Creating and Maintaining
Your FREE 
Web Page at NetSys

What is my Home Page Address (URL)?

With The Netsys Company, your personal home page address will be: 

http:/www.netsys.hn/~username

The username listed above should be replaced with YOUR login name! That way, people on the Internet will be able to find your personal Web Site! 

Now that we have given you an address, let's get to building the pages... 

A - Your Own Homepage

With the great interest in the World Wide Web, we offer you or your group* the opportunity to have your own presence on the Internet. HTML authoring has gotten a LOT of press recently, and the software tools that are available to do this are many. A good selection of HTML authoring tools can be found at Stroud's Consumate Winsock Applications Page (http://cwsapps.texas.net). This document will explain the basics of Web page construction, HTML coding, and what the directory structure of your individual site should be. 

This is a basic training document, and should not be considered a comprehensive intructional manual. For more complete information about HTML coding, you can start with the Web Developer's Virtual Library, or there are many texts available, both on-line and in the bookstore on Web Page management. Some suggested reading might include HTML Book of Style, or the HTML Sourcebook. 

* To be eligible for a Free Personal Home Page on The Netsys Company,
you MUST be a The Netsys Company client!

B - Personal Web Page Directory Structure

Your individual web site is organized under your personal sub-directory on the web server, and as such, your login name and password should be protected to prevent anyone else from accessing or re-writing the information on your site. The basic directory structure of the individual web sites is explained in diagram B1. Please note that outside access, such as from the web, is controlled to read-only, while your login account has complete write access to both the home and html sub-directory. 

B1

When you use a web browser, such as Netscape, and look at the contents of your personal subdirectory, the browser is directed to your local html sub-directory, and will automatically look for a file called index.html. This is the default display file, and if present, will automatically display when the directory is accessed. If it is not present, Netscape will display a directory listing of the html sub-directory. 

Creating Sub-Directories

Using your FTP utility (File Transfer Protocol), you can log in using your login name and login password. This will put you in your own sub-directory on the system, and will enable you to move files into and out of your areas. You can also create new sub-directories by using the mkdir function of FTP. Similar to the MD command in MS-DOS, the UNIX mkdir command creates the new sub-directory where you request, but creates it with you as the owner. This is important, as this will decide who has access to the new sub-directory. You can see how you can diagram the sub-directory structure in diagram B2 below. 

NOTE: The path names must be consistant! While you do not need to maintain the DOS file/directory naming convention of 8.3 (XXXXXXXX.XXX) under UNIX, I cannot recommend it enough. That basic structure will allow you to maintain a duplicate of the directory structure on your local machine, and thus enable quick checks during html page devleopment, and easy updating during installation. 

You will notice that you can have both images and html files in area other than the initial html sub-directory. The problem that could exist is the potential for mis-spellings, or inaccurate directory tree structure, that will cause the pre-defined path names to fail. 

C - How to upload your HTML files using a FTP client

Uploading files to the server is as simple as logging into the system. Once you have established a PPP connection to the The Netsys Company, you can start the FTP tool, and select Connect to Host. Under Host Name, put netsys.hn. Leave Host Type Automatic Detect. In the spaces provided for User ID, put your system login name, and under Password, put your system login password. 

Once logged into your personal sub-directory space on The Netsys Company, you can change directories on the remote side by simply clicking on the sub-directory name in the upper box on the right-hand side of the screen. Your personal home page area will exist within the HTML sub-directory. This is where you will build, maintain, and display your personal home page from 

F - I've uploaded my page, but I get a "403 Forbidden" error. Why?

When your account is first set up, the permissions on your private subdirectory are set so only you can read or write to them. This protects your privacy, as well as prevents anyone from accessing the information you have there. 

When you set up your home page, you are in essence, inviting the world to come visit your html sub-directory. To do this, your base sub-directory permissions have got to be changed so that everyone has read access to them. Without read access to your personal directory, as well as your html sub-directory, browsers are sent a 403 Forbidden error. To open up access and let the world see your web-site, all you need do is call our technical support center (504-56-1066) identify yourself, and request that they open up the permissions. That is all there is to it! 

G - How do I get my home page listed on the The Netsys Company Surf Team page?

Once you have your page up and ready, and you want to be listed with the other members of the The Netsys Company Surf Team, all you need do is send an e-mail message to graphics@digital.net requesting to be added. Then, during the next update, your page will be added to the list! 

How do I let everyone know about my site?

There are a number of search engines you can go to to submit your site to the world. Perhaps two of the easiest are: 

Submit-It

and

SubmitAll

If you need help...

Good Surfing!
Calle 1 Num 34 NO Jardines Del Valle
San Pedro Sula Honduras C.A.
Tel. 504 566 1055, 56 1066 Fax 504 56 3128
E-mail: admin@netsys.hn


Web Site: http://www.netsys.hn