Support F.A.Q

Here is a quick list to find what you are looking for: 
Getting Started - Naming Your Pages - Uploading your pages - How to get an FTP program - Common Problems -  Statistics - CGI-PERL - Form Mailer - MySQL Database - phpMyAdmin - PHP - Telnet - Making Backups - Transferring a domain name

Email Administration is a separate topic

GETTING STARTED:

To make your new website "live", you need to upload your web page files and images to our server.  Refer to the email confirmation you received when your account was setup for your user name and password.  Also note that the location for your web pages on the server is the domains/website_name/public_html directory. 

You can use an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) program to send (upload) your files to the server.  Your web design program (FrontPage, etc) may perform this function.  Free versions of popular FTP programs can be found everywhere.  

We have instructions here for obtaining and using WS_FTP LE for your convenience.  You are free to use any of the popular FTP programs.  Refer to the instructions for the program of your choice for information on configuring and using FTP.

Some web design programs like FrontPage include the FTP function and may refer to this as "publishing" your website.   You must enable "FrontPage Extensions" in your control panel before using FrontPage to "publish" your website.

There is more information on uploading at Site Helper.  See: http://www.site-helper.com/uploading.html

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NAMING YOUR PAGES: 

You MUST make sure that you name your main page "index" (not Index).  Depending on your web page design program, your pages all have an extension like .htm, .html, .shtml, .PHP etc.  The most common extension is .htm or .html other types of extensions perform specific functions on the server.  Your main or home page file should look like index.htm or index.html.

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FTP INSTRUCTIONS

UPLOADING WEBPAGES TO YOUR WEBSITE:

Your web pages must be stored in the domains/website_name/public_html directory on the server.  When you upload your web pages be sure your are in the public_html directory.  

After you upload your pages, check your website with your browser (Internet Explorer, Netscape, etc.).  If your website isn't working after upload, chances are you have not done one or both of these two important steps.

Also note that the server looks for an index.html (or other extension) in your public_html directory.  If you see an error message in your browser: "Forbidden - you do not have permission to access (whatever) on this server", the index file is missing or misnamed.

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HOW TO GET AND USE WS FTP LE

1. Download WS_FTP LE from http://www.download.com (do a search for "WS_FTP LE")

2. Install WS_FTP LE on your PC

3. Click on the button labeled "NEW", to create your new FTP account and login.

COMMON PROBLEMS:

1. Your main page won't work.  Upon further inspection, it is named index.html.html or index.html.htm or Index.htm etc.  Your main page must be named index and have a .htm, .html, .php, .php4, shtml, or .phtml extension.

2. None of your graphics are showing up.  Upon further inspection, the link to your graphics (in your HTML code) looks something like this:

Wrong way: <img src="c:\\coolgraphic.gif">

In the above link to your graphic the "c:\\" is telling the browser that coolgraphic.gif is located on someone's hard drive.  The graphic should be uploaded to your hosting account and the link should be pointing to that location.  See the instructions for your web design program for information on how to link the image files to your web pages.

Correct way: 
<img src="http://www.YourDomain.xxx/graphics/graphic.gif"> 
You need to replace YourDomain.xxx with the real name. Also note that this example shows your graphics are located in the "graphics" directory.  You may also place images in an "image" directory or the main data/ directory.

Why do I get an Internal Sever Error 500

This is the result of an invalid input or operation.  Most of the time 500 errors are caused by a malformed request in a script or cgi program.  To fix this push the back button in your browser and check where the problem occurred. 

If no changes were made (that you are aware of) AND the function was working before, contact support and note all the details that you can.  If the problem occurs when you are developing a script or cgi program, check the code carefully for errors.  Help is available for script and program development from our experienced staff at reasonable rates.

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STATISTICS PAGE INSTRUCTIONS

We provide detailed statistics about the visits and visitors to your website.  These statistics, commonly called stats, provide you with invaluable information about how visitors find you and what they look at.  Your stats pages are found in the control panel under the Statistics / Logs link.

* The stats pages are created every day in the evening.  They will not be available on your new website until the next morning.

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CGI/PERL FAQ

What are the paths to my files:
For an up to the minute list: 
http://www.annexa.net/cgi-bin/perldiver.cgi

Which Perl modules are installed:
Again, look at: 
http://www.annexa.net/cgi-bin/perldiver.cgi

Where is Perl located:
Perl is in /usr/bin/perl

What is the url of my cgi scripts:
The url to your scripts is addressed as  http://domain_name/cgi-bin/script_name. This is the url you would use to execute the script from a webpage.

Path to your cgi / perl scripts:
There are two types of paths used for scripts; Relative and Absolute.  The relative path is sometimes used in scripts run in the same directory (cgi-bin).  The Absolute path, is from system root.  The Absolute path is:
/home/user_name/domains/domain_name/public_html/cgi-bin/
Replace user_name with your login name and domain_name with your full domain name.  e.g. annexa.net

Why doesn't my script.pl or script.cgi script work:
This is almost always caused by uploading the file in binary mode, instead of ASCII.   Another possibility is that you have not set the first line of the script to read: #!/usr/bin/perl  Finally you must give the script permission to run.

This is easily done with the File Manager in the control panel.  Navigate to the cgi-bin folder and select the script file by checking the box on the right.  At the bottom of the page is a button that says "With Selected  set Permissions to  755" and click the button.  755 is the correct setting to "permit" the script to run.  

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FormMailer

FormMailer is a secure email script that hides your contact email address and is used to collect information from visitors / customers.  This easy to install and configure script is well supported and even has a forum where questions are asked and answered.  More information is available on dbmasters website.

FormMailer is our preferred method of processing forms on our servers.  Previously we used a customized and secured version of FormMail which has been discontinued. Using an unsecured version of FormMail is prohibited.

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MYSQL DATABASE

Forum programs and others use code to store data in a MySQL database.  You create your database using the control panel.  The control panel simplifies initial database creation.   Four parameters are required for programs to access your database:
Database Server Hostname or DSN - "localhost"
Database Name - "your user_name_database_name"
Database User Name - "user_name"
Database Password - "the password you specify"

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MAINTAINING MYSQL DATABASE WITH PHPMYADMIN

phpMyAdmin is used to modify / maintain the information in your MySQL database.  phpMyAdmin  is located in the database control panel.  Click the link to access phpMyAdmin.  You will be asked for your user name and password, enter both and you are in.

For further information on phpMyAdmin, please visit the PHP website: http://www.php.net, or refer to your favorite php documentation. 

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WHAT FILE EXTENSIONS SHOULD I USE FOR PHP PAGES

Pages coded as PHP enable changing content to be displayed to visitors much like Server Side Includes (SSI). Any page that has a .php, .php4 or .phtml extension will be parsed for content before display by the server. 

Name your PHP pages whatever.php, whatever.php4 or whatever.phtml 

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TELNET

Sorry, we do not allow Telnet access to our servers.

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MAKING BACKUPS

We Strongly Suggest you make backups on a regular basis.  You will see the backup selection in the main control panel when you login.  The backup can be downloaded and saved on your own PC.   We make every effort to maintain out server and the integrity of your content.  However, you are solely responsible for keeping current backups of your website content.

We are recommending this be done at least once a month.  This is especially true if you are making frequent changes.  

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