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  Online Technical Support Area  
     

We offer free and unlimited technical support to help you get the most from your new web-site. 

If you have any questions or run into any problems, contact us at the address below.  It doesn't matter how basic (or complex!) the question -  we're here to help! You'll find the answers to the most common questions that we encounter in our online guide, so do take a look.

We are normally able to respond immediately, and in any case will do so within a few hours.

Technical Support:   support@websitehost.co.uk

 

User Guide -  a few of the most frequent questions:

How do I publish my website?
I've uploaded my site, but I can only see your default page!
How do I use my e-mail account, or set up e-mail forwarding?
CGI Questions & our Installation service
Where are my site statistics and how do I use them

How do I publish my website?

Using FrontPage:

  • Ask us to install the FrontPage Server Extensions for you if you haven't already (there is no charge for this).
  • Make sure that your home page is called index.html -  or that you have deleted this page on your server using FTP
  • Click on the publish button (you may have to select 'more webs' in the dialog that follows.
  • Enter the name of your website -  e.g. www.mysite.co.uk
  • A window will appear that contains an extry called <root web> -  select this
  • Remember that usernames and passwords are case-sensitive
  • Your website will now be updated

Using FTP:

  • We recommend a graphical FTP program -  such as WinFTP Pro
  • Remember that usernames and passwords are case-sensitive
  • Set up an FTP connection to:  ftp.yoursite.co.uk (substitute youe site name... e.g. ftp.test.co.uk) and for a non-graphical FTP client, type: CD /web/
  • For a graphical client, set the startup directory to: /web/ (remember the / at the end) - this is the best way. Or click on the .. folders which appear until you see the directories: logs, users, web and then double click on web.
  • If you do not set a start-up directory or navigate to /web/, you will be publishing to /users/yourusername/web/ which is incorrect.  You need to be publishing to /web/ for the published content to be visible.
  • Or:  click on the  ..  folders which appear until you get there
  • Now copy your website across

I've uploaded my site, but I can only see your default page!

One of the following problems:

  • Try pressing the refresh/reload button in your browser. Your Web Browser running on your PC maintains a cache (store) of your recently visited pages to speed up operation. Unless you do this, even if you have just uploaded a new page, it will often show you the old version, reading it from your local hard-disk.
  • If you published using FrontPage, you didn't select <root web> -  try again!
  • If you published using FTP, you published to /users/yourusername/web by accident.  This is the location that you'll first come to unless you set a startup directory as above, or navigate to the right place, which is /web/
  • In either case, your homepage must be named index.html -  or you must delete this default page from the server first.

How do I use my e-mail account, or set up e-mail forwarding?

  • By default, your account will have been set up so that all mail is collected and forwarded to your chosen current e-mail address which you supplied on the form.
  • If you want to collect mail directly from the server using POP3, you need to set up your e-mail program as follows, and then remove off the e-mail forwarding using your web control panel.
  • Your POP3 server is:  www.yoursite.co.uk  This server will allow you to collect mail only.
  • Your login name and password are the same as your web site login/password combination
  • To change your e-mail forwarding address, simply send us the address you want your mail forwarded to and we'll do the rest, or you can make these changes yourself using your web-control panel - take a look at the instructions here
  • To send outgoing mail from an address at your new domain - e.g. info@yoursite.co.uk - you will still use your dial-up ISP's mail servers. You simply need to change the settings in your e-mail program. For example, in Microsoft Outlook, you should create a new mail account with exactly the same settings as your main e-mail account provided by your dial-up internet connection provider, and simply change the e-mail address and reply-to address to info@yoursite.co.uk

CGI Questions

  • CGI scripts may be placed anywhere on your site -  they don not have to be in a cgi-bin directory, but must be named  .pl or .cgi   You may still want to have a cgi-bin directory for neatness -  that's ok, just create one.
  • Path to Perl 5 is:  /usr/bin/perl
  • Path to sendmail is /usr/lib/sendmail
  • Path to your site is /home/sites/www.yoursite.co.uk/web/
  • CGI scripts must be uploaded in ASCII mode not BINARY mode. You will need to use a correctly set-up FTP program to do this.
  • CGI scripts execute under CGIWrap, but you may still use a module like CGI::Carp with the fatalsToBrowser to help debug.
  • It's always worth trying to run your script from the shell to see what it's really doing.
  • You need to set the permissions on the script to 755 for it to work.
  • Similarly, check that any files/folders the script needs to read/write have the correct access permissions.
  • Please note whilst we'll happily help out with any issues related to the service that we are providing you with, WE CAN'T help you with script-specific questions - e.g. 'I just downloaded the xxxx script and it doesn't work!!'. You should attempt to seek help from the author, or alternatively you may need to learn a little more about the programming language in which the script has been developed. We are however able to provide qualified programmers to assist you - send an e-mail to our support address, with as much detail as you can, for a quote.

CGI Programs can help you make your site more interesting -  they allow you to generate pages dynamically, and can add features such as:

  • Databases -  of products or information
  • Mail reply forms -  for people to send you information
  • Bulletin boards & discussion areas
  • Live chat sessions between your users
  • Clocks and time-of-day greetings -  like 'Good Morning/Afternoon'
  • Surveys and voting
  • Link management and banner advertising
  • Site Guest books and mailing lists
  • Access logging and referrer information -  find out who's visiting your site, and where they came from.  For example, if they did a web-search, what keywords did they type to find you?

Many such programs (scripts) are available for free download from the web.   They're relatively easy to install, though may need some modification, by experienced users.

For a small fee, we can source and install scripts that you want on your site.   This is a one-off charge.  If there's something that you want to be able to do, or maybe you have already seen the script that you need, send an e-mail to our support address for a quote.

We can also write specific applications for you -  again, let us know what you are looking for and we'll provide cost information.

Where are my site statistics and how do I use them?

Your site statistics are available as follows:

  • Type this address into your web browser: www.yoursite.co.uk/siteadmin and enter your username and password
  • Click on the 'web useage' icon
  • For more details on the available options and samples, click here

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