Creating the Web Page

The first step in publishing a web page is creating the code for the pages themselves.  There are many ways to go about this, ranging from a plain text editor up to a variety of fancy HTML code builders that work just like a Word Processor. 

Once you have the web pages created to your liking and saved onto your computer, you need to transfer them to a special folder in your home directory on our computer  This folder is called public_html, and in most cases you need to create that directory yourself.  The main page of your website must be called either index.htm or index.html.  Other pages can be called anything you want, and you can have whatever subdirectories you like as well (images, patterns, etc.).

Publishing the Web Page

The simplest way to upload your web pages and manipulate the directories is through an FTP client, which works much like the Windows Explorer or File Manager but can act on the disks of a remote computer.  We suggest CuteFTP but there are other, more powerful clients available out there for advanced users.

With CuteFTP started, open the connection setup window (either through the quick setup window when it first starts or from the button bar at the top of the screen in the program itself.  You'll be presented with a window like this on the left.

In the Host Address field, enter mergetel.com and then place your username and password in the appropriate fields.  Click on the Connect button to mak ethe connection.  If the connection fails, double-check the spelling of the hostname, your username and password.  All are case sensitive.

You'll be presented with a two-pane window.  The pane on the left will show your local computer's disks, and you'll need to set it to show the directory where you have stored your web page components.  It works just like Windows Explorer or File Manager.  The pane on the right shows the view of your home directory on our server.  There is a bar at the top of each pane which lights up to indicate which directory is the active one for the file and folder operations at the top of the window.

In the right pane, you'll need to create a directory called public_html into which you'll place your web pages if it does not already exist.  Once it is there, double-click on it to switch into it.  Then simply drag your web page files (index page, sub pages, and images) from your local disk to the public_html directory to upload your web page.

Your web page is now published!

To update your pages, just repeat the above procedures and copy over the existing files with the new ones.

Viewing Your Web Page

Your web page URL is http://www.mergetel.com/~username

Replace the word username with your username from your account.

Using Netscape Composer to Publish Pages

To use Netscape Composer to publish your web pages, you'll need to gather some information and set up the public_html directory first.  The information you need for publishing i sthe full path of your home directory.  We have several disk devices that home directories have been placed into as we've grown, and some users associated with companies, particular computer resellers or as extra accounts are placed in subdirectories different than the default.  To get this information, and setup the public_html directory at the same time, you'll need to telnet into merge and perform some simple UNIX commands.  You'll only need to do this once before your first web publication.  After that, it's all set up and you will have eveything you'll need.

Minor UNIX Wizardry

Under Windows 95 or 98, go to your START button and click on RUN.  In the box, type in telnet mergetel.com then click on the Okay button.  A window will open where you'll have to log in with your username and password.  Once logged in, you'll be presented with a $ command prompt.  The screen will look like so:

Welcome to Merge Internet.
Niagara's Internet Access Experts.
Unix Server merge1.mergetel.com
--------------------------------------------------------

login: username
Password:
Last login: Tue May  4 22:48:45 from slip07.mergetel
Sun Microsystems Inc.   SunOS 5.5.1    Generic May 1996

$

To create the public_html directory (if it does not already exist), type mkdir public_html at the command prompt:

$ mkdir public_html
$

To see it, type ls at the prompt:

$ ls
public_html

Then make it your current directory with cd:

$ cd public_html
$

Now you need to make note of your full html directory path for publishing web pages with composer.  To get the directory path, type pwd (print working directory) at the $ command prompt:

$ pwd
/home/home2/username/public_html
$

Write this down and keep it handy for when you publish with Composer.  To quit out of the telnet session, you can either just close the telnet window, or type exit at the prompt, then close the window.

Publishing With Composer

With your new web page loaded into Netscape Composer, click on the publish button.  You'll be presented with a window that looks like this:

There is a place to enter the title of your web page (what will eventually show up in the title bar of the Browser window), and a place to put the name of your page in the html filename space.  Remember that your main index page (the first page people will see when they go to your URL) must be called index.htm or index.html.

The HTTP or FTP Location to publish to line is what we need the previously gathered directory path.  It must look something like the path entered in the box above.  The ftp:// part tells composer to use the ftp transfer protocol - the http PUT method does not work with our server.  The server name is mergetel.com, followed by the full path that you obtained in the UNIX section above.  This tells Composer where on the server to place your web pages.

In the username and password fields you need to enter your username and password to allow Composer to write to your home directory.  Then click on the OK button and off the page goes!!

If you have any images associated with your page, Composer will list then in the bottom portion of the Window and it will upload them as well  for you.

You Are Published!

Once the pages have been published, the web address URL is http://www.mergetel.com/~username - where username is your own username.

That's all there is to it!!
 

Questions or Comments?  Email  Merge Technical Support