Index
Home Pages for AccessPort Customers
I want to Write a Web Page
Putting It on the World Wide Web
Maintaining the Web Page
Each AccessPort account includes 10 megabytes of disk space for your personal or business use. You may use this space in any way you wish, consistent with applicable Laws. One way some people choose to use some of their space is for their Web Page(s). These pages are served by the users.ap.net WebServer with first access through the AccessPort Home Page. You are welcome to make use of this space in any manner that you wish, within the law. As your pages may be viewed by children, it is your responsibility to ensure that the content is suitable.
These pages are to be developed and maintained by you; consulting and training services are available for $60/hour if you would like assistance with your pages.
Each account is given a home directory and a quota of 10 megabytes of disk space. All of the email accounting within a "family" account share the same home directory, and the same home page will be accessed by each of the email accounts in the group.
Additional space may be requested for your pages, it is rare that more than 10MB will be needed, but additional space is available for a one-time fee of $6/MB>
Hands on classes are available. Experienced instructors will teach the basics as well as help with the fine tuning of your personal Web Page. Check the AccessPort Home Page for Class information.
So you want to write a Web Page. This instruction sheet has been written to give you the basics that are necessary to get your page under way.
2. Go into your search engine and type in html. Your search will bring many html tutorials, most of which are very good. Select one document and print it out.
3. If you prefer to have a book instead of working with the on-line references, there are a number of books that describe HTML and give advice on how to create pages. My standard advice for people who want to know which book to buy is to make a list of questions you have that you believe the ideal book should answer, then visit the bookstore and look through each of the books to find the answers. When you find a book that answers enough of your questions and is written in a way that you find easily understandable, you have found the book you should buy.
4. There are a number of "HTML editors" - programs that will help you create html pages. To give you an idea, Adobe Page Mill, WebSite, Internet Publishing Kit, HotMetal, and Netscape Gold are some of them. Some products, such as FrontPage, require special Server software that is not present on users.ap.net, so they will not do everything they are supposed to do; if you have special requirements, please let us know, but unless you (or a group of people) are willing to fund the project, don't expect significant expenditures for the users.ap.net server - it is not a profit center.
5. If you are using Netscape, go to the Help menu, down to "Create Web Services". Netscape has even included a "do it yourself" Web page.
6. Or write your document using your favorite editor or Word Processor, put in the html tags (remember to save as a plain text file), then follow the instructions in your tutorial to bring the page up on the Web Browser.
7. Now is the time to put in the graphics. All graphics need to be in either Gif or Jpeg format. Follow the Tutorial and place the graphics.
8. Put in any links to other pages in your own Web Site, or pages in other Web Sites.
9. You can put in a new background color and change the color of the text by using the html color strings (which you can get off of the Net by searching for background colors html.)
10. Now is the time to check, check, and recheck all of your links, spelling, and be sure your graphics all appear in the right places.
11. Make a Back Up copy of your Web Page. The users.ap.net pages are not on a back up system, so if disaster strikes, you will want to be able to access your hard drive or diskette and replace the page on the server.
When everything is completed, now you need to send it to AccessPort
2. Go to your search engine and type ftp. Our favorites are WS_FTPLE (for Win95), ws_ftp (for Win3.1), or cuteftp. Download one of these and place in c:\ftp.
3, Mac systems. Search for a program called Fetch, you may also need a program called Stuffit to open Fetch.. Download and set up the Fetch program.
4. Rename the file that you want to be your home page to index.html.
Note that some file systems (Dos/Windows3/1) will not let you do this. For these systems, you will have to rename the file after it is on the server, or while moving it to the server.
5. Dialin to AccessPort using your ftp program
6. Directory is left blank
(We need your userid and password so we can put you in your home directory, and to prove
that it is you, we won't let "just anybody" change your pages..)
7. Create a directory public_html (lower case please)
Place your completed files in public_html directory
8. To view your home page, the URL is http://users.ap.net/~your user id
Host: users.ap.net
Login:
Password:
1. Whenever you are ready to make changes to your Web page, retrieve your page from the main server using the ftp or fetch programs, do your editing and corrections, then repeat the process for sending the Web page back to the users.ap.net server.