by Craig Walker

OK, I have my pages. Now how do I get them on the Internet!

Your ISP will give you the details of their webspace offers. I recommend going with whatever is free, at first. There are other free webspace sources out there also. I don't know much about them, but they exist. Once you get that straightened out, your Internet Host will tell you your website URL, address. My URL is members.home.net/cwalker1/. cwalker1 is my home directory. All of my website folders and files are in the cwalker1 directory on the @HOME server.

There are many programs that can interface between your computer and your webspace. The one I use is WS_FTP LE from Ipswitch. It's even free for non-commercial & personal home use. If you want to try WS_FTP LE, go to their website and download a free copy. When you get to their website, select the Download Evaluations menu option. On the download page, fill out the information form. Remember, it's free if you qualify as an individual home user. Select WS_FTP LE on the list of products, then click next. That will take you to a download site. Select the Win95/NT option if you have Win 95/98 or NT. If you have Win3.1, select the Win3x option. The file is approximately 0.6MB. It should only take 4 to 5 minutes to download.

There are other free or cheap FTP programs, but WS_FTP LE has always worked for me. Here's how it works.

• Download Program

• Install Program

• Setup Program

The nice thing is you only really need to concern yourself with the first two tabs for personal home use. I will describe each option as I have set it up for myself. It should also work for you. If not see the help section on the program. Each option is described there.

General Tab

Profile Name:

I called my profile Walker-Andrew because that is the name of my website. The profile name shows up in the drop-down list. There are many other names in there already. You could delete them if you wanted to. The program will always show the last profile used so if you only have one website it will always be the one showing when you start the program.

Host Name/Address:

The host name is the part of your personal URL before your personal folder. In my case, my personal URL is www.members.home.net/cwalker1/. My Host Name/Address is www.members.home.net. Actually I can include or not include the www if I so choose. Your mileage may vary on that one. What ever your ISP gives you as your URL, put in everything prior to your personal folder. Do not include the http:// part though.

Host Type:

I leave mine on Automatic Detect. No problems so far.

User ID:

This is your email name, unless you have been told otherwise. My email address is cwalker1@home.com, so cwalker1 is my User ID.

Password:

Here is my password. Hey wait a minute! Type in your own password. That would be your email password, unless you have been told otherwise by your ISP. Remember, when typing your password or user name, case is real important. Your password will not show in the box, just a star pattern for the letters.

Account & Comment

I left both of these blank.

Startup Tab

Initial Remote Host Directory:

What directory on your website do you want the program to open up on. This would be your URL, minus the http:// part. So in my case it is members.home.net/cwalker1. The program will open up in my home directory where all the other directories reside.

Initial Local Directory:

What directory on your computer do you want the program to open up on. If your local directories are a mirror of your web directories, for the web stuff, then it should open up in a directory of the same name. All of my web files for Walker-Andrew are in a directory named cwalker1, just like on my website host. My Initial Local Directory is C:\My Documents\Our Web Page\cwalker1. Put the path to the directory on your computer where you keep your website files.

The Rest

The rest I left blank.

Advanced Tab & Firewall Tab

I did not modify these tabs for my application. Go with the default and you will probably be fine.

Now that the tabs are all set, hit the OK button. This will enitiate the log on process. You may need to already have your computer on-line at this point. With my cable modem, I am always on-line so I don't need to do that. I have never done it with a dial up system. If there are any problems consult the help section of the WS_FTP program.

When the program opens up it will have your Initial Local Directory on one side and the Initial Remote Host Directory on the other. The process is pretty simple. Send files and folders from the local directory to the remote directory. When changing your web files you can delete or send the files from remote directory to the local directory.

In the picture you can see the local computer opened up in a directory called cwalker1 and the remote computer also opened up in a directory called cwalker1. This is also a good example of what I mean by mirroring the folders on the web and at home. Notice the directories are the same names on both sides. There are also files in the cwalker1 folder but they are just out of site. Use the scroll bar to see all the files in the directory if necessary.

Directory navigation is just like on your computer in My Computer or File Manager. If you double click a directory it will open to show the files inside.

Highlight the files or directories you want to send (either way) and hit the arrow between the two sides pointing that direction. Hang on. This could take a while, especially if your files are big. Normal transfer times apply here as well.

Important: If you are updating your website, you may need to hit the reload/refresh button for updated web pages before you can see the changes. Your browser uses cache files to pull up often viewed files and may show you the old copy. Hit the reload/refresh button.

Be sure not to exceed your allocated web space. Do not put 5MB of web files on if you have only been given 4MB. One way to see how much total space you are using in Win 95/98 is to right click on the home directory and select properties. That will show you a dialog box with the total file size along with some other information.

This picture has been trimmed to save space but you can see the total file size in my cwalker1 directory on my home computer is 5.53MB. Because some people count MBs differently, use this as a guide to see how close you are. Your web host should also have a count on your website size available for you to see on-line also.

WOW! You're there. Email Me when you publish your pages.

Now, if you want, you can Frame Up.

by Craig Walker