Creating your Site FAQ

1. What page is loaded when I go to http://www.your-domain.com?
   
2. My site looks good on my hard drive, but after uploading it the images are missing and the links are broken?
   
3. How do I fix it if I didn't name the first file index.html?
   
4. How do I prevent web surfers from viewing the contents of my subdirectories?
   
5. How do I use your stock graphics in my pages?
   
6. How do I create an image map?
   
7. How do I edit my files while they are on the server?
   
8. What is an appropriate file size for HTML files?
   
9. What file types does my Virtual Webserver support?
   
10. What are MIME types?
    

What page is loaded when I go to http://www.your-domain.com?

Our UNIX http servers are configured to read index.html as the default homepage, so people browsing your site can simply type http://www.yourdomain.com rather than having to specify a filename, such as http://www.yourdomain.com/homepage.html

It is strongly advised that you have an index.html file in each directory of your website. Directories without it allow browsing through your files, possibly exposing to public view files not intended for that purpose.

For our Windows NT Customers:

The default pages that can be loaded when someone comes to your Web Site are:

1. default.htm
2. default.html
3. default.asp
4. index.htm
5. index.html
6. index.asp

My site looks good on my hard drive, but after uploading it the images are missing and the links are broken?

Unlike Windows or DOS, UNIX is case sensitive. This means that index.html is different from Index.html, INDEX.HTML and all its various case combinations.

This creates a problem when transferring your site from your hard drive (Windows or DOS) to one of our UNIX servers. It can often result in pages having broken links and missing images.

If you encounter this problem, check to make sure that your hyperlinks in your web pages correspond to the exact filenames on your website. If they do not match, you can either modify your hyperlinks in your web pages or rename your files with an FTP program so they match your hyperlinks.

Please note that if you are referring to your pages with a .htm extension in your hyperlinks, make sure the filename actually ends with a .htm extension.

If you are referring to your pages with .html extension in your hyperlinks, make sure the filename actually ends with a .html extension.

Another problem encountered is that you are referring to web pages and images on your hard disk. For example,

<a href="c:/webpage/welcome.htm">My Web Site</a>

The above hyperlink should be replaced with the one below it:

<a href="welcome.htm">My Web Site</a>

How do I fix it if I didn't name the first file index.html?

The server is also configured to look for these files in the following order, index.htm, welcome.html, home.html, index.shtml. If your first page is not any of these, rename the file to one of the above with this command:

mv some_filename.html index.html

For help with the mv command click here

How do I prevent web surfers from viewing the contents of my subdirectories?

If you are hosted on a UNIX server, place a file called index.html within the subdirectory that you don't want viewed. Instead of a file listing being displayed, index.html will be displayed.

If you are hosted on a NT server, place a file called default.htm within the subdirectory that you don't want viewed. Instead of a file listing being displayed, default.htm will be displayed.

How do I create an image map?

For a good step by step guide to making image maps visit the NCSA Image Map Tutorial listed in our resources section.

How do I edit my files while they are on the server?

Once you are logged into the server with a telnet program you have a choice of using "pico" by typing:

pico your_file.html

Internet Wb Gatewayalso supports vi, emacs, joe, and jed.

What is an appropriate file size for HTML files?

When people browse your home page, it's important to remember that they might be on a slower 14.4kbs modem. Hence, to download 100K of file and graphics, it takes a little over 60 seconds at that speed.

Here's some suggestions to alleviate this problem:

1. Split your home page to a few separate pages.
2. Reduce the graphic size by shrinking the image size.
3. Save photographs as .jpg files with about 85% compression ratio.
4. Save images with mostly solid colors using .gif compression.
5. Experiment with reducing the number of colors in your gif files.

What file types does my Virtual Webserver support?

We have configured the http server to support all mime types. If a browser or plug-in can read it, you can serve it. See also: What are MIME types?

What are MIME types?

MIME is an acronym for Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions, an Internet Standard for representing multipart and multimedia data in email. The WWW server informs the WWW browser which file type is being sent using a similar MIME configuration file.

When new software is released for WWW, the MIME configuration file has to be updated before the server will handle that software's file. If the server does not recognise a particular file you are using, please Contact Internet Web Gateway Support with the Subject: MIME configuration plus the location (URL) of that software's home page and a staff member will add in the configuration.