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Using Your ElkNet Web Space
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Your ElkNet account comes with 5M of web space for you
to use to store your own web pages, images, files, etc.
This is enough space for over 100 average sized web pages.
Additional web space is available at $5 per month for each
additional 5M you use.
Do you have a web site on ElkNet you would like others
to see? You can submit your site
to be added to our list of customer
sites.
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Want to create your own web site? Here are the steps:
- Create your
web site on your home computer.
How is this done?
There are several choices:
- Learn to write HTML code (the programming language
web pages are created in)
- Download or purchase a web site authoring tool
- Save a document as an HTML file in a program that
has this option
- Find a friend or hire someone who can design a site
for you.
- Transfer your web site files up to your web space on our server.
What do I need to do this?
There are a couple of ways to do this depending on how you
built your site.
- The universal way is with an FTP program (File Transfer
Protocol). These programs can be purchased or downloaded
from the Internet. They move files you select from your
computer to your web space on the server. You will need
to supply these programs with the following information
to access your web space:
- FTP Location: users.elknet.net
- User ID: the user ID of your ElkNet
account
- Password: the password of your ElkNet
account
- Some programs that design web sites have FTP capabilities
built into them. You will need to read the documentation
for the program you are using to implement this option.
- With Win98 and 2000, FTP is built into the browser.
- In the browser, go into 'Tools': 'Internet
Options': 'Advanced' and make sure the box for
'Enable Folder View for FTPing' is checked.
- Type the FTP location into the address bar of
the browser as ftp://users.elknet.net and
hit enter
- Enter your user ID and password
in the box that appears
- A window showing your web space will now appear
on your screen
- You may 'Drag and drop' files into it from your
computer
- To remove files you must 'right click' on them
and choose an action
- View your web site and share it with friends.
What is the address?
Your free web space is located at http://users.elknet.net/<user
ID> where you replace <user ID> with your
actual ElkNet user ID. For example, if your e-mail address
is smith@elknet.net, your web site address (URL) is http://users.elknet.net/smith.
If you enter this URL into the address bar of your browser
it will look for the file called index.html in your space
to display it. If you do not have a page called index.html,
it will not know which page to open and an error will occur.
To direct a viewer to something other than index.html, for
example an image for an auction, you must include the name
of that image following the URL. (i.e. http://users.elknet.net/smith/myphoto.jpg)
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Frequently Asked Questions
- Where can I download programs for web designand FTP?
- There are many sites on the Internet for downloading
programs. Some of the most popular are Download.com,
TuCows
and Stroud.
When at these sites you can search for web authoring
tools, HTML tools and FTP programs.
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- How can I learn to write HTML code?
- A search of the Internet will turn up many tutorials
for HTML . Here is an example of an interactive tutorial
for beginners:
http://www.davesite.com/webstation/html
- Does ElkNet's servers support CGI scripts for use with
my free web space?
- Yes, ElkNet's servers support CGI so you may utilize
scripts for counters, creating e-mail forms, etc.
for your web page.
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- What makes a web site look professional?
- Your free ElkNet web space was designed for you
to use as a hobby or to share information with others
on the web. Although you can use it for business purpose,
you may want to first consider how much of a professional
aire you want your business to have on the internet.
The following elements are KEY to a
professional web site on the Internet:
- A Domain Name (www.yourcompany.com)
Rather than a long web address which only contains
any reference to your company near the end, professional
sites should be hosted under domain names. With
a domain name, you are on equal footing with every
other business out on the web.
- Professional, custom graphics.
There are millions of images out on the Internet
for you to add to your web pages, but without
a customized graphic theme for you site, it will
look like it was a 'cut and paste' job or 'cloned'
from a canned package with no custom features
related to your business
- State of the art web design
This does not mean putting every bell and whistle
imaginable on your site. In fact it is quite the
opposite. The most common mistake made by amateur
designers (and even some semi-professionals) is
to over-design a site. How can you tell a site
is over-designed?
- Check it's load time. a web page should
take no more than a few seconds to load on
a dial-up connection. Rule of thumb,
web pages should be limited to 50-60K in size
(including all the images on the page).
- How easily can you find what you are looking
for? A web site may look 'super cool' but
if your potential customers are lost and confused
it has not served it purpose. Business web
sites should have clean navigation throughout
the site.
- Is the information on your site really what
the viewer is looking for. Most people coming
to a professional site want information that
is pertinent to them. They do not want to
scroll through pages and pages of text that
is of interest only to those who own and work
at the company. When web sites were first
coming into existence, it was common practice
to load a site with every bit of information
possible (including the biography of Grandpa
Jones who started the company). Web site have
evolved to a higher level of provisioning
information that the viewer wants and needs.
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