your web page is located at is www.athenet.net/~yourusername
How do I FTP to my FrontPage Web?
If you are using Front Page to publish your page, simply publish to www.yourdomain.com
To use FTP
The first thing that you need to do is download a program to transfer your files from your computer to our server, you can download WS_FTP for free by going to:
ftp://ftp.athenet.net/pub/win95/ws_ftp95.exe
When you open FTP it will ask you some information
- The profile name can be whatever it says; there should be no reason to change this
- The host name/address is ftp.yourdomain.com
- The host type should be automatic detect
- The username should be the one you indicated on your signup form
- The password is the also the same one that you indicated on your signup form
- Once you have filled this information in, hit the connect button.
You may have to hit the ChDir button and type c:/ for the files on your computer to show up on the left. The space that we have reserved for you should show up on the right. You will want to place all of your files in your home directory (this is the directory that you are automatically sent to) and you will want to name your main file, or first file, index.html and remove the index.html file that is already in there.
The location that your web page is located at is www.yourdoamin.com
How do I FTP to my domain hosted on your UNIX server?
If you have your site hosted on our Unix Server
To access via FTP:
The first thing that you need to do is download a program to transfer your files from your computer to our server, you can download WS_FTP for free by going to: ftp://ftp.athenet.net/pub/win95/ws_ftp95.exe
When you open FTP it will ask you some information
- The profile name can be whatever it says; there should be no reason to change this
- The host name/address is ftp.yourdomain.com
- The host type should be automatic detect
- The username should be the one you indicated on your sign-up form
- The password is also the same one that you indicated on your sign-up form
- Once you have filled this information in, hit the connect button.
You may have to hit the ChDir button and type c:/ for the files on your computer to show up on the left. The space that we have reserved for you should show up on the right. You will want to place all of your files in the Htdocs folder under the webspace directory (/webspace/htdocs) and you will want to name your main file, or first file, index.html and remove the index.html file that is already in there. All cgi scripts go in the /webspace/cgi-bin directory.
The location that your web page is located at is www.yourdomain.com
Web Site Counter
How do I add a counter to my website?
These instructions are intended for customers utilizing their 5 megs of webspace on our Unix webserver.
Text based counter
First - what's a web page counter!? It's a programming script run on our server that counts the number of times a page has been hit. This can be useful when you are monitoring your hits to make sure your page stays below the 10,000 hits per month and also to monitor your page usage.
To include a counter on your home page:
Add <!--#exec cgi="/cgi-bin/counter"--> on your page where you want the counter.
Add <!--#exec cgi="/cgi-bin/counterord"--> for ordinal numbers.
Then rename your page with a .shtml extension. then, view it at http://www.athenet.net/~username/user.shtml. This is so that our server can recognize the counter is on the page.
Your counter will now be present on your page.
Graphical counter
Please read the instructions below to look at all of the command line options that the counter uses. A simple, sample line may look something like the following (placed in your home page HTML document):
<IMG SRC="http://www.athenet.net/cgi-bin/count.cgi?df=count.dat"> (be sure to name the .dat file something unique besides count.dat)
Please separate additional options with the | character and place them before your df= option.
Counter Options:
Taken from Kevin J. Walsh
| Parameter | Name | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| display=X | Specifies what to display. | A valid string can be specified with display= parameter to display counter, clock or date. The valid value for the string parameter X is counter, clock or date For counter, this parameter is not need as counter is the default display type. |
display=counter |
| timezone=X | Display time/date of the specified timezone. | The parameter timezone= is only significant with display=clock or display=date. Use this parameter if you want to display time or date of another timezone. The timezone must be specified with a negative or positive four digit offset from GMT, for example: timezone=GMT-0500 or timezone=GMT+0000 or timezone=GMT+0530. The routine to display time of various timezones are written in a generic way. Therefore, the unix machines will not be aware of daylight saving time because of the way the routine is written. For example, if daylight saving time is on, to display time of NY, the timezone will be timezone=GMT-0500 instead of timezone=GMT-0400. If the clock displays your local time wrong, specify your timezone with that parameter in order to display the correct time. |
None. |
| tformat=X
[new in this release] |
Time format in 12 or 24 hour. | This parameter can be used to display time in 12 or 24 hour format. The valid values for the parameter X is 12 or 24. |
tformat=12 |
| dformat=X | Specifies date format. | This parameter is only significant with display=date. The valid value for the string parameter X is any combination of MMDDYY (Month-Day-Year). For example, dformat=ddmmyy, dformat=YYMMDD. |
dformat=MMDDYY |
| istrip=B
[new in this release] |
Use of image strip On/Off | The boolean value of istrip specifies whether to use image strip or not. If you specify istrip=F, the program will look for the individual digit image files in the digits/style directory. The valid values for the Boolean parameter istrip are Y, N, T, F, 1 or 0. |
istrip=T |
| ft=X | Frame Thickness | You can wrap the counter in an ornamental frame of X pixels thick. Use 0 for no frame. Values over 5 make a nice 3-D effect. |
ft=6 |
| frgb=R;G;B | Frame Color | Specifies the color of the frame in RGB (red/green/blue) format. Each color component, R, G, and B is specified as a value between 0 and 256. If you use ft= without a frgb= param, the default color is used. If you specify a frgb= without a ft=, then the frame thickness defaults to 5. All the examples show ft=5. The color can be specified as hex string or a name. Do not use a # before the hex string as Netscape. For example, if you want to specify white in hex, use frgb=ffffff. You also can use a color name (e.g. frgb=blue) if the counter configured to do so (look at the cfg file). Look at the color name mapping database for some hints about color name database. |
frgb=100;139;216
or frgb=648bd8 |
| tr=B | Transparency On/Off | You can specify if your counter image will have a transparent color with the Boolean B. So tr=Y means there will be a transparent color. It does not matter if the GIF files used for the digits are "transparent"; you must specify explicitly which color to make transparent. If you specify a trgb=, then you do not need to specify tr=Y. If you specify tr=Y and do not specify trgb=, then the default color black will be transparent. The valid values for B are Y, N, T, F, 1, or 0. |
tr=F
No Transparency |
| md=X | Max Digits | Defines maximum number of digits to display. Any value between 5 and 10 inclusive are permitted. Padding with leading zeros is automatically done for you; longer counts are truncated to the given X. |
md=6
Without padding |
| pad=B | Padding with 0's | Turn padding on/off in conjunction with md= setting. Valid values for the Boolean parameter B are Y, N, T, F, 1, or 0. |
pad=N
Without specification of a md=value pad=Y |
| dd=A | Digit Directory | Denotes directory of a specific styles of digits. Four styles of digits are supplied. They are kept at the directories A,B,C and D respectively. Visit the digit mania page for other styles of digits. |
dd=A
My green led digits |
| image=gif_file
[new in this release] |
Display this GIF file | You can display any GIF image specified with this parameter. The location of this file is determined by the dd= parameter. All attributes of the counter applly to the image. |
None |
| comma=B
[new in this release] |
Display comma after every 3rd digit from right. | The boolean value of parameter comma specifies whether to display comma after every 3rd digit from right. If you use this parameter as true, the left padding with zeros will be turned off. |
comma=F |
| srgb=R;G;B prgb=R;G;B [new in this release] |
Change a color of the image to a target color on the fly. | Any one color of the image can be changed to a different color on the fly. srgb stands for source color, that is the color to change. prgb stands for pen color, that is the target color. The values for srgb and prgb can be colon separated color components (e.g, srgb=255;0;0), a hex value (e.g. srgb=ff0000) or a color name (e.g. srgb=red). The color name can be used if you configured the counter to do so (look at the cfg file). |
srgb=00ff00
(0;255;0 green) prgb=00ffff
With chcolor=T |
| chcolor=B | Change a color of the image. | This parameter is usually used to change the default green color to cyan. That is if you specify chcolor=T, and you want to change green to cyan, then you do not need to specify srgb and prgb parameters. 1x1 GIF is displayed. The valid values for the Boolean parameter B are Y, N, T, F, 1, or 0 |
chcolor=F |
| st=X | Start Count | This parameter is used to set the initial value of the counter to some number X. This is only valid if you decided to allow automatic datafile creation. It is a bad practice to allow automatic datafile creation, however it makes site maintaining easier. The automatic datafile creation option is specified in configuration file and can be changed at run time. Note that this parameter has no effect if the datafile already exists. If you want to change the counter value in a existing datafile, hand edit the file. The minimum value for st is 1. |
st=1 Count starts at 1 |
| sh=B | Show digits | Used to turn display of digits on or off according to the Boolean B. When sh=T, counter will be displayed and incremented, this is the default behavior. If sh=F no digits will show, but the counter will still increment; instead of digits a transparent 1x1 GIF is displayed. The valid values for the Boolean parameter B are Y, N, T, F, 1, or 0 |
sh=Y |
| df=data_file | Datafile to store count | Specifies the name of the file for storing the count in. The file must be allocated to you as was mentioned in the "Authorizations" section above. You can use df=random to display a random number. One special use of the parameter is df=RANDOM. This returns a random number using the fractional portion of the host's time of day clock as a seed for the generator. Unlike all other WWWcounter parameters, the file name provided is case-sensitive, except for the value random. Or Random, or rANDOM, etc. |
df=random
if no datafile is specified |
| incr=B | Increment Count | Makes it possible to display the current count without incrementing the count. This can be used to examine the count for reporting or other purposes without adding to the count. Valid values for the Boolean parameter B are Y, N, T, F, 1, or 0. |
incr=T
Increment the counter on each invocation |
| lit=X | Display literal | Makes it possible to display a given, predetermined string. The valid values for the string X are digits, a,p,: and - |
None |
| negate=B | Negate the color | Makes it possible to negate the color of the counter digits. Note that the Frame is exempted from negating. Valid values for the Boolean parameter B are Y, N, T, F, 1, or 0. |
negate=F
Do not negate |
| degrees=X | Rotate X degrees | Makes it possible to rotate the counter image X degree. The possible values of X is 90, 180, 270 and 360. Note 360 is meaningless as the counter will come back to the original 0 degree. |
degrees=270
With rotate=Y and without degrees=X rotate 270 degrees clockwise |
| rotate=B | Rotate On/Off | The Boolean value B turns on or off rotating. If you use degrees= setting, rotate is not needed. Valid values for the Boolean parameter B are Y, N, T, F, 1, or 0. |
rotate=F
Do not rotate |
CGI scripts
What is CGI?
CGI stands for Common Gateway Interface. CGI is the standard for interfacing external applications with information servers, such as HTTP or Web servers.
What is CGI used for?
When your browser requests a CGI file it is, in effect, requesting that the server runs that particular CGI program. Different CGI's do different things: search a group of files for a keyword, send the contents of a form to a email address, take the information from a form and add it as a entry in a guestbook, etc.
Is CGI a programming language?
No, CGI is the name given to these particular programs but they can be written in any language that resides on the same server with them such as C, C++, PASCAL or PERL.
What is a CGI-bin?
CGI-bin is the name normally given the directory that a servers' CGI programs reside in.
What are some good resources on the web for learning about CGI and how to write CGI programs?
Here are some good places to start:
Password Protecting HTML Documents
How do I password protect files I don't want everyone to see?
Following these instructions, you can setup a program that password protects any directory in your account that you don't want people without the proper username and password to access. When people go to that directory on the WWW they will get a prompt.
You must create a file in the directory you want to protect. The name of the file should be called .htaccess, and in it place:
AuthUserFile /path/to/dir/.htpasswd AuthGroupFile /path/to/dir/.htgroup AuthName Your Site's Title AuthType basic <Limit GET POST> require valid-user </Limit>
You may also have a .htgroup file but you may leave that empty.
In order to create the password file, you must have bash prompt access. If you do not have access, contact NTD Athenet Technical Support. Once you have prompt access, from the bash prompt change directories (cd public_html) to your public_html directory, and then move/create whatever directory you want to protect, and *in* that directory, type: htpasswd -c .htpasswd Username
This will create a new file, and add "Username". You will be prompted for the password to assign to "Username".
Next time you want to add another user, type: htpasswd .htpasswd User2
While in the directory you are protecting, and you'll be prompted for the password for User2.
To change a password, it's the same as above: htpasswd .htpasswd User2, and you'll be prompted for a "new password"
Registering websites with Search Engines
How can I help search engines find my website?
Registering your website with Search Engines is a good way for Internet users to find your site. This is especially important for e-commerce websites. The following is a list of 4 sites on the Internet that will register your website for you. These 4 sites were chosen because 1) you have flexibility on how much you want to spend and 2) these 4 sites are among the most popular sites on the Internet that do Search Engine Registration. (The providing of this list should not be construed to imply any guarantee by NTD Athenet that the sites listed below will meet your expectations. This list is provided only as a convenience for our customers.)
1. www.prosubmit.net
From their site:
At an unbelievably low cost of $4.99 a month, you can have your site submitted monthly to over 5100+ search engines, link lists and classified ad sites, as well as have your site manually reviewed and submitted by a search engine guru. All of this for only $4.99 a month, for 12 months, (we submit every 30 days after your first submission) with no hidden costs of setup fees.
2. www.dsr1.com
From their site:
All you need to do is submit your websites information to us once. We will then review your website (if you choose that option) and offer suggestions to help you achieve a higher ranking on the search engines. We will then submit your website to over 400 search engines, directories, and link pages every month. Each month we will guarantee that your submission will be accepted by at least 250 of the sites we submit it to.
dsr1.com charges $8/month for this service
3. www.101websitepromotion.com
From their site:
101WebsitePromotion.com offers several search engine placement services to assist clients in positioning their websites at the top of the major search engines. Our commitment is to ensure your service or products are reachable through the search engines.
Services We Offer:
- Strategic Keyword & Link Analysis
- Site Positioning Plans
- Yahoo Plans
- Express Directory Submission
- Search Engine Tuneup
- Search Engine Consulting
- Domain Name Creation
Prices range from $395/month to $595/month. This site would be a good choice for high-end ecommerce websites.
4. www.website-submission.com
From their site:
When done properly, search engine submission can be the only promotion your website ever needs. Proper search engine submission involves much more than just clicking the submit button. Our premium search engine submission plans, starting at just $39, include search engine submission preparation inspections. These proven inspections will help prepare your site to get top spots in the major search engines.
Prices are one-time charges and range from $19 to $199.
Virtual FTP sites
How do I use my virtual FTP directory?
To add/delete files from your ftp site, you'll have to use the ftp server of ftp.athenet.net. Other people log in anonymously to your site to retrieve and send files to your ftp site but this site is simply a subdirectory underneath your normal home directory. You will need to login with your regular (email) username and password and then change into the directory public_ftp. In this directory, you will see the normal directory structure that other anonymous users see when logging into ftp.yourdomain.com. There are a number of standard directories that are also there when we setup your virtual ftp server that cannot be removed or modified. These directories are /bin, /dev, /etc, /lost+found, and /usr. You can create other directories here and set the appropriate UNIX permissions. If you'd like people to upload to a directory you create (ie. /incoming), just give us a call or send support@athenet.net a quick mail message explaining what you'd like setup and we'll configure it.