Free Web Space FAQ

•  Personal WebSpace Guide

How do I get my free space?

Just create and upload your web pages to the web server. You free web space is automatically set up when Customer Service sets up your Internet account. The URL for your personal web space is: http://web.atmc.net/~username/ where username is your username and the FTP Host Name which you will use to upload pages to your site is: ftp.atmc.net.

Are there any restrictions on what I can do with my free space?

This free space is only available to holders of a valid ATMC Internet Account.

ATMC reserves the right not to host material it considers questionable in nature. You are totally responsible for any material which appears on your site. In the event of your site containing material which may be unsuitable for any reason then access to the site will be discontinued and you will be contacted. User written server-side scripts (cgi, perl etc,) and FrontPage extensions are not supported. You can, of course, use FrontPage to design your pages, but you won't be able to use the full functionality including the FTP service. FTP software that supports VMS such as WS_FTP, CuteFTP, or Fetch must be used for uploading your pages. top

How much free space do I have?

You get 20MB of storage.

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How much server space will my web pages use?

The amount of space occupied on the server will be approximately the same as the files take on your own hard disk.

Text is very economical on space. Pictures use quite a bit of space but careful consideration of which format to use and what compression to apply can result in very economical file sizes without loss of quality. Sound and video files even of only a few seconds in duration can be of an astonishingly large size.

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I have more than 20MB of content. What should I do?

In order to use your free personal web space, you will need to reduce the size of your site. In the event you go over your 20 MB of space, you will be sent an email warning you that your web space is too large. If you do not reduce the size of the site, it will be reduced for you. If you wish to have a site larger than 20 MB, you must purchase commercial Web hosting services. There are many companies that offer these services.

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What will be the address of my website?

The URL for your new files is: http://web.atmc.net/~username/filename.html where username is your Username and filename.html is the name of any HTML file you wish to access. Note that if your "home page" file is named index.html, you do not need to specify the filename;

How do I write a web page?

The answer to this one is well out with the scope of this FAQ, Creating and publishing a Web site can be a complex process. The first step in creating a Web site is to learn the basics of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). A Web page is simply a plain text file (created in a text editor such as Notepad or Simpletext) with various HTML commands. A good place to start is NCSA's Beginner's Guide to HTML. If you don't have the time to learn HTML, you can try using any of the popular WYSIWYG ("What You See Is What You Get") Web page creation software such as Microsoft FrontPage. By using WYSIWYG software, you can create Web pages without learning HTML. However, WYSIWYGs are often limited in their functionality, can lead to confusion in file paths, and cannot be used for uploading the web pages to our server.

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Does the server support Microsoft Front Page Extensions?

Yes we do support Microsoft Front Page Extensions.

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How do I get my web pages onto the server?

You will need to install FTP (File Transfer Protocol) software that supports VMS to maintain files on your site. The server used to host your free web space uses a VMS FTP Server. Though web authoring packages such as Microsoft Front Page and Netscape Composer can be used to create your site, most HTML editors do not support VMS. Therefore, conventional FTP programs such as WS_FTP, CuteFTP, or Fetch, provide the best method of control over your files on the web server and their transfer.

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Where can I get FTP software?

There is a large range of FTP software available, the two most popular programs for the PC are WS_FTP Lite (freeware) and CuteFTP (shareware). Both of these programs support VMS which is required to upload your web pages. These as well as other FTP software packages are available at download sites such as ZDNET and download.com

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How do I use FTP to upload my website?

Information on the basic operation of your FTP software should be contained in the program's help file. To transfer files between your computer and the web server certain information has to be entered into the FTP program. The required information is:

1. The FTP Host Name which for the free space server is: ftp.atmc.net
2. Your Username or Login which is the part that comes before the @ sign in your email address.

3. Your Password . If you are unsure of your password, you may contact a Customer Service Representative at 754-4311 (verification is required before passwords will be released).

Some useful web resources are:

• CuteFTP Home Page
• WS_FTP Home Page

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I have uploaded my pages but cannot see them when I go to my URL.

1. Are you satisfied that you have successfully uploaded your web page/s?
2. Were any of the files you uploaded named either "index.htm" or "index.html"

If the answer to 1 is yes and the answer to 2 no then read on.
Assuming your username is "myname" making your URL:
web.atmc.net/~myname/
If you have uploaded a web page named "mypage.htm" then to view it you would need to enter into your browser the address:
http://web.atmc.net/~myname/mypage.htm

The only page that will display by default at an address of   http://web.atmc.net/~myname is one named either "index.htm" or "index.html". The Info Avenue template page you see is actually "index.html". To make the page of your choice appear by default all you have to do is name it either "index.htm" or "index.html". The same also applies to any sub-directories you may create in your web space. Should there be neither a "index.htm" or "index.html" file in a directory then a listing of the contents of that directory will be displayed.

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I can see the text of my pages on the web but not the pictures.

There can be many reasons for this:

1. The image files have not been uploaded to the server. The images in your HTML file are just links to images, therefore the image files must also reside in your web server space.
2. The name of the image file and the name you used in the HTML script are different. The web server, unlike most home machines is case dependent when it comes to file names. So for example on the web server "mypic.gif" and "Mypic.gif" are two completely independent files. It is best to keep all filenames in lower case to avoid confusion.
3. You may be using file names containing spaces which are not supported by the web server.
4. The path to the image file in your HTML may be incorrect. Remember that the file paths have to be relevant to the location of the files on the web server, not to where they are on your hard disk. This can be a common problem with many HTML editors, particularly the WYSIWYG type (Microsoft Front Page/Netscape Composer) as you do not actually see what path is being inserted in the HTML. If the path to the image starts with the word file and then the letter C, the path is not correct. Your images must be saved in the same folder as your html files or in a subfolder.
5. You are using an image type not supported by HTML, best to stick with ".gif" and ".jpg" if you are unsure.

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I can see my home page on the web but the links to other pages do not work.

Possible reasons for this:

1. There is an incompatibility between the name of the actual HTML file and that used in the HTML script. The web server, unlike most home machines is case dependent when it comes to file names. So for example on the web server "mypage.htm" and "MyPage.htm" are two completely independent files. It is best to keep all filenames in lower case to avoid confusion.>
2. You may be using file names containing spaces which are not supported by the web server.
3. The path to the file in your HTML may be incorrect. Remember that the file paths have to be relevant to the location of the files on the web server, not to where they are on your hard disk. This can be a common problem with many HTML editors, particularly the WYSIWYG type (Microsoft Front Page/Netscape Composer) as you do not actually see what path is being inserted in the HTML.

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I have uploaded an amendment to my site but the changes have not taken effect.

Assuming that the file has been uploaded correctly then the probable cause lies with the browser. What could be happening is that when you go to view the changes you in fact are still looking at the old page being held in your browsers cache. To rectify this all that needs to be done is to click on your browsers refresh/reload button.

I'm having technical problems -- how can I get help?

If these pages don't answer your question, you can contact our technical support department by email at dslsupport@atmc.net