Website Hosting FAQ

How do I upload a web page
You should use an FTP program to upload your web pages. With that FTP program you will want to connect to ftp.gis.net and login. Once you are logged in you must open the directory called public_html In that directory you should put your web page files. The main/default file for your web page should be called index.html. You can get an FTP program from www.download.com. We recommend SmartFTP or WS_FTP for Windows, Transmit or Fetch for MacOS.

Where can I learn HTML
There are many many books and web sites out there to learn HTML from. Here are a few of the most popular ones:

• EchoEcho.com HTML Tutorial
  
• A Beginner's Guide To HTML
  
• Webmonkey Intro to HTML
  

Can I get more web space
Yes, the standard dialup account comes with 5 megabytes of space. Our web hosting accounts come with different amounts of space depending on the plan you choose. If you need more the charge is $1 per month for each megabyte.

What is Virtual Hosting, What do I get, How Much does it cost
Virtual hosting lets you get a web page address like www.yourname.com without having to get your own server. Your page would be hosted by galaxy and the URL www.yourname.com would bring people to the web page you create in your directory here. Please visit our web hosting page for more information.

How can I get statistics for my site that is hosted with you?
Domain hosting accounts have web stats included with them. You can view your stats by going to our control panel page at cp.gis.net and clicking on the Web Stats link. Enter your domain name and your username and password.
Web Stats are not available for standard dialup accounts.

What do the files need to be called to work correctly.
You need a directory called "public_html" and your main home page file should be called "index.html". Beyond that you can name your other files, like graphics most anything, ending the appropriate .gif or .jpg extension and any HTML file must and in either .html or .htm If you are using SSI like our counter or other SSI then your page should end in .shtml

What is the URL of my web page
Your web page address will be: http://www.gis.net/~username Your username is the name you chose when you signed up with our service. Also known as your login name or authentication ID.

How can I promote my web site and get it into search engines
Search Engine Watch has a lot of information about search engines, how they work, and how to get the best placement. You're best bet is to follow their recommendations and to submit your site to each of the major search engines. On each of the search engines web pages you should find a link to submit your site to them.

What happened to the ".htaccess" files
You no longer need .htaccess files to use CGI's on our server. In fact if you remove them your page might load a bit faster, so we recommend you remove the .htaccess file. Please bear in mind however that doing the following will cause your counter to reset to zero. All the same CGI's, the guestbook, and formmail will still work the same. If you are using the counter cgi you must rename any files that are using the counter to end in .shtml So your index file must be called "index.shtml" and anything else with a counter must also end in .shtml

What CGI's do you have
We currently have a counter, guestbook, image map and form mail CGI. For instructions on how to use them go to http://www.gis.net/cgi.txt

My counter doesn't work or show up
Make sure the path you have is:
<!--#exec cgi="/cgi-bin/c2/counter.cgi"--> Also make sure that the file that you have the counter in ends with ".shtml", as the counter will not work with files that end in ".htm" or ".html".

My guestbook doesn't work
As long as you code is exactly the same as the example below it should be fine. If you remove any of the variables inside the brackets it will not work at all and if you change the form code it will give you errors.

If you are getting an error about not being able to open or write to the guestbook.html file you will need to make sure that you have write permission enabled, as the web server must write to your guestbook file. You can do this with an FTP program with the CHMOD of File Permission command. WS_FTP and Fetch both support this feature.

<!--GUESTBOOK-->
<H1>Comments!</H1>
<P>Here are comments from visitors. Post your own using the form at the
end of the page. <P>Comments list started on
<!--STARTDATE--> Jan 2 1997
Last post on
<!--LASTDATE-->

<!--POINTER-->
<!--everything after this is standard and unchanging. -->
<HR>
Post a response:
<BR>
<FORM METHOD=POST ACTION="/cgi-bin/gbook.cgi/~username/guestbook.html">

Name:<INPUT TYPE="text" NAME="name" SIZE=25 MAXLENGTH=25>
<BR>
Email address: <INPUT TYPE="text" NAME="address" SIZE=30 MAXLENGTH=30>
<BR>
Text:
<BR>
<TEXTAREA ROWS=8 COLS=60 NAME="body"></TEXTAREA>
<BR>
<INPUT TYPE=submit VALUE="POST">
<INPUT TYPE=reset VALUE="CLEAR">
</FORM>

NOTE: where is has ACTION="/cgi-bin/gbook.cgi/~username/guestbook.html. Where it has the username there you must fill in your username.

My form doesn't work
The form can be any form you want in most any configuration. Remember for the HIDDEN NAME="to" VALUE="username@gis.net" must contain your e-mail address where you want the input of the form to go to. Also you'll want to make sure you name all the fields in the form or else the information that gets mailed to you will be very hard to understand. Also for the submit button the VALUE must equal "Submit".

Do you support Server Side Includes
Yes we support server side includes like #include and #file. Your html page must have the .shtml extension to be able to use SSI. Please note: If you are using a custom CGI the #exec include ability has been disabled.

Can I use my own CGI's on your server?
Virtual Web Host customers may run their own CGI's in their directory. For instructions on how to do this please visit the Web Host Control Panel. And click on the Tech Info section. In here you'll find instructions on how to use your own CGI's and other CGI's that we have on our servers, as well as much more technical info about web hosting.
Standard dialup accounts do not have the ability to use their own CGI's

Does Java work with your service
Yes, Java Applets and Java Script will work fine. They rely on the clients browser and don't require any support from the server. Just upload your code correctly and it should be fine.

Do you support Real Audio files
We do not support streaming RealAudio/Video, however we do have the Real Audio MIME types in our web server, so users of your web site can download RealAudio correctly.

How can I password protect a directory in my site?
The easiest method involves javascript. For more information check out: http://javascript.internet.com/passwords/prompt-in.html

Another way is to use a CGI to help you create the password file. You can download the CGI from our website at http://cp.gis.net/techinfo/htpasswd.zip - This zip file includes a readme that has all the instructions you need.

If you have UNIX knowledge you can also check out this tutorial from NCSA, Mosaic User Authentication
You'll need to have access to a unix shell account to be able to run the htpasswd program to create the password files.

Do you support databases?
We do not offer any database hosting at this time. You can also use CGI's to search a text file, but for anything with more than a few records, this will be quite slow.