Getting Started With
World Web Folder

World Web Folder (formerly called "Home Page Alone" or "HPA") is a place to put your Web pages. World Web Folder is basic Web hosting, and is included with World Gold accounts, and is also available at an extra charge for World A La Carta accounts. (We also offer high-end Web hosting and domain name services.) This brief writeup is designed to walk you through how to get started with World Web Folder -- some of what it says also applies to customers of our high-end services (mainly section 2.)

If you use World Web Folder to create Web pages, the URL of your Web site will be:

http://world.std.com/~login

Where "login" is replaced with your login name. (Kiosk users may also use that format of URL, or if Kiosk Bundle or Kiosk Custom Web Address service is purchased, you can be http://www.yourname.com. World Web Folder sites can be converted to Kiosk sites if desired.)

Those of you who are familiar with UNIX will recognize "~login" as your home directory, i.e. where all the information in your account is stored (it may include your account's configuration such as .login and .cshrc, or your received mail, or your list of subscribed Usenet newsgroups, as well as your personal files) so for security reasons, on our Web server, "http://world.std.com/~login" does not actually point to your home directory ("~login"). It really points to a link named "public_html" within your home directory. This link sends the Web server to a directory (folder) elsewhere on The World where the Web files are actually stored, but for all intents and purposes, you will see that your Web pages are stored in "public_html" within your home directory, and other people will use the URL "http://world.std.com/~login".

1. Creating The public_html Directory

Creating this special directory for your Web pages is the task of the "homepage" command. There are three options:
homepage         -- create (for the first time) public_html
homepage on      -- enable public_html
homepage off     -- disable public_html
homepage cancel  -- permanently disable (remove) public_html
So the first thing you'll need to do to use World Web Folder is to login to the UNIX shell (with the "telnet" program, usually -- Windows 95 users can select "Run" from the Start menu and then type the "telnet world.std.com" command , and Mac users will need to get a freeware program such as BetterTelnet from the net.)

(BetterTelnet for Mac OS)
http://www.cstone.net/~rbraun/mac/telnet/

Anyway, login to shell.theworld.com with Telnet and you'll see the UNIX shell waiting for you to type UNIX commands. To enable World Web Folder, type:

homepage

It will show you our policies and confirm that you want to create a public_html directory and make it readable by other people (note that your own Web browser counts as "other people".)

If you ever decide you want to temporarily disable it (so nobody will see your pages while you're testing something new, for example), you would type "homepage off". Then you could use "homepage on" to enable it again. If you were sick of the Web altogether and wanted to nuke your World Web Folder off the face of The World, you'd use "homepage cancel". Note that "cancel" will mark your Web files for deletion so it may not be easy to undo, while you can toggle between "on" and "off" whenever you want.

If you've successfully typed "homepage" and answered some yes-or-no questions about whether you want the rates and setup information mailed to you, you should now have a directory named "public_html" in your home directory. Before we leave the UNIX shell (after this you may not need to use it again for a long while if you don't want to!) type this command to see a list of your files and directories:

ls -l

You'll probably see something like this:
% ls -l
total 3
drwx------    2 login    login        512 Jan  4 03:35 News
-rwx------    1 login    login        426 May 21 13:57 myfile
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     login         35 May 22 16:32 public_html ->
    /home/abhaile/WWW/login/public_html
Your list of files will be different from the example, but you should see "public_html" with an arrow pointing to some other directory. If so, you're done here. Type "exit" to log out from The World's UNIX shell before quitting the telnet program!

2. Getting Your Pages Onto The World

(This section can also be used by Kiosk customers, although the URL and directory name may be different.)

Now that you have a directory to put Web pages in, you probably won't need to use UNIX commands to manage your Web site any further (unless you want to.)

The next step will be for you to create one or more pages to put there. Designing Web pages will be the subject of a future tutorial, but for now, if you don't have a Web page handy on your PC or Mac or whatever other sort of computer you have at your end, here's something you can start with just to see how this works. Copy the following lines into a text file (with Windows NotePad or WordPad, or Mac SimpleText or BBEdit) and save as index.html:
<HTML>
  <HEAD>
    <TITLE>Hello, World!</TITLE>
    <BASE HREF="http://world.std.com/~login/index.html">
  </HEAD>
  <BODY>
    <H1>I am having fun.</H1>
    <P>This is my first Web page!</P>
  </BODY>
</HTML>
(Please change "login" to the name of your World account. I'll explain what <BASE HREF> does a little later.)

When saving the file, if you're using a word-processor (such as Microsoft Word or WordPerfect or WordPad) remember to tell it to save as plain old text (may be called "plain old text", "ASCII", "DOS text", "text only") when you save it, rather than letting it put in all the program-specific stuff about paragraph formatting or whatever.

The next step is to copy that page from your computer to the public_html directory you created on The World. You will need an FTP tool for this. If you don't have one, we suggest getting CuteFTP (for Windows 95/NT) or Fetch (Mac OS):

CuteFTP (Windows 95/NT -- there's also a Windows 3.1 version)
http://www.cuteftp.com

Fetch (Mac OS)
http://www.dartmouth.edu/pages/softdev/fetch.html

If you're using CuteFTP, open a connection to shell01.theworld.com (in "Quick Connect", punch in "shell01.theworld.com" under "Host Name", and enter your login name and password to the right of it) and if you're using Fetch, select "New Connection" and enter "shell01.theworld.com" plus your login name and password. Note that if you don't enter your login name and password, these programs will probably try to connect anonymously, which means they'll be restricted a special public directory where you won't be able to access your account's files -- you need to actually login to your own account (with the FTP tool) to be able to see or change your own files. (This counts as being actually logged in, accounting-wise, by the way, so don't forget to close the connection after you're through.)

You should see a list of the files and directories in your home directory, including public_html. Open up public_html (it probably has a little folder icon that you can double-click on) and you'll be in the right place to put your new Web page (index.html). Just drop it in.

Now, fire up your favorite Web browser (Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, lynx, whatever) and when it's ready, type in your URL (http://world.std.com/~login). If everything worked, you've just created a Web page!

3. Some Gotcha's

1.) "index.html" is the file that people will see when they go to the URL "http://world.std.com/~login". You can create as many other pages (or subdirectories) as you want, but the main file at the start of your site should be index.html. (This is where you'd say "Welcome to my site, here are links to all the pages I have.") If put everything on one page, it should be index.html.

2.) For people using DOS, Windows 3.1, or other operating systems where you have to name files .htm instead of .html, you must understand that The World will look for index.html as the file to serve when someone enters that URL. Therefore, if you've uploaded "index.htm", you either need to rename it to "index.html" (usually you can do this within your FTP tool) or, if you'd prefer, you can link index.htm to index.html (so that it will be available under both filenames.) To link it, you need to use the UNIX shell. Type:

cd ~/public_html ln index.htm index.html

3.) Because, for security reasons, we're tricking Web browsers into thinking that "~login/public_html" is really just "~login", you should include a <BASE HREF="http://world.std.com/~login/index.html"> in index.html (in the <HEAD> section.) The purpose of <BASE HREF> is to let everything know what the URL of the current page is. You can also put it on your other pages (be sure to put in the correct URL of the page!) if you understand how to use it, but you don't have to. We just suggest that you put it in index.html to ensure that nothing gets confused between "~login" and "~login/public_html". (It'll probably work even if you don't use <BASE HREF>, but it's best to be safe.)

4.) Remember to upload all your .html or .txt files in TEXT mode (also called ASCII or A mode by FTP programs) and .gif, .jpg, .wav, or other pictures/sounds in BINARY mode (aka RAW DATA or B mode.) CuteFTP and Fetch are smart enough to do that automatically when they see a file with the appropriate extension.

However, Mac users take note: Macs support two kinds of binary transfers. The first kind, which Fetch calls RAW DATA (sometimes called DATA FORK ONLY) is what you want for .gif's and .jpg's and so on. The other kind, MACBINARY, preserves the Macintosh file icon, the QuickTime preview image, and so forth--the Mac-specific stuff which shouldn't be included with your .gif's and .jpg's (even Mac browsers expect to see the picture's raw data without the Mac icon or preview.) So we suggest that if you're making graphics on a Mac, and they have preview icons, either configure Fetch to upload them as RAW DATA, or else use a utility like ResFork Killer to eliminate the Mac-specific stuff (the resource fork).

ResFork Killer (Mac OS): http://hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/cgi-bin/NewSearch?key=resfork

5.) The World is a UNIX system: filenames and URLs are case sensitive. This means that a link to "Index.HTML" will not connect to "index.html"! (You could, in fact, create different files named Index.HTML, index.html, and INDEX.hTmL all in the same directory if you like confusion.) So we suggest that you ensure that your filenames are all lowercase, because that's how most people type in URLs.

6.) If you're creating and editing files from the UNIX shell, rather than FTPing them from your computer, you need to remember to set the UNIX permissions correctly. Any directories you create need to be mode 755 (readable and executable to all) and files need to be mode 644 (readable to all). Since 755 includes all the permissions of 644, you can just use 755 for everything if you're lazy:

cd ~/public_html chmod 755 *

4. Troubleshooting

If something isn't working, check over the gotcha's above.

If people get a "403" error (Permission Denied) when they try to look at your site, this probably means one of:

You've used "homepage off" or "homepage cancel".

You've changed or set permissions for your files which do lot let other people read them. Use the "chmod" command shown above.

You may have changed permissions for your public_html directory. Try "chmod 755 ~/public_html".

Did you upload the files to the right directory (public_html), and did your FTP program say it uploaded them successfully? If graphics or text files come out garbled (or if you see "broken" or "error" icons where the graphics should be) check that you uploaded the graphics as BINARY (RAW DATA) files and not TEXT or MACBINARY.

Did you use "homepage" to create a public_html directory before you started putting stuff there? It won't work if avoid this step -- you can't create the directory yourself.

As with all Web browsers viewing any Web site, occasionally there will be a glitch and it won't connect to the page or one of the graphics won't load. If it doesn't look like your page (or any other) is loading correctly, try hitting the "Reload" ("Refresh") button. (You may have to hit "Stop" first.)

5. Rate Sheet

World customers who are on the Gold Plan receive the World Web Folder base allocation at no additional charge. The World Web Folder base allocation includes:

100,000 hits per month and 100 MB transferred per month.

Further activity during the month is billed at the rate of:

$1 per 100,000 additional hits
$1 per 100 MB additional transferred

World customers on the A La Carta plan can add World Web Folder service for an extra $5/month.

A "hit" is a successful access to any page in your World Web Folder. A transfer occurs each time a page is accessed whether or not a specific "save" or "download" is executed. For example, if your World Web Folder page includes a 20KB image, each access to your World Web Folder page will amount to at least a 20KB transfer.

Disk space used for your World Web Folder area counts against your account's disk quota.

For detailed pricing information on the Gold and A La Carta plans, World Web Folder services, extra disk space, etc., either see The World's Services & Rates or type "help rates" from the UNIX shell.

6. Checking Your Hit Count

To get a summary of how many hits and bytes your World Web Folder has served so far during the current month, login to the UNIX shell and type:

wwwacct -t

You will see something like:

% wwwacct -t Records=1313 Hits=1256 Bytes=193695

Your numbers will be different (obviously). Remember that "hits" do not measure how many people visited -- each image that is displayed, each Web page that is loaded, is a hit, so the number of people visiting your site per month will be much less than the hit count. (On my personal site, each visitor seems to generate about 60 hits before they leave in disgust.)

If you want to get the full Web log for your World Web Folder site (this can be VERY long -- one line for each hit, more or less) take a look at the wwwacct manual (type "man wwwacct") to see what options are available.

Kiosk users have a "kioskacct" command, which is just like "wwwacct" only it lists the hits on their Kiosk site. (They can also have weekly statistical breakdowns E-mailed to them automatically, by creating a ".kstats" file in their Kiosk directory.)

Getting Started WithWorld Web Folder

1. Creating The public_html Directory

2. Getting Your Pages Onto The World

3. Some Gotcha's

4. Troubleshooting

5. Rate Sheet

6. Checking Your Hit Count

Getting Started With
World Web Folder