Getting On-line

I have made my web site using Legacy, so what now? How do I get it on line? Is it expensive? What is .FTP? Do I need extra software? I could go on with the questions but, hopefully, all the answers will be found here.

Initially do check that the site works correctly on your own PC because if it doesn't work there, it will definitely not work on-line. Legacy generated web pages display reasonably in all browsers but it should be tested in a range including IE7/IE8, IE6 (if possible - Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Opera are a good selection. Why multiple versions of IE? Well, IE6 and earlier do not comply with web standards. Unfortunately that pain in the neck, IE6, is still used by about 20% of IE users so has to be given special consideration. Never, ever, use IE6 for developing a webpage, the browser of choice being Firefox . Recently, the free IE Tester has been released, which enables testing from IE5.5 to IE8

Host Sites

There are a multitude of these around, and for a start it is worthwhile checking if your ISP provides a free hosting service. Many do, but the disadvantages of using this facility are usually a limited amount of space, 50MB may sound large until one develops webpages, and doing so can tie you to that ISP. Commonly the address will not look professional either, eg. my: http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/fergys. Nevertheless they are fine if these limitations don't bother you, and for testing how your site looks on the web. They are also OK for storing back-up files as well!

In addition are the commercial free sites. With these site the side panel of your webpages may contain advertising tailored for your site. Others, eg Tribal Pages may insist that the site is password protected and hence will not be accessible to the public. But are quite suitable for family viewing. Nearly all these also suffer from the problems of limited space and unprofessional looking names, as above.

Finally there are the straight commercial sites of which this is one. No advertising, and much larger storage space, even on the cheapest packages. Many think that these are expensive, but that is not the case. I use Strato and the basic package is less than £7.00 (UKP) per month. One can also invent one's own domain name and provided it is not already taken it's yours!

.FTP

Having decided on your host, the next stage is to upload your site onto their server. FTP means "File Transfer Protocol" which is a method of transferring files to your host's server. Some also allow drag-and-drop and it is possible to use IE. Does this mean the purchase of more software? No, there are free versions available such as FileZilla , FTPCommander and WinSCP (which I use) .

Your site user name, password and other details, as given by your web host need to entered into these programs in a similar way to that below:

All use two screens and have a pointer to select which files to transfer from your PC to the server - left to right, or vice versa. It is essential to ensure that the file structure is the same on both the PC and server. Thus, if a picture folder is separate from the data folder then they must also be separate on the server. Similarly if the picture folder is inside the data folder, ie. a sub-folder, then it must be in the same relative position on the server. As with all Windows systems Shift+Click and Ctrl+Click can be used to select blocks of files. The details needed to upload the files (above) are supplied by the web host

And that's it! With the free browsers you will probably find that when uploading they may enter the "Passive Mode", if so then exit and resume. With FTPCommander and WinSCP there is no need to exit the program but with others it may be necessary.