HTML: A Guide to Hard-Coding
Putting your Site Online
Now that you have made a wonderful site, you still have one problem--all of your files are on your disk and not on the World Wide Web. What do you do?
The process is actually very simple. The first thing you need to do is find a server which will host your site. If you are a University of Alabama Faculty, Staff or Student, you can put your site on our server, Bama, for free.
If you would prefer to not have your site on Bama, there are many servers which will host your site for free. All you need to do is put their ad on your page. There are also other servers that you can pay for, and thereby have a bit more freedom.
If you put your site on Bama, you must be aware of University policies and follow them or you could possibly lose your privileges.
The first thing you need is an account on Bama, so if you don't have one, you need to go to the Help Desk in Seebeck Computer Center, Gordon Palmer Hall. After you have your account, you will be able to send your files to the server and your site will be online.
How do you send your files?
This is an easy process, and it is know as FTP (File Transfer Protocol). You will need this program, which you can download and install for free from the Seebeck Computer Center Software Library.
After you install the FTP client, you will get a screen that looks like this:
The Profile Name isn't important.
If you have a Bama account, then for Host Name/Address you need to type:
bama.ua.edu
For Host Type you can use the default "automatic detect."
For User ID, you must use the ID that the computer center or your Internet Service Provider gave you.
Then type in your password and click "ok."
You should then get a screen that looks like this:
There are some important things to note here.
All of your files must go under "public_html." If you don't put them there, then you won't be able to find your page. The rest of the files you see above are only being stored on the server--they are not part of my web site. It is very important that you put your files under "public_html."
You need to highlight the correct drives and folders in order to transfer the files.
One way to navigate the files is to use the green arrow with the two black dots, located at the top of the list of files. Double clicking on this arrow will take you to the next higher level of files.
Now you need to highlight the files you want and then click the right arrow, located in the middle of the screen.
That's all there is to it. Your files are now on the server and your site is online.
All you need now is your URL, but if you have a bama account, your URL will be:
http://bama.ua.edu/~userid
If you have used an ISP, you must find out from them exactly what your address is.
