help a total newbie, please

[crowjane]

hi

i am all excited to set up my personal webpage, and was all confident to do it DIY. But till now, its been 3 full days, sitting in front of my mac, reading manual and instructions.... still i cant get my webpages uploaded to the IP add jaguarpc gave me in the 'Activate Account' email.

can someone guide me by listing down a step-to-step procedure of what i should do? now that i have thses 3 things done:
1.the account activated from jaguarpc
2. a domain name 'crowjane.com' registered (no sure if it has gone live yet, cos i just did the registration yesterday.)
3. already designed webpage in my dreamweaver.

I have been trying all sort of configuration, following manuals, etc for the past days. i am sure i have done something wrong, hence, the pages arent uploaded yet. Rather than going trial and error method, i hope someone can enlighten me on a decent procedure, e.g. do i have tp confirgure my domain name first? or do i have to configure anything from my control panel, etc...

As i say, i am totally new at this, so apologise for being a little confused in my questions. i wasnt able to be real specific, cos i am really in confusion.



Thanks first to whoever's helping out.

Jovy

[Spathiphyllum]

This may take a while so you'll need to be patient as everyone chimes in to help.

You do not have to configure the cPanel and your domain name was set up when you registered. Your goal, first, is to upload a basic index.html or similar file to your public_html directory. That is your beginning homepage and you'll probably build from there.

I can browse to your domain so your DNS and webhost are resolving properly in Texas. Right now I see your public_html directory (which is the home directory for your publicly accessible web pages) and your cgi-bin directory (for executable scripts).

Do you know how to ftp? If not get an FTP program and/or WinSCP. Try ftp (search for FTP_LE from Ipswitch) first until you get comfortable with basics, then move to WinSCP. Are you able to ftp to other publicly accessible directories? If so then your program is set up properly? If not, then your FTP application is set improperly or you are behind a firewall that is blocking your access through FTP or other non-HTTP ports.

Let us know if you can accomplish this and then we'll add some more instruction. We need to gauge your current abilities so that you don't bite off more than you can chew.

[Spathiphyllum]

Congratulations, it looks like you got it solved.

You were just teasing, right?

[crowjane]

ok.. i read about FTP, file transfer protocol?? i read this from the online manual from my control panel.
hmmm.. am i write to say the there are many ways to ftp?

ok.. this is my knowledge so far:
1. since i am using macintosh, i can ftp through the software call 'fetch' . i have already install that into my mac. and tried to upload my pages to the IP add. in this case, do i still have to get a ftp program?

2. what about the 'file management' in the control panel? oh... from there i can manage my file at the remote, but i cannot upload from my local mac, right?

3. I tried to upload my index file too. but i got abit confused when i start reading different manuals and threads. some telling me to upload to www directory, while some asking it to be uploaded into the public html.


thanks alot
jovy

[crowjane]

hi,

i got it .. i got it... i got it.............!!! (but i would still like to understand the ftp thingy in my previous post, need to learn more about the theory, so help reply those questions about ftp, the diff of www and public html, etc)

ok... i went to www.crowjane.com.. and everything (all my webpages) is there. so this mean that everything is alright? like my domain name has been propagated???

please do let me know if there is anything (on the basic starter level) i need to watch out for or keep in mind. meantime, i still have lots to learn.. now, i have to configure my email, etc.

and please feel free to visit my site... www.crowjane.com
it's a site dedicated to my dance work. and give me lots of tips and feedback about it.

[Spathiphyllum]

FTP is indeed file transfer protocol. It is a technical protocol describing the rules of data transfer, so to speak, and optimized for both text and binary files to move data between two computers. It connects through ports (communication ports) from one node (your Mac) to another node (Jaguar's webserver)... specifically and according to spec, port 21 for ftp and port 23 for SSH.

I forgot that you said Mac so Fetch should be fine. I use a PC so I can't advise you on that program, but Fetch is an FTP application nonetheless so another one would be redundant. FTP apps are more versatile and feature laden utilities than using a web browser's graphical user interface (GUI) but both can send files via ftp. If you don't really want to learn the whole enchilada right now, then skip fetch and use cPanel. You said you were able to access it through your browser so lets go from there. I never use it for uploading or editing files but it can be done.

So go to your cPanel interface and look for "File Manager" under Services as you mentioned. Click that link and you'll see your account directory on Jag's server. The rules are self-explanatory but to cut to the quick, click on the "Folder" icon next to "public_html". This is your "home" directory as well as the top folder that is publicly browseable by visitors to your website. You can upload your Dreamweaver file here or create new html/htm files by clicking on the links and following the prompts or guides. The "www" and the "public_html" directories are the same for all intents and purposes.

The linux operating system sometimes uses a link to represent the "real" location of the directory. In this case "public_html" is the real directory and "www" is the link. I just ignore the "www" but either one is fine. This nuance may become relevent when you start installing and configuring scripts and path names become important, but I'd advise that you worry about that later.

Well, you beat me to it... you're doing fine.

[Spathiphyllum added some port info

[crowjane]

thanks alot, it's been great learning.
i am enjoying the view of my website now... hi hi.