Step by Step Instructions for Creating Your Homepage

In order to create a personal web page, you need to make sure of the following:

Here's how you do it!

Step One: If you have never had a webpage on the homepages server before, you must allow the server to set up your webspace for you by logging in to the server via FTP at least once. The easiest way to do this is:

• Open a DOS window (Start -> Run -> enter "cmd" in the dialog box -> OK
• In the DOS window, type "ftp homepages.udayton.edu"
• At the Username prompt, enter their LDAP/Novel username
• At the Password prompt, enter their LDAP/Novel password
• At the "ftp> " prompt, type "bye"
• Close the DOS window by typing "exit" or via the "X" button in the upper right corner of the window.

Of course if you are on a Mac, it should be even easier. Just open an operating system window and type ftp homepages.udayton.edu. Login with your LDAP/Novell username and password. After all the text is through streaming by, type "bye".

Step Two: Create your web pages with whatever web editing program you feel comfortable. Some people use Windows Notepad, others will use something a little more complex like Microsoft FrontPage. If you want some info on how to create a page, scroll down to the bottom of this document. There are some handy links to get you started.

Very Important: Make sure that the filename of your main page is called index.html or index.htm. Anything else will cause you trouble. This just concerns the first page. You can call any secondary pages whatever you like.

Also Note: When making your webpages, make sure the filenames are all in lowercase. To our web server "INDEX.HTM" is completely different from "index.htm". This goes for graphics, and secondary pages as well.

Step Three: Transfer your pages to the web server.

You access your personal web page account with your LDAP/Novell user account. In other words, it's the same username and password you use when you login to the network or to address.udayton.edu. (REMEMBER! Whenever you have to change your LDAP password, the web account also changes.)

This is the information you'll need for your FTP/web publishing program. This example is using a sample username of "username":

Hostname: homepages.udayton.edu
Username: username
Homepage: http://homepages.udayton.edu/~username/

Some programs like Netscape Gold will need to know the entire directory where your homepages are kept, which is always the "/public_html" directory. Continuing with the "username" example....

Directory:  /public_html

When you connect to homepages with FTP, you'll need to login with your username and password. Once there, simply switch to your "public_html" directory if you haven't already, and then transfer your webpages there. Each type of FTP program has a different way to send files, so look at the online help that it comes with for a better understanding on how to do that.

You MUST put your files in the public_html directory or a directory in that one. If you put your files in the "/" directory they WILL NOT SHOW. You must also name your first page one of these filenames, and filenames are CaSE-SENsiTIvE!

index.html   index.htm   default.html   default.htm

Homepages.udayton.edu is also Microsoft FrontPage enabled. After creating your webpage with FrontPage, all you need to do to publish it is fill in your username and password where it asks you to and hit the publish button. For more help with frontpage please consult the Microsoft Help pages that can be accessed through the Help option on the top toolbar of FrontPage.

Here are more specific instructions for publishing web pages with the following programs:

Netscape Gold (Any operating system)

WS-FTP (Windows Any Flavor)

Fetch (Macintosh users)

Microsoft FrontPage (Windows Any Flavor)

Don't forget! You need to copy files to your "public_html" directory, or they won't show up!

Step Three: Now that you've transferred your web pages to the web server, they are online! Just use your favorite web browser, and take a look at them. The URL for your homepage is in the format of: http://homepages.udayton.edu/~username/

Just replace "username" with your own username, and that's your address.

Once your page is online, you will be listed on our main homepage directory (http://homepages.udayton.edu/.) This is updated nightly, so it will not appear right away. If you don't see yourself listed after 24 hours, make sure you called your homepage file "index.html" or "index.htm." It won't be listed unless you do that.

One final note: Each user is limited to 25 megabytes of data. If you reach your limit, you will not be able to add any new files. In that case, you'll have to remove some files to free up some space. This limit is in effect because of the large number of users who can have web pages, and because of disk space limitations.

If you have any trouble with these instructions, please give Network Services a call at (937)229-3888 during normal business hours. We'll be happy to help you get your pages online, but please understand that we cannot help you create your pages. The creative part is up to you! :-)

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