Files are moved over the Internet by a method known as the File Transfer Protocol, or FTP. Therefore, to move files between your computer and your account on our computer, you're going to need a small program known as an FTP client.
Once you have an FTP client, decompress it and familiarize yourself with it by reading its documentation, then launch it. You will now use your FTP client to connect to our server, the high-end computer your site resides on. Your client will probably prompt you for connection information when you launch it, but if it doesn't, you should be able to choose "Connect" from one of its menus. The "Connect" dialog box will have spaces for a host address, a login and a password.
Type your domain name (i.e. yourdomain.com) in the space marked "Host Address" (or something similar), and then put the login name and password you specified when you got your account with us in the appropriate spaces and click "Connect" or "Ok". Once you've successfully connected to our server, the contents of your account will appear in the window of your FTP client.
SPECIAL NOTE: You should never delete or edit any files or folders that are throughout your home directory initially.
Explanation of each folder.
Anything you put in the your_domain-www folder is accessible over the World Wide Web by anyone with a browser such as Navigator or Explorer, so this is where you want to put the text, graphics and other files that make up your web pages. Anything you put in the your_domain-anonftp folder is accessible by anyone with an FTP client, and this is where you should put any files (such as programs) you'd like your visitors to be able to download. The cgi-bin folder is directly accessible only by you, and this is where you must put any CGI scripts such as counters or guestbooks.
Most FTP clients will show you the contents of a folder if you double-click on it, so try double-clicking on your your_domain-www folder now. Because the folder is empty, you will be shown a blank window. The documentation that came with your FTP client should tell you how to upload a file, so you might want to try uploading a small text or graphic file now. Be sure to always send text-only files in ASCII mode and everything else (pictures, sounds, etc.) in binary mode. The current transfer mode is an option in your FTP client, so if your client doesn't automatically select the appropriate mode you should be able to select it manually.
When someone enters your domain with a web browser, they are shown the contents of your www folder. To make an HTML file be your "home page", which is displayed automatically when someone enters your domain without specifying a file, name it "index.html" and make sure that it's in your www folder.
When you begin to have a few files on your site, you will probably want to organize them into folders, such as putting all your graphics in an "images" folder. To do this, use your FTP client to enter the folder you want the new folder to be in (for example, www) and create a new folder there (for example, an "images" folder in www). Then enter the new folder by double-clicking it, and upload your graphics files.
Note to Microsoft FrontPage Users
Customers with FrontPage extensions installed on their site should use only the FrontPage
publishing feature to transfer files. Using regular FTP can corrupt the extensions,
disabling the functionality of the FrontPage web and requiring that the site be deleted to
reinstall the extensions.
©November, 1997
MJ Enterprises
1221 Kara Lane
Modesto, Ca. 95355
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