How do I get my site online?

[Rosie]

Hi,

I've recently bought a domain name and a hosting package, through doteasy.com. I bought a template online and have added my information to it using dreamweaver. How do I get my web template from dreamweaver on to the internet?

Thank you,

Rosie

[JimC]

You will need to log in to your hosting service (control panel) and find something that says "FTP" and obtain the FTP login information.

Then download an FTP program such as SmartFTP(SmartFTP - FTP Client).

Enter your FTP login information in to the program, then transfer the files to the server.

Hope that's clear enough. o_o

[Caveman Joe]

DreamWeaver should be able to FTP your site up to the server, too.

[Lil Chris]

Dreamweaver can do it for you... I use smart FTP (it's free) there's also filezilla (free as well)

Your hosting provider should have gave you the FTP (File Transfer Protocol) info when you signed up with them...

[ellie]

Also make sure you change your dns server settings from your domain registra to you hosting co, this can take a couple of days to propergate.

Once you've done that you can do what everyone else suggested, but to see your front page of your website, you usually need to have an index.html in the main directory.

I use fetch (on my mac) very simple, just enter domain name, username and password that your host has provided.

ps - if you want to do it in dreamweaver you go to site>new site> enter in details

[Rosie]

When I try to upload it using dreamweaver it tells me there is an ftp error. What does this mean? I just got my site about 24 hours ago.

[Caveman Joe]

That's not a terribly helpful error message. Did it mention what sort of FTP error it was?

[ellie]

in the what is your host name ftp area, type your web address such as http://ww.yourdomain.com

In the folder section area don't type in anything or delete information if there's something already in there.

[Rosie]

Okay thanks guys


I have a new problem now. It won't let me upload pictures on to my site. all that shows up are these little question mark things. It's really confusing. Does anyone know why this happened and how to fix it?

Thanks a lot,

Rosie

[Caveman Joe]

That'll be a paths issue. Right-click on the broken image and select View Image or Image Properties. That'll tell you the address of the image. If it's not at that address, it won't show up.
Gonna tell us the URL of this site, then?

[SecretSeven]

**********

[Rosie]

it's georgetowndaycare.ca - I can't right click, I have a mac. Maybe I should just go to the tech office at my school. This seems too complicated for me to fix on my own.

[ixmatus]

Rosie, on a Mac if you press 'Ctrl' on your keyboard and click with the mouse button at the same time, it is the equivalent of 'right clicking'.

Edit:

As for your images not showing up, there are only two possible explanations for it:

A) they are not uploaded (double check! I have pulled that one wayyyy too many times)
B) the path's are incorrect.

In your HTML a path will look like this:

<img alt="" src="some/image/on/computer" />

In Dreamweaver, if you added in an image that was outside of the website folder (for example, you chose an image that is in your personal 'images' folder) then the 'src' attribute for the image will be pointing to THAT directory which doesn't exist on the server (but it does on your home computer)! Best thing to do there is to make a folder inside the website folder called 'images', move your images into there then add them into your template with Dreamweaver FROM that folder.

Hope that helps.

[Caveman Joe]

Yup, your images are pointing to some area on your hard drive:
file:///Macintosh%20HD/Users/Kuenobueno/Desktop/4072/without_fl/html/images/girl.gif

The path should be:
Powered by: Doteasy - Bannerless Free Web Hosting and Email for Small Business and Individual

Or, in the code:

/images/girl.gif

For a simple site, you should have the following folder structure:

logs
mivadata
public_html ->
-------------| index.html
-------------|-> images ->
-------------|............|-girl.gif
-------------|............|-spacer.gif
-------------|............|-b1.gif
-------------|............|-txt-wel.gif
-------------|............|-other_images.etc
-------------| about_us.html
-------------| contact_us.html
cgi-bin
.htaccess
php.ini
other_folders_and_files_that_probably_won't_matter _to_you_worth_a_jot

The Internet is different from your home computer. You're not using Windows or OSX, you're using Linux (in 99.9% of cases). So, that means no spaces or capital letters in your filenames. If you have to use something that looks like a space, use _. Don't use capital letters at all in paths, it's a bad practice that'll give you problems later on (referencing a picture, for example - /images/girl.gif won't display anything if the actual path is /images/Girl.gif, so you drive yourself nuts trying to remember which filenames are capitalised and how).

PM me if you'd like some help in building the site. My rates are very reasonable.

[Rosie]

"Yup, your images are pointing to some area on your hard drive:
file:///Macintosh%20HD/Users/Kuenobueno/Desktop/4072/without_fl/html/images/girl.gif

The path should be:
Powered by: Doteasy - Bannerless Free Web Hosting and Email for Small Business and Individual"

How do I change the path on my pictures so that they show up on the site?

[Lil Chris]

If you are if fact using dreamweaver, we should start there setting it up properly by designating the site and setting up the server settings so you can use the ftp function, this will also make link checking and other functions possible in the future...

[Rosie]

I'm so confused.

[Rosie]

I'm in a rush trying to get this site done because my free trial of dreamweaver expires in 3 days!! then all my work will be lost

[Lil Chris]

Originally Posted by Rosie

I'm in a rush trying to get this site done because my free trial of dreamweaver expires in 3 days!! then all my work will be lost

Don't worry, No nothing will be lost... You just won't be able to use dreamweaver, that's all...

Sorry, I thought you had or we're going to use dreamweaver (the full version, not the trial)...

We can get this straightened out... Do you use any Instant messenger services... ie. AOL Instant Messenger, Google talk, yahoo IM...

I'll have some time this evening to walk you through it if you want...

[Rosie]

That would be great Honestly that would help so much. I have msn - kueno_bueno@hotmail.com (kueno underscore bueno @ hotmail.com)

[Lil Chris]

If i see that you come online in IM i'll send you a message... It'll be from platinumtease (pt studio), I'll get you set up...