using your webspace
The following information is provided because we take the creation and maintenance
of your web pages as seriously as you do. We hope this will help you to get
started.
If you are coming in cold to the creation of pages and html coding there is going to be a learning curve that only you can master. Take your time, check out the links we offer, fine-tune your html code and if you get stumped send along a query to Webmaster.
Enjoy!
Keep backups of your web files!
We do not guarantee the availability of files for restoration from server backups—always make sure you maintain local copies of all files pertaining to your website.
SQL database access and SSIs (Server Side Includes), excepting
the EXEC include, are also supported for those with the appropriate level
of service. Accessing MySQL requires that a SQL Directory be part of
your account's features. Contact Accounts if you need to add this (as
one of your free options or as a separate purchase). SSIs require nothing
additional—see the NCSA
HTTPd site for a good reference on SSI.
Our customers also may generate their own CGI
scripts. Again, to gain access to this service one must have a
Virtual Web Address for a domain hosted by SoVerNet, and the Custom
CGI feature needs to be part of the account’s services. Information
on user-generated scripts can be found on our
scripts help page.
If you are interested in generating your own CGI scripts, this page
will be an invaluable resource. Please keep in mind that we do not
provide technical support for, nor troubleshoot, user-created CGI scripts.
Many scripts can be found at the CGI
Resource Index. This is an archive of some of the available resources
on the Internet for CGI. There are pre-made scripts such
as message boards, shopping carts, calendars, clocks and many more.
There are also sections on documentation and books. It is an outstanding
reference for CGI needs.
The FormMail.pl script was designed to email the contents of a
web form to an address specified by the person creating the form and
is the most flexible and useful CGI script available to you (via SoVerNet).
The configuration of this script is restricted
only by your imagination. There is information about configuring your
forms to use the FormMail.pl script at the web site of the script’s
author.
[Note:
Since April 24, 2001, SoVerNet’s FormMail script complies with rules
that bind our other mail services (see the April 24, '01 Notice). What
this means for you as a user of FormMail is that you will not be able to use
FormMail to have your form’s responses emailed directly to non-SoVerNet
addresses unless the address in question is an address at a SoVerNet-hosted
domain.
Those of you whose scripts are set up to email responses to either a SoVerNet address or to a domain hosted by SoVerNet, will not be affected.
If your script was constructed, or needs to be constructed, to send a form’s responses to an address outside our network, we can provide a SoVerNet email address to receive the FormMail messages, and then forward those responses from that address to your desired non-SoVerNet address. Contact webmaster@sover.net if you wish to have this set up.]
Our FormMail example page can be found here.
For those of you who’d like to use javascript on your pages,
take a look at http://javascript.internet.com/.
You can check stats for basic webserver accounts ("www.sover.net/~username/") on our Stats page.
Multi-User level and up accounts, who have registered
a domain name, can select Virtual Web Addressing (for example: http://www.example.com)
as one of the account’s free options. This service is also available
to Single-User/Residential DSL/Small Business DSL ccounts as an Additional
Service. VWAs are available in 3 configurations, see our Hosting/Web
Services page for details. For all customers with Virtual Web Addressing,
we offer stats through our password protected Enhanced Virtual Stats
page (www.example.com/stats where "example.com" is
replaced by your domain name). Contact webmaster for more info, webmaster@sover.net .
And, an excellent site structured to answer all questions relative to the Analog stats program (used on the Virtual Webserver for www.example.com-type sites) can be found at their site.
If you are planning on incorporating your URL address into your advertising you may want to consider virtual addressing. To add virtual addressing to your account, contact Accounts.
If you wish to register a domain name or transfer your domain to us,
see our Domain Registration page, or contact hostmaster .
While we do not design or create pages, we will do our best to point you in the right direction to locate books and resources on the Web. Below are a few helpful links:
There also are a multitude of email discussion lists and newsgroups
that are great HTML resources...check out the Topica lists.
To access news groups you must use a "newsreader." If you have any problem
configuring your newsreader, contact our Technical
Support Team.
If you have not already done so, take some time and browse the three lists of SoVerNet home pages. There is the list of individuals (the Personal Pages Index), the Business Index, and the Index of Non-Profit and Educational Organizations.
Remember that most browsers have the option to View Source,
this will show you the HTML code that made the page you are looking at.
Look at what our other customers have done and useView Source to
see how they have done it.
eBay
If you are interested in placing graphics on the web so they can be viewed/accessed
by eBay customers, you need only FTP graphics files
to the www directory created for your Personal (or Virtual) Web account.
No index.html file is required in this (and only this!)
instance. A Personal Web account is one of the free options available to
all full Internet accounts, or it can be added separately if your free options
are all used. A Virtual Web account is available to Multi-User and up accounts
as a freebie option, or can be added as a separately purchased feature to
any full Internet account. See the Hosting/Web
Services for details on the
3 VWA configurations available.
Once the image files are properly in place, they will be visible via
a url of, for example, <http://www.sover.net/~username/example.jpg> —obviously, username will
be replaced with your username and example will be replaced
with the actual name of your graphic file. Remember, to do this
you must be familiar with the FTP process.
Steps to creating a “Home Page.”
1. Create your HyperText Markup Language (HTML) files using
any text editor. Specialized Web authoring software is not required,
though some people choose to use it. Most web browsers have a “view
source” option
where the HTML code for the page you are looking at can be viewed.
Establish an FTP connection to the web server.
- The address for the basic web server, for /~username accounts, is www.sover.net
- Virtual web server accounts (i.e.: those with a registered domain
name and a www. URL) go to: webhost.sover.net
For Windows users, WS_FTP is a popular FTP client program; for Mac users, Fetch is an old & favored program. Both are available through the TUCOWS site, and you’ll find others there as well.
With an FTP client program, just connect to www.sover.net (or webhost.sover.net if Virtual)
Connecting to the web server (with your username and password) will
land you in your home (“/”) directory on the webserver. With
an FTP client program, the www directory should be visible.
Select the www directory (double-click to open, if necessary),
then choose the files on your computer that you created in step 1. In
most cases, you can drag and drop just as if moving files between 2 folders
on your hard drive.
The top-level file in your www. directory must be named 'index.html'
or 'index.htm' (or 'index.shtml' if using SSI on the Virtual server—without
the quotes in all cases). Be sure all the files you upload go into the
directory called www in your home directory on the web server.
NOTE: Be sure the text files you upload are plain text files, and be
sure other files (like GIFs (.gif) or JPEGs (.jpg) ) are in an appropriately
generic format that they will be readable by all browsers.
Virtual domain customers—Note that the Virtual Web
server features enhanced scripting capabilities (Custom
CGI, PHP4, SSI,
Perl, MySQL ), password protected directories (with radius authentication,
or without) and lays the groundwork for future enhancements. Custom
CGI and MySQL are services added individually to your account. PHP, Perl,
and SSI are capabilities of the virtual server]
Personal Web sites have a Uniform Resource Locater (URL) of: http://www.sover.net/~userid/
where “userid” is your SoVerNet user name.
Virtual Web customers—the URL will
be the name of your registered domain, e.g.: http://www.example.com
NOTE: You must have a file called index.html (or .htm, or.shtml) which
will be the first file that comes up when your URL is accessed. If it is not
there, or not EXACTLY titled index... (lowercase only) the
browser will display an error.
When you’re done, email Webmaster and
indicate whether you are requesting to be linked to the Personal Pages,
Business, or Non-Profit Index. Please include enough info
so we can write the link without having to recontact you. You can view
the indexes to familiarize yourself with the formats. You can request
a link on any one of the indexes, or the Personal Pages Index and either
the Busines Index or the Non-Profit Index as appropriate. Please look
at the indexes so you know what they are. All three are linked to the Home
Portal, Tools, and to the Web
Services page, among others. A small graphic, and a short text link
can be included. The graphic should be small (a height of 35 pixels and
a width of 100 pixels). Please don’t send the graphic itself to
us, just tell us WHERE the graphic is and we will link to it (if you
move or delete the graphic, your index link will show the ‘broken image.’
If you want to replace it, give the new image the exact same name.
For example: “http://www.sover.net/~username/images/logo.GIF.”
- The Personal Pages Index can be found here.
Listing in the Personal Pages Index is by Real Name and Username.
- The Business Index can be found here.
Note, if you are requesting a link on the Business Index we'll need some
info on what to say. The text should not be qualitative. (Example: “Joe’s
Diner, Southern VT Cuisine” not “Joe’s Diner The Best
Southern VT Cuisine in the World”).
- The Non-Profit Index can be found here. A list in this index is appropriate for schools and other non-profit entities. Guidelines are basically the same as for the commercial index.
Good luck! And, Happy HTMLing....
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