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Over the years mmctsu.com Technical
Support has been asked hundreds if not thousands
of questions about the Personal Webspace. Many of the same
questions are asked over and over again, so we've put together
this list of Frequently Asked Questions.
Before calling or emailing mmctsu.com Technical Support, see
if the answer to your question is listed below...
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What is Personal Webspace?
Personal Webspace
is a web hosting service provided to dialup and highspeed customers
of mmctsu.com. It provides up to 20MB of storage for a personal
site that you have full access to at all times. The Personal
Webspace server features:
- Several
programming languages to create scripts
- Multiple,
redundant servers to provide maximum uptime
- Your
own 'areaname' to point to your site
- Access
Statistics
- 20MB
of space to store your site
- Online
signup with immediate access
All
of this comes with your dialup or highspeed account with mmctsu.com. If
you are interested in getting started, start
here. The signup process takes about 3 minutes.
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Do you support Front Page?
While it
is OK for customers to use Microsoft's FrontPage and
Web Publishing Wizard to design and maintain their WWW
pages, please keep the following points in mind when
working with your Webspace account:
- FrontPage
Extensions do not work on
the Webspace Web Server. Therefore,
those "bots" will
not work, and you should use traditional
CGI scripting methods for using counters,
etc.
- The
Web Publishing Wizard is good for uploading pages,
but it doesn't handle maintenance too well
(file renaming or deleting). For better site
maintenance,
we suggest using a traditional FTP (file
transfer protocol) program. Take a look at
the FTP Help section for instructions to download
and use a program like WS-FTP.*
- When
uploading your HTML files, remember
that the main "default" or "home" page
must be called index.html. Otherwise,
you will be stuck with the default placeholder
page when
you view your site.
Due
to some configuration problems with how the Front Page
Extensions work within our servers we are not able to
offer them.
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None of my links will work!
If you
find the links to graphics or other pages in your Webspace
directory do not work, check for the following:
- CASE
MATTERS! If your filenames are in lowercase letters,
then the links to those files have to also be in
lowercase letters. If your filenames are in capital
letters, then the links must be in capital letters.
- Double
check the spelling (yes, that's obvious, but it's
a very common mistake).
- Is
the file really there?
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Can I get more server space for my account?
Personal Webspace accounts are given 20MB of space at the
time of creation. They are not able to be expanded.
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CGI errors - stops working/doesn't work at all/server
errors
There could be several different reasons your CGI code
isn't working or stops working. Most of these involve code
problems where the code hasn't been written correctly or
a "logic error" (errors produced when syntactically the
code is correct, but the results produced are not what
was desired) is involved.
Another very common reason CGI isn't working is due to
the fact that the file containing the code hasn't been
modified to be 'executable'. This means that the webserver
cannot 'run' the program. You have the abilit
y to make
your scripts executable via your FTP application of choice.
mmctsu.com will also attempt to provide the latest versions
of code interpreters and compilers. With these upgrades,
some code may no longer be compatible. If we announce an
upgrade has taken place and your code stops working, you
may need to research what changed between versions and
rewrite the errant code.
Due to the sheer number of programming languages supported
by the Webspace server and the infinite number of programming
styles used, mmctsu.com is not able to support any script or
applications that are not provided by mmctsu.com. We do offer
as many tools as possible to help troubleshoot code errors.
The best being the error
log produced by the webserver. Check here when the
server reports there was an "Internal Server Error". Chances
are, a very helpful error is caught by the webserver and
logged.
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Can I change file permissions with my FTP program?
Yes! Using your FTP program, you have the ability to
change particular file permissions. This is particularly
important when using CGI scripts and you get the error "Script
not executable. Issue 'chmod 755 filename'". For some screenshots
on where to go in some of the more popular FTP clients,
go here.
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How do I get my website listed in search engines?
Most Search Engine Sites have a form to let you "submit" your
WWW page to their directory. There may be a link or button
on their site labeled Add URL... that's where you
want to go! Once you fill out the form, these sites will
verify the existence of your page, and then put it in their
listing (usually with a week or so).
Some Search Sites have "robots" that search
and catalog all pages on the WWW. Chances are, your pages
will eventually show up in their listings (even if you
don't submit anything). This could take up to a few weeks.
Submitting your site directly to them could speed up the
process.
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My site still says "Under Construction"... why?
If you
have uploaded your files into your Webspace account,
but you still see the Under Construction page,
double-check the following:
- Did
you upload your files to the .web sub-directory
of your site?
- Did
you replace the index.html file
with your homepage? (remember, the default
page of your
site must be called index.html or index.htm)
- If
your homepage is called index.htm,
did you remove the index.html file?
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I use WebTV/MSNTV, can I use the Personal Webspace
service?
Unfortunately, if you are using a WebTV or MSNTV box
, you do not have the appropriate tools to CREATE a web
site.
You will need either a computer or have someone with a
computer and Internet access to do it for you...
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How do I password protect certain pages or my entire
site?
We have put together a quick tutorial on a way we would
recommend you do this. Please follow this link for
more information.
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Can I offer Anonymous FTP service with my Webspace
account?
No. Webspace is a Web hosting service, and can only be
accessed via the World Wide Web. If you have files that
need to be downloaded by the public, they can be placed
within your web site area.
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Can I stop a browser from listing a directory?
There are two ways to accomplish this. One is to create
an empty index.html file and upload it to the directory
in question. The other is to place a .htaccess file in
that location.
To do this, simply open your favorite text editor and
type in the following line: Options -Indexes then
save the file, naming it .htaccess. Upload this file to
your directory and that will turn off the browser's ability
to list a directory.
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I get "Error 503-No port command" error in WS_FTP,
what is wrong?
This error occurs because of a bug with "Passive Transfer" mode
within the program. To fix, simply disable Passive Transfer
by unchecking this feature in the Advanced section of the "Session
Properties" screen.
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How can I deny viewing of certain areas of my site?
Simply create a file called ".htaccess" and add the following
two lines to it:
order deny,allow
deny from all
Place this file in the directory you wish to have "blocked".
When users try to view that directory or any file inside
of it, they will get a standard "Forbidden" message. Note
that this does not prevent your FTP access to this directory.
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