How to upload your Virtual Domain

AVALON NETWORKS, Inc.

Setting up your website

Before we get into the specifics of uploading your webpage, let's go over some HTML basics. Images files are generally named something.gif or something.jpg, and html files are generally named something.html. You don't want to have spaces in the names. However a file is named on your computer is how it will be named when uploaded to our computer, so make sure you change your filenames before uploading.

All virtual domains have a unix account which stores the code for the Wide Web home page. The page you want people to see when they go to your address must be named index.html. Notice that the name is all lower-case. Filenames are case specific, so be carefull writing your HTML code.

The index.html file will be put in your public_html folder. This is the folder that will be accessed when people try to go to your website. Any executable files such as perl scripts or java should be put in your cgi-bin folder located in the public_html folder. The cgi-bin is the folder that stores any programs run from your website.

We assume that you have a homepage already made. Html design is beyond the scope of this document. If you have questions regarding HTML coding we suggest you seek out "The Definitive Guide to HTML" by O'Rielly and Assoc., or check out our small HTML Primer.

At this point, you should choose the instructions for your operating system:

Macintosh

Windows3.x

Windows95/98/ME

Macintosh

The first thing you need to upload your webpage is an FTP client. The most popular one for Macs is Fetch.

Connecting

Make sure you are dialed up and connected.
Open Fetch. A box with 4 fields should open up. If not, under the File menu select "New Connection".
In the Host: field, put yourdomain.com
In the User ID: field, put your webmasterusername
In the Password: field, put your webmaster password
In the Directory: field, make sure it is blank.
Click on OK to connect.
You should see a little dog running. Once it stops, you should see a window with your Avalon directory in a large box on the left.

Uploading

Once you have connected, you are now ready to upload.
You should see a folder named public_html in your directory. If not,go to the "Directories" menu and select "Create New Directory..."
Double-click on the public_html directory.
You can now drag and drop your webpage files from your Mac onto the Fetch window.
Once the files have all been uploaded, you should be all set to view your webpage!

Windows3.x

Make sure you have an FTP client for uploading your webpage. You can down load a copy of WS-FTPfrom us. Just click on the link for WS-FTP, save it to your disc, then double-click the saved file to install.

Connecting

Make sure you are dialed up and connected, probably using Trumpet Winsock.
Open up WS-FTP. You should see a Session Properties screen.
Click on the New tab on the right side to create a new profile.
In the Profile Name: field, put YourDomain.
In the Host Name/Address: field, put yourdomain.com.
In the User ID: field, put your webmaster username.
In the Password: field, put your webmaster password.
Leave the Account and Comment fields blank.
Click on OK to connect.
Once the connection is established, you should see a screen with two sides: The Local System (your computer), and the Remote System (our computer).

Uploading

Now that you are connected, you can upload your files.
Underneath the two window boxes are 3 buttons. Click on the one labeled Binary.
Change to directory on the Local System to the location of your webpage files.
On the Remote System, find the public_html directory and double-click on it.
To upload files, you can either double-click on the file on the Local System, or you can highlight groups of files and then click on the --> arrow in the middle of the two windows.
If you want to delete files, just select the file to be deleted and use the Delete button on the right side.
Once the files have all been uploaded, you should be all set to view your webpage!

Windows95/98/ME

Make sure you have an FTP client for uploading your webpage. One of the more popular FTP clients for Windows95 is WS-FTP. This client is similar to the Windows3.x version, so if you want to use WS-FTP use the Windows3.x instructions. We prefer a nice simple FTP client called RFtp.

Just click on the link for RFtp, save it to your disc, then double-click the saved file to install.

Connecting

Make sure you are dialed up and connected.
Open up RFtp.
You should see 5 tabs at the top. Make sure you're on the Host tab.
In the URL: field, put in yourdomain.com
In the Username: field, put in your webmaster username
In the Password: field, put in your webmaster password
Click on the Connect button at the bottom.
Once connected, it should say Connected To: yourdomain.com in the box.

Uploading

Once you have connected, you are now ready to upload.
Click on the Remote tab.
Find the folder named public_html in your directory.
Double-click on the public_html directory.
In the top right side of the RFtp window, there are three icons. One is a folder, one has the letter A on it, and the last one on the right has 1's and 0's on it. Click on this last one. This makes sure you upload in binary mode.
You are now ready to upload the files. All you need to do is drag and drop the files from your computer onto the RFtp window.
If you want to delete a file, just click on the file with your RIGHT mouse button, and select Delete.
Once the files have all been uploaded, you should be all set to view your webpage!