Uploading Files to generate the website

NOTE: This section assumes you know how to access your control panel.

0 Definitions:

Uploading is moving a copy of a file on your computer to ours, where your web site will be located.

Downloading is moving a copy of a file from our computer to yours. (You should not normally have to do this, as you will keep the original on your machine, and do all editing on it there.)

I Create your web site:

II Put your files on the system

You have three choices.

Method A: (Only if you use Front Page to create your pages.)

1. Sign on to your control panel, or go to its home page.
2. Look for the command Frontpage Extensions.
3. Ensure that these are turned on. Do this only once, then do not use this command again.
4. Use Front Page to place the files you create directly on the web site. You will have to supply your user name and password, and the URL of your site.
5. Do not under any circumstances mix this method with methods two and three.

Method B: (Control Panel File Manager)

1. Sign on to your control panel, or go to its home page.
2. Look for the command FileManager. In the BlueLagoon theme it is at the top of the page in its own box. In other themes it may be listed under the site management section. Click on this.
3. A window will show all the folders in your account, with a trash can at the right. Make no changes here.
4. Click on the icon (not the word) for the folder "www" or the icon for "public_html" (both are the same; the former is an alias for the latter.)
5. A new window will show the folders inside public_html. You will know you are in the right place if the first item in the list says "/ public_html / (Current Folder)". If not, perhaps you clicked on the word public_html, rather than the icon. This folder is where you will put your web site files.
   NOTE: While you are doing all this, if you get into the wrong folder, you can "back up" by clicking on the folder icon (or the words) that say "up one level".
6. When you are sure you are in the folder public_html, click on "upload file(s)". You will get a window with a lot of boxes for file names, each with a "Browse" button beside it.
7. For each file you want to upload, click on a the "Browse" button next to an empty text box.
8. A dialog box comes up for your computer. Navigate to the file you want to upload from your computer to the new web site and select it.
9. The name of the file will appear in the upload box beside the browse button. Each file you want to upload should be in a different box.
10. You probably want to check the box on the bottom, the one labelled "Overwrite existing files".
11. Click the "upload" button.
12. When the web site browser window re-forms, if all goes well, you should see a line near the top right of the window reading "Upload Status: filename: upload succeeded, overwrote old file." If not, check what it does say. You may have forgotten to click the button allowing it to overwrite old files.
13. Repeat for other files you need to upload, perhaps into subdirectories of the main www folder. You will note near the top of the directory window an icon/command for creating subdirectories in the one you are currently browsing. You can easily do this; just make sure that you select the subdirectory and are looking inside it before you upload to it.
14. When you are all finished working with uploading, you can return to the FileManager with the current folder displayed by clicking the appropriate link at the bottom of the page or by clicking the close box for this window (a box with an x in it somewhere on the page).
15. Files placed in error can be selected by clicking on their name (not their icon) and then trashed by using the menu near the trash can. Files trashed in error can be recovered if you have not emptied the trash.

Method C: (FTP)

1. Obtain an FTP program. These are usually free or very inexpensive. If you don't know what these are, ask a knowledgeable friend to help you and show you how to run your software.
2. Run the FTP program and start an FTP session. You should get a window with up to four text boxes, probably labelled something like:
     a. server Before your domain name resolves, type ftp.ipAddress in this form ftp.xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx using the IP address of the server (not of the account) that we gave you (there is a special IP for FTP only) (or, after the site is "live", you can instead type ftp.mydomain.com (whatever its name is). Some programs may allow you to omit the ftp part of this URL.
     b. path Here, type www (or leave this blank, or do nothing about this if the box is not present.)
     c. user Place your user name from the top of the welcome message in this text box.
     d. password Provide the password we gave you at the top of this message, or the one you have since changed it to, if you have done that.
   NOTE 1: Some FTP programs may bring up one or more boxes after you give the site name or address to obtain items b, c, d. The first time you access the site, an SFTP program will bring up a box asking if it is OK to accept the security certificate. Say "yes" either by typing it (if that's what it asks) or by clicking the appropriate button.
   NOTE 2: If you have set up additional FTP users via the control panel, note carefully what the list of FTP users on that page of your control panel says. If any of these users sign on with an FTP client, they must give their user name exactly as displayed there. This could be in the form userid or in the form userid@mydomain.com (just like an email address). Files for such users are stored in subdirectories of the main web pages. Also note that there is only one control panel per account. You do not get additional control panels for FTP users or subdomains that you add.
3. When all this information is filled in, press the "go" button. (It may be labelled "list", but the action button is usually outlined or highlighted in some way.)
4. You should now be looking at the directory mydomain.com/www. If so, go to the next step. If not, perhaps you didn't type the directory information ahead of time, so instead, you are looking at mydomain.com. In this case choose www or public_html (which is the same place) so you are in that directory.
5. Most systems will allow you to drag your files from the desktop into the web site directory represented by the window you now have open for mydomain.com/www. It may already have some files in it, such as index.html, but you will be replacing this with your own file by this name. If it already has an images folder, and you have images in a folder of the same name, put yours inside the existing images folder. You should be able to select them all from your own desktop and drop them in. Likewise, if you have cgi programs, place them in the cgi-bin folder. Or, follow such other uploading instructions as your FTP of SFTP program may employ.
6. When you are done, check the results by going to your browser and bringing up the site by typing in the IP number xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/~theuserID or, after the registrar changes have taken effect and the site is "live" by typing just mydomain.com or www.mydomain.com You (and everyone else) should see your own index page, and be able to use your web site.
7. If you place any files in the cgi-bin folder you need to change the permissions to make them executable. If you don't know what this means, don't do it. If you do, use the File Manager from the control panel as described above to navigate to the cgi-bin folder, click on the file in question and set the permissions (menu near the trash icon) to 755 (all three boxes checked in the first column, and the first and last boxes checked in the other two columns). You do NOT need shell access to do this, so don't ask.
8. For more detailed instructions and other options, see the documentation page for cPanel, a link to which can be found at the bottom of the control panel page.