Webserver Basic Facts

1. Ensure Your Homepage is an index.html file
2. Understanding Case Sensitivity
3. What mode should I upload my files with - ASCII or Binary?
4. The difference between ASCII and BINARY
5. Setting your FTP client to automatically detect ASCII and Binary file transfers
6. File types and what they represent
7. FrontPage™ and FTP
8. Dreamweaver and FTP

Ensure Your "homepage" is saved as index.html

It is industry standard, that your "homepage" or "main page" be saved as index.html. If after you type your Domain Name into your web browser and you see a directory listing and not your website, chances are you have not named your main page index.html.

When you access your site by calling it as http://www.mydomain.com, the web server looks for the "index.html" file as the (default file) to be sent to visitors. It's because the server automatically looks for index.html whenever a domain or directory is called without a filename appended to it such as this, http://www.mydomain.com/file.html

If it can't find index.html, it will simply list "your entire web directory" to everyone that access's it, which is a MAJOR security risk! ALWAYS, use an "index.html" file in any directory you create. In general, it's always a good idea to use "index.html" as your main page in "all sub-directories" of your account. Forgetting to place an index.html in your root web, or any subdirectory of your web for that matter will effectively leave all of its contents viewable to the world.

Understanding case sensitivity:

Unlike your local PC, the Unix file system is very particular about "uppercase" and "lowercase" file names.

Unix file servers are exceptionally fussy on this issue, so make sure you pay close attention to "case' when uploading files, or installing and configuring cgi based scripts. The same rule applies for all files including your .html pages. Again, the server treats .html and .HTML as two entirely different files. Want to keep in simple? Try to stick with lowercase letters in all file names and extensions.

What mode should I upload my files with - ASCII or Binary?

Uploading in the wrong format for images or binaries will result in a strange mess appearing in place of the file. For CGI scripts, this mistake has to be the most common cause of that annoying error known as the (Server 500 Error - Malformed Headers), or something to that extent. While this can be the result of many various programming errors, the most popular amongst users are uploading their scripts in the "WRONG" format. Your cgi scripts "MUST" always be uploaded in ASCII mode. Alternatively, if you upload an image or .exe file, it must be done in "BINARY" mode.

The difference between ASCII and BINARY?

In short, html or text based files are supposed to be transferred in ASCII mode. Uploading them in Binary mode will append ^M's to the end of every line. In most cases, this is OK, with html files because your browser will ignore them. BUT, with other text files such as cgi scripts, uploading them in binary will damage them, thus causing a (server 500 error). This is because binary mode has added ^M's to the end of every line, which are not supposed to be in the program. This of course, is what causes the additional message of (Malformed Headers), which often displays at the bottom of the "Server 500" message when a CGI script has crashed.

Once again, BINARY mode is used for transferring executable programs, compressed files and all image/picture files. If you try to upload an image in ASCII mode, you observer a strange mess appearing on the page where the image is suppose to appear. ASCII mode in this case, has corrupted the binary coding in the jpeg or gif image. If this happens, just re-upload it in the Binary format

Setting your FTP client to automatically detect ASCII and Binary file transfers:

Most FTP programs have "AUTO" mode, which will tell the FTP client to automatically detect the file type you're transferring and will select the appropriate mode. By default, most FTP programs will attempt to transfer everything in binary mode, but when "Automatic" is selected, the FTP client will check a list of known ASCII extensions, (for example, .pl, .cgi, .txt). If it detects one of these extensions, it automatically switches to ASCII mode.

By Default, most of the well-known files to be uploaded in ASCII are already entered, however you can manually add additional extensions that you would like to transfer in ASCII mode by selecting the feature called "Extensions." Here, you can any additional extensions that will cause the FTP client to toggle to ASCII mode automatically upon detecting an extension entered in its list. Remember, you must set your transfer mode to "Automatic" for this to work.

File types and what they represent:

Various file types can effect both the behavior of your files, as well as how the server treats them. While there are numerous file extensions, which represent a host of various file types, we'll stick to the basic ones in this quick overview:

The .html file:

This is one is the most commonly used and the most one of you are already familiar with. Html stands for (Hypertext Markup Language). Essentially, it tells the server, as well as the clients browser to process and display the .html coding in a way, which is meaningful to the end user through a browser.

The .htm file:

Many of you have probably noticed this newer extension appearing in place of the traditional .html one. In short, .htm is most often created, and or generated from the Microsoft FrontPage web editor or Macromedia Dreamweaver. The two are essentially the same and provide the same basic purpose. Keep in mind, whenever there are two files named the same, but with different extensions, the .html file will "win" take precedence over .htm. An example is, when using a WYSIWYG editor such as FrontPage or Dreamweaver, the default of course is to save index.htm. You may end up creating a file and saving it index.html. Now you have two files uploaded to your server..two files named index. The one with the .html extension will be the default.

The .gif and .jpg file:

Most commonly used because of its good compression in web page images. Generally, .gif files are the fastest loading, as they remove a lot of information, which is not required to maintain image integrity, but to a point however. .jpg will allow more flexibility in compression and quality settings, however can also result in larger files.

The .CGI and the .pl file:

.cgi and .pl are most often used for perl scripts. Perl scripts are small text based programs, which are executed on the server end, and will perform a host of interactive functions for a web site. In short, when a .pl or .cgi file is called, it tells the server to process it using the "Perl Interpreter." The Perl Interpreter understands the programming within the script, and will perform the set of sub routines, which will yield your desired effect. This desired effect could be anything from a simple web page counter, to more complex programs such as discussion forums, e-commerce platforms, to online auctions. In many cases, you can download these "ready to go" scripts for free, and in others you may have to purchase them. Note: A common error in a PERL script is forgetting to change the permissions on the file to 755

FrontPage and FTP

If you're planning on using Microsoft FrontPage™ to manage your web site, there are a couple of issues things you may want to keep in mind:

There are two worlds. The Unix hosting world, and the Microsoft world. While this is not necessarily a bad thing, Microsoft does play by its own rules. As a result, FrontPage™ does not always conform to the rules of Unix, so you should be extremely careful when accessing a FrontPage™ web via FTP. It's easy to damage the FrontPage™ web, as well as it's associated server extensions, and if it happens, you may loose the ability to administrate it from your FrontPage™ Explorer. To avoid problems like this:

Do not alter, or delete files that are part of a FrontPage™ web
Do delete, move, or alter directories ending in _vtf. These are the FrontPage™ extensions

The ultimate solution:

If you plan to design your website using FrontPage™ ensure that you have the FrontPage™ extensions installed on your server. It is always best to use only FrontPage™ for downloading / uploading your website files. If you use any FTP program you can corrupt the website files. Additionally, if you are using FrontPage™ specific features such as themes, they will not necessarily appear on your live site if you do not publish using FrontPage™.

NOTE: 866GetHost.com does NOT provide technical support on troubleshooting or using FrontPage™.

Dreamweaver and FTP

If you are planning to use Dreamweaver, then you will be able to use any FTP client to upload your files, or you can upload via the built-in FTP client that is part of Dreamweaver. To FTP using Dreamweaver, you will need to edit the "Define Your Site" Properties. Choose FTP from the top drop-down. FTP Host is your Domain Name, withOUT the http://www. Host Directory is the location on your server where you upload your web files to. Username and Password refer to your web hosting server configurations for both your username and password. Need more info?