Contents:

How to Set up Your Web Site
You need to have your web site made and the files on your computer. These are the .html files and the graphics files which make up your site. If you do not have these already, and do not know how to make them, we suggest you research the internet for some of the thousands of sites that will show you how to make your web site.

You can make your web site in a simple program like notepad (which is on your computer already), or you can download an HTML editor (dreamweaver, pagemill, frontpage, etc.) If you do not know anything about making web pages at all, you will need to do a little research on your own before proceeding. Again, we suggest you start with a search engine and try queries like, "web page tutorial," "making web pages," etc.

If you are using FrontPage, you will need to configure it to work with our servers. Please see the FrontPage Quick Start.

Transferring Files
Once you have your files made and saved on your computer, you need an FTP client to upload them. We suggest you use WS_FTP. If you don't have it already, you can download it by clicking here.

You will need 3 pieces of information from us to upload your website (these come to you in the welcome letter when you first signed up):

  • Host Address: you will log in using ftp.yourdomain.com as the host address.
  • Username: Your username will generally be the first eight letters of your domain name, minus the www. and minus the .com, .net, or .org extension. In the event there is a dash in your domain name, your username is the characters before the dash.
  • Password: Your password for uploading files is the same as that for logging into your control panel, which is at the bottom of the welcome letter that was sent out to you. If you do not have a password, or have changed it at the control panel and already forgot what it is you changed it to,  please contact support.
WS_FTP Tutorial
Step 1: On startup, Ws_ftp displays the Session Properties dialog box.
The Profile Name is any name you wish to give the Ws_ftp profile. The Host
Address is your domain name with ftp. in front of it (ftp.acmesupply.com), along
with your User Name and Password. The Host Type is Automatic detect. Click the
Ok button when you are done entering your info.

Step 2: After Ws_ftp is logged-in, double-click on the pages directory. This is
your root level directory, and where you will publish your pages to. Probably the
first thing you will want to do is create your default document. This should have a file
name of index.html.

The left window shows the files and directories on your computer, and the right
window shows what's on the remote host. Select a file and use the arrow buttons to
move files to and from the server.

Remember:
1.    The pages directory is your root directory.
2.    All CGI scripts must go in the cgi-bin directory.

ASCII vs Binary

  • text based files get uploaded in ascii mode (.txt, .doc, .html, .cgi)
  • non text based files are uploaded in binary mode (.jpg, .gif, .exe, .mdb, .zip)
If you are not using FrontPage, once you've connected you'll have to change to the pages directory to upload your files. If you upload without doing this you will not see the updates in your browser (nor will anyone else!).

If you are using FrontPage, you will need to configure it to work with our servers. Please see the FrontPage Quick Start.

User Name & Password

It is a good idea to print out the username and password sent to you in your welcome and instructions letter. This information is needed not only to upload pages, but to log into your control panel and manage your account.

Setting up Email

  • Log into the Control Panel with your username and password.
  • If you already have an email account with your present ISP and want to keep using it, you can just have your mail forwarded to that account. Click the "Email Aliases" tab and add the aliases you want to use with your domain name (eg. info). Then put your present email address in the "Forwards To" field. s
  • If you want to have your mail come to our mail server and bypass your ISP's mail server, click the "Pop3 Accounts" tab and enter all the accounts and their passwords. These passwords will be used when you set up your email client.
  • Read the email tutorials for configuring your email program to download mail.
Account Management

In order to manage your account please go to the Account Management section. Here you may change the password on your account, configure your email aliases, configure your POP3 accounts, make payments, check payment history, and change your billing contact information.