Make Your Page Available

Quick Reference

Using FTP | Transfering Files | Renaming Files | Activate Pages | Web Address

Once you have the web pages written, then you need to upload the files to WestNet and make them available to the world.

Using FTP

File Transfer Protocol, or FTP, is the method by which files are most commonly transferred on the Internet. Further information on what FTP is can be found in our Intro to the Internet

While the interfaces on FTP clients (or programs) vary, the general principal behind them is the same. There is a graphical representation of the files on your computer and the files on the server. To transfer files, you can drag files from one location and drop them to another.

Some platforms, such as Windows95 and Macintosh, have built-in FTP clients (to utilize them, see your user's manual). If you do not have an FTP client, we recommend downloading either WS_FTP zip file or WS_FTP self-extracting file. (For questions on downloading, see WestNet's Download Help Pages.)

To log on to WestNet using your FTP client:

Start your FTP client (make sure a PPP connection is still established to the internet)
You will be asked for the following to connect to the server:
Host: westnet.com
Userid: your_user_id
Password: your_password
Click on OK or the Connect command.

You will now be connected to WestNet. On your left, there will be a list of files and directories on your computer (usually labeled Local). On the right, there will be a list of files in your home directory on WestNet (usually labeled Remote).

Transfering Files

Once connected with your FTP client:

Create a directory on the Remote server (westnet.com) called "public_html" using the command mkdir.
Once created, you will see the directory "public_html" listed. Double-click on it, to open that directory.
Find the files on Local that you want to transfer.
Highlight the file(s) on your Local machine and click the arrow to move them (or drag-and-drop them) to the Remote server.

Do this as many times as necessary, to move all the files and graphics to WestNet.

Renaming Files

Your main page should be named index.html. When someone refers to your directory without a file name, this file will be loaded by default. If an index.html file does not exist, users will see a list of all the files in your public_html directory.

Use the Rename button to rename your main page to index.html in all lower case. Then click Close or Disconnect, and your FTP session will be ended (please note this does not disconnect your PPP connection to WestNet).

Activating the Files

The first time you upload your web-page, you will have to "activate" the folder. Meaning you will have to give the folder permissions so that your pages will appear in a web browser. If you don't, than if you or anyone tries to view your web-site, the message Permission Denied will always appear. In WS-FTP select the PUBLIC_HTML folder (left-click once) right-click on the PUBLIC_HTML folder and click on CHMOD (Unix).

Owner:

Group:

Other:

Read, Write, Execute
Read, Execute
Read, Execute

Your files will now be accessable through any Web Browser.

Your Web Address

Your home page is now uploaded to our server and ready for the world to see! To refer to your home page, access the URL:

http://www.westnet.com/~username/

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