Support Web Browser Q & A

IGS Hawkesbury

Windows Web Authoring

 

Microsoft Internet Explorer

 

Windows Web Authoring

Uploading your Webpages

The easiest way to update your web pages is to edit them on your own computer and upload them to the web server using FTP (the File Transfer Protocol).

If you are using Windows, the FTP program recommended by IGS is called WS_FTP. In WS_FTP, you can make uploading your web pages easier by creating a new Session Profile. In WS_FTP's Session Profile window, just click on the New button and fill in the form as follows:



NB: Once you've log in to the IGS FTP service, make sure you create a new folder named ".public_html" , and transfer all you're web pages in that directory first, for you're website to work ! !

Anytime you want to upload your pages, select the "IGS Web Server" session profile and click OK. Then, transfer the files by selecting them on the left side of the screen and clicking on the right arrow between the "local system" window and "remote system" window.

Your files must have proper file extensions. For example, HTML files must end in .htm or .html, GIF files must end in .gif, and so on. Unix filenames are case sensitive, so the file extensions must be in lowercase. Also, binary files, such as GIF and JPG files must be uploaded in binary mode and ASCII text files, such as HTM, HTML, MAP and TXT files, should be uploaded in ASCII mode.

Your default, or main, home page should be called "index.htm" or "index.html".

What's my webpage address? (URL)

The URL's for your web pages will be as follows:

http://www.hawk.igs.net/~<username>/<pathname>

Here are some examples:

       http://www.hawk.igs.net/~username/
       ... will access my default page, ~username/.public_html/index.htm

       http://www.hawk.igs.net/~username/bookmark.htm
       ... will access ~username/.public_html/bookmark.htm

       http://www.hawk.igs.net/~username/tree.gif
       ... will access ~username/.public_html/tree.gif

       http://www.hawk.igs.net/~username/radio-tv/my-radio.htm
       ... will access ~username/.public_html/radio-tv/my-radio.htm

Adding a counter to your page

You can add a counter to your page using one of the following HTML commands:

For cardinal numbers (1, 2, 3, etc.)...

<!--#exec cgi='/cgi-bin/counter'-->

For ordinal numbers (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.)...

<!--#exec cgi='/cgi-bin/counter-ord'-->

Just add one of those lines into your HTML document where you want the counter to be. That's it.

Any page should contain no more than one counter reference.

Setting up Imagemaps

To set up an imagemap, simply make your image a link to the map file and add the "ISMAP" option to the image tag.

Here is an example of some HTML code which assumes that the map file and image file are in the same directory...

<a href="test.map"><img ismap src="test.gif"></a>

 

NOTE: IGS uses the NCSA mapfile format. The CERN mapfile format does not work on the IGS server.

Forms

Using HTML, you can create forms that net surfers can fill out online. This section does not explain how to create forms, but rather how to make the system send the information filled in the form to you via email when the user presses the "submit" button.

To use the IGS-provided "mailto" script to send form results to you via email, use the following as your "FORM" tag:

<FORM METHOD="POST" ACTION="/cgi-bin/mailto.pl">

You will also need to include a few hidden fields in the form so that the mailto script will know where to send the mail:

  •  
 The "from" field should specify the address from which the email message will be coming. You may choose to have this as a visible field to allow the visitor to your page to fill in their own address. As a hidden field, you may have it set to "www@ott.igs.net", so that you'll see immediately that it is a submission of your form.
  •  
 The "to" field should contain your email address (or any other that you would like all of the form submissions to go to).
  •  
 The "body" field should contain a header line for the email message. For example, "The form contained the following fields:".

 

John Slade, an IGS customer, has written a document on Form Processing at IGS to help other users get started. If you can't get your form working from our document, you should find John's useful to overcome any problems!

Setting up your own CGI Programs

This is an advanced feature, and you should only attempt to use it if you: (a) know what a "cgi-bin" is; (b) think you can learn how to create directories and change file permissions on a Unix system; and (c) have at least a limited amount of programming experience. Free technical support from IGS will NOT be provided for this feature.

Create a subdirectory within your .public_html directory called "cgi-bin". Place any cgi-bin executables in that directory. If your cgi-bin is a script (such as Perl or one of the Unix shells), make the script executable using the chmod command in Unix. For example:

chmod a+x scriptname    

Making the script executable can also be accomplished through WS_FTP by using a "site" command. Right-click on the word "Binary" near the bottom of the WS_FTP window. The FTP Menu will come up. Select "FTP Commands", then "SITE" and enter the necessary chmod command.

Your scripts must be referenced via the "cgiwrap" program. Here is how you do it:

http://www.hawk.igs.net/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/<username>/<scriptname>

Here is an example:

http://www.hawk.igs.net/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/username/myscript.pl

If your script is not working and you would like to see some debugging output, substitute "cgiwrapd" for "cgiwrap", like the following:

http://www.hawk.igs.net/cgi-bin/cgiwrapd/username/myscript.pl

Support is also available for NPH (no-parse-header) scripts, by substituting "cgiwrap" with "nph-cgiwrap" or "cgiwrapd" with "nph-cgiwrapd".

Password protecting a directory

To password protect all documents in a certain directory on your web site, you need to create two files.

The first, called ".htaccess" (don't forget the dot at the beginning), must reside in the directory being restricted. It is formatted as follows:

AuthUserFile /usr/home/username/.htpasswd

AuthGroupFile /dev/null

AuthName "My Secret Page"

AuthType Basic

<Limit GET>

require user jim

require user bob

require user jane

</Limit>

The above .htaccess file would restrict access to the users "jim", "bob" and "jane". These have no correlation to their username on the system to which they dial in; you are creating these "user accounts".

The AuthUserFile directive allows you to specify the password file (the file in which the users' passwords will be stored). Preferably, this file should be located outside of the restricted directory.

Set the AuthName directive to the title of the directory. In the example above, someone trying to access would see "Enter username for My Secret Page at www.igs.net".

Leave the AuthGroupFile and AuthType directives as they are.

Between the <Limit GET> and </Limit> directives, each line lists one user (who presumably would also be listed in the password file) who has access to the directory.

To add users to the password file, use the command "htpasswd". When you enter the first user, you will have to tell htpasswd to create the password file using the "-c" command-line option. For example, "htpasswd -c /usr/home/rene/.htpasswd jim" to start the password file /usr/home/rene/.htpasswd, with jim as the first user. Add more users to the password file the same way, but make sure to leave "-c" out, otherwise you will delete the previous users! For example, to add jane to the password file, type "htpasswd /usr/home/rene/.htpasswd jane". The htpasswd program will ask you for the password to set.

Microsoft Internet Explorer

404 Not Found

Don't get too worried if you get this error message. You haven't done anything wrong and there's not really anything you can do about it either. All the 404 error message means is that the web page that you were trying to access wasn't there. Weather you typed it in yourself, of a web page you were at linked you to it.

If you did type it in yourself, make sure you typed it in correctly. The slightest typing mistake could cause a world of headaches. So, check the spelling and try it again. If you're positive that you did type it in right, then it's probably just not there anymore.

If you were at a web page, and it linked you to this extinct page, then just hit the 'Back' button in your web browser. That will take you back to the page you were at before, and you can just continue surfing from there. And, it would be nice to send them an email and let them know which link you took, and that it doesn't work.

No DNS Entry/Host not found

There are a few reasons why you might get this error:

  • You are not connected to the Internet. To check this, try a web site that you know will work, like http://www.hawk.igs.net or one of you sites in your bookmarks. If nothing works, then you are not connected.
  • You are connected, but the site that you are trying to get to does not exist, or is down right now. Try accessing another page. If you can access another page, then the problem is that the place that you are trying to access either does not exist (this minute) or you made a small typo in the address. Check or retype the address.
  • The site could have been shut down or abandoned. Sites are created and shut down regularly (as well as being moved) on the Net. You might want to contact the webmaster of that site

 

Why are some sites slower than others?

Some sites can be slower than other for a few reasons. If they are really far away, then it takes a bit longer for the information to be transferred. Also, it depends on how fast their link to the Internet is and how many people are 'hitting' their site at the same time that you are. So really, speed of web pages vary, and the reasons vary.

A lot of the web sites that offer software downloads have mirror sites for you to download from. What a mirror site is, is a copy of the web site at a different location on the Net. Usually they will have a few, so chose the one that's closest to you for better response.

 

© 2004 IGS Hawkesbury
Internet Service Provider