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Web Hosting
> WWW
Publishing
> Commerce
on the WWW
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- HTML development does not require any special
programs. All you need is a standard text editor. Novice HTML
developers however, may want to try an HTML editor. If you would like
to try some shareware HTML editors, we recommend looking at The
Web Developer's Virtual Library. This site provides extensive
information on HTML, and features a collection of HTML editors
(shareware versions). Each HTML editor has different features, so you
may want to try several, and pick the one that fits your needs.
The
Web Developer's Virtual Library. This site provides extensive
information on HTML, and features a collection of HTML editors
(shareware versions). Each HTML editor has different features, so you
may want to try several, and pick the one that fits your needs.
For extensive information on creating a web
site, you can visit the following sites:
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What should I include in
my site, any content ideas?
- First you have to ensure that your site
includes quality content. Too many graphics, particularly animated
images, tend to distract your visitors from your actual message. In
addition, heavy use of graphics tests the patience of your visitors,
since it increases your site's response time. Quality content is the
key, and quality graphics look impressive only the very first time!
In order to find out what you
must include in your site, you must think what type of questions, or
requests you commonly receive from your friends, business associates,
clients, or whichever audience your site is targeted to. Typically you
may consider the following types of content :
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- Description
of products or services
- A
description of your company
- Listings
and contact information of your employees
- Job
listings
- Maps and
directions to you offices
- Financial
information such as your annual report, SEC fillings,
etc.
- Investor
information
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- Weekly
or monthly newsletters
- Articles
or headlines about your company
- Customer
support information
- Online
quotes
- Downloadable
software, demos, utilities, shareware, etc.
- Case
studies and research projects
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- Online
customer surveys and survey results
- Calendar
of significant events
- Contests,
and drawings
- Partners
section
- Foreign
language pages for visitors that don't speak English
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In addition, you should include everything
that you would like to find when visiting your own site. If you were
visiting you site often, what you would you like to find in it? The
answer to this question usually gives you some excellent ideas!
Last but not least you must always keep in
mind the fact that your first time visitors will return to your site
only if you provide current, and useful content. Be prepared to invest
a reasonable time in maintaining, and upgrading your content.
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How do I create graphics
for my web pages?
- Graphics developed for the web must be in JPEG
or GIF format. Although browser developers are discussing support for
other formats, JPEG and GIF are the only formats supported by all
browsers. For more details on these formats you can visit the World
Wide Web consortium.
In order to create graphics for the Web, you
will need a paint program that allows you to save your images in JPEG
or GIF format. There are several commercial packages ( i.e. Adobe
Photoshop, Fractal Design Painter, CorelDraw ), as well as,
shareware (i.e. PaintShop
Pro ) programs that can be used for this purpose. References for
creating graphics for the Web can be found through the The
Web Developer's Virtual Library.
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What about imagemaps?
- Our server currently supports CERN, NCSA, and
FrontPage compatible imagemaps. In order to create an imagemap, you
will first have to create a GIF image for your clickable graphic.
After you have created your image, you will need to define the
"hotspots" on your map. You can define your imagemap's
active regions ("hot spots") using a map tool such as Mapedit
(shareware), or the FrontPage imagemap tool.
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What are
CGIs?
- CGIs are programs that the server executes at
the request of a browser. Those programs utilize the Common Gateway
Interface (CGI) specification, to process input supplied through an
HTML form. An excellent CGI tutorial is presented at this site.
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What types of scripts
does Station 1 allow?
- STATION 1 allows use of Perl CGI,
IDC, and
Active Server scripts. For security reasons, scripts written in other
programming languages are not allowed, unless prior arrangements are
made with STATION 1. Exceptions to our CGI policy will be made only if
you supply us with the source code for the scripts in question. All
scripts are subject to removal, if they are found to violate STATION 1
policies.
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What are IDC scripts?
- Microsoft's Information Server allows you to
query ODBC compliant databases, and use the results to generate HTML
pages "on-the-fly." Database queries are written in the form
of IDC scripts, and the results are processed using HTX templates.
IDCs are written using SQL syntax, and HTXs are written using HTML. An
excellent tutorial on the
use of IDCs to connect your pages to a database, is provided by Dynamic
Systems International.
Please note that before you
use any IDC scripts, you must contact
us so that we setup your Data Source.
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How do I install my Perl
scripts?
- When your account is created, your home
directory contains a sub-directory named "cgi-bin". Your
Perl scripts can only execute in that directory. Please note that Perl
scripts must use a ".pl" or ".cgi" extension.
Scripts using the ".pl" extension are processed by the ISAPI
interpreter provided by HIP. For more
information on Perl in a Win32 environment you may visit Activeware.
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How do I install my IDC
scripts?
- IDC scripts must be stored in your "cgi-bin"
directory. Before you can run them however, we have to setup our ODBC
driver so that it recognizes your database. To set it up, we will need
from you the database name and its path in reference to your home
directory.
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How do I send e-mail
from my Perl scripts?
- In order to send messages through our SMTP
server, all accounts have access to BLAT, a command line e-mail
utility. In order to use it you will need to make a system call in the
form :
blat filetosend.doc -t
towhom@where.com -f fromwhom@yourcompanyname.com -c cctoanyone@yourcompanyname.com
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Why do I get an
"INCOMPLETE HEADER" error message?
- Our Web Server is very picky! The HTTP header
must include three new line characters. For example :
print "HTTP/1.0 200 OK\n";
print "Content-Type: text/html\n\n\n";
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Which Operating System do
you use?
- All our Internet services are running on
WindowsNT.
Our web servers are powered by WindowsNT
Server 4.0.
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Which web server do you
use?
- For our web hosting accounts we are using
Microsoft's
Internet Information Server 4.0
. For more details on what features are supported by IIS, you can read
this excellent FAQ document.
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Do you support FrontPage
extensions?
- Server extensions for MS
FrontPage version 3.0 (aka FrontPage98) are available for all
hosting accounts, except WWW Self Serve accounts. FrontPage extensions
are installed in your hosting directory, upon request. For additional
information on using MS FrontPage for Web Publishing you can visit the
FrontPage site, or contact
us.
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What about Active Server
pages?
- All hosting accounts served by IIS 4.0 enjoy
full use of the features of Microsoft's Active X server. For more
information on "activating" your site, please refer to the
following Active Server Pages references :
Active
Pages FAQ
QUE'S Digital
Bookshelf
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What about counters?
- We support several different types of counters
( non SSI based), plus a counter webbot for FrontPage 98. If you would
like to set one up, please e-mail
us and we will send you instructions.
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How do I get my web
site's traffic reports?
- Every hosting account includes a directory by
the name of "stats" which contains your daily traffic logs.
In addition, this directory contains an HTML form with a unique name,
that can be used to get analytical site traffic reports for previous
dates, or detailed statistics for the previous month. The complete URL
to that form is sent to you when your account is created and it is in
the form http://www.yourdomain.com/stats/myreport.htm . If you forget
the name of the traffic report form, you can ftp (or connect via FP97)
to your "stats" directory and check the report's name.
Please note :
- The "stats" directory should not
be removed, since you will loose your daily traffic reports.
- Monthly detailed reports become available
on the second day of the following month.
- Real-time report generation for the
current date may take several minutes.
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