 World Wide Web Frequently Asked Questions You can contact us by:
Almac Web Support should only be used for support issues relating to using the Almac web server. It is not for the support of client software or other issues: technical support for Almac services other than the web server should be addressed to [email protected]. A self-help newsgroup, almac.homepage can be used to answer your web authoring questions.
How do I open up a web account on Almac: Business Users?Those requiring corporate World Wide Web accounts should view this document. How do I open up a web account on Almac: Personal/Home Users?All Almac Internet LITE and REGULAR subscribers are entitled to 512k of web space. Almac PREMIUM account holders are entitled to 2 MB of web space. To request your web account, please email a member of our Web staff at [email protected] stating your full name. After requesting your web account please allow up to 2 working days for it to be set up. The Web Staff will email you as soon as your account is ready. Each additional megabyte of web space for personal/home users will cost a further �25 per annum. Personal homepages are placed under Almac's Personal Home Pages
section on our World Wide Web site. Therefore, your web
address will be in the format: How can I get help with my homepages?This FAQ should answer the most common question regarding using your webspace. A self-help newsgroup, almac.homepage can be used to answer your questions. Almac's Support Staff are able to offer help if you are having difficulty with accessing Almac's web server, but they are not available for help with writing your homepages or other aspects unrelated to the server. Support is only available for use of the service. No support will be given for HTML authoring or page design. For support call or email Almac's Webmaster at [email protected] on (01324) 666336 Monday to Friday, 9:00am to 5:00pm. Do Almac Design World Wide Web sites?Almac offers a wide range of design services for creating your web site. These include web page design, layout and coding, CGI scripting, Java programming, Macromedia Shockwave Director authoring, database integration, and professional graphics design and image processing. For more information please call our Business Development Managers Bob Hunter or Sandy Thomson at (01324) 666336. Who do I contact to discuss marketing/sales issues at Almac?General enquiries should be directed to our Marketing Manager, Alastair Mcintyre on (01324) 666336 or by email at [email protected]. How do Almac web account owners maintain and update their web sites?Every web account owner is allocated a directory on Almac's web server. In this directory, you may upload/delete/amend files and create subdirectories. In addition, CGI (Common Gateway Interface) scripts written in PERL can be implemented in your directory. To upload/maintain your files, you will require an Internet connection and a FTP (File Transfer Protocol) client such as CuteFTP (for PC's) or Fetch (for Macintosh). You will be given a username and password to be entered into the FTP client so that you can access your web account. You should keep this password secret; anyone who knows your password and login name can log into the server and modify your files. If you cannot log in, or if you password becomes compromised, please telephone our Webmaster on (01324) 666336 during support hours. Note: You cannot use the FTP facilities in Netscape (or any other browser) to upload your files.
When you first access your site using an ftp tool your directory will be empty. How do I register my site with search engines?You can publicise your site by having it added to the various Web indexes. Most of the popular search engines, such as Yahoo, Alta Vista, Webcrawler and G.O.D. will include your site in their listings without charge, and have an "Add URL" link for you to register your site with them online. There are also sites such as http://www.submit-it.com/ which will submit your URL to multiple sites for you. Naming Your HTML FilesIt is strongly recommended that you name your first html file index.html or index.htm If your initial file is called anything else then it must be explicitly referred to in your URL, eg. http://www.almac.co.uk/your_website_name/filename.html In addition, you should be consistent in having lower case links and filenames: Unix is case senstitve and most errors are caused by mixing cases. How Much Data Can I Store in 1Mb?1 Mb can store approximately 1,000,000 characters. This equates to approximately 260 pages of A4 text. Some very large graphics can take up more space than one page of A4 text. You can increase the size of your site by notifying us. Thereafter we will start charging you for the extra space that you are using. There is no additional set up fee. We regularly check to see that everyone is within their limits. If you exceed your limit we will contact you and give you two days to remove some files from your area. Changing Your PasswordAt present, the only way to change your password is to email our Webmaster at [email protected]. Access StatisticsAlmac provides hit statistics to every user with a business web site. The stats are stored under your directory and can be accessed using a web browser. You will be informed of the URL to locate these statistics shortly after joining Almac. Implementing a CounterAlmac offers all users a text-based page counter to use on their pages. e.g. Number of accesses:<a href="http://www.almac.co.uk/cgi-bin/counter/"><!--#exec cgi="/cgi-bin/counter"--></a> Enter the above html code into the web page you wish to display your web counter. Since this is a server side include, you MUST give this file the file extension.shtml. For instance, if you wish the counter to be displayed on the page index.html, you must rename this file index.shtml A graphical web page counter is available from http://www.digits.com Using ImagemapsThe Almac Server supports the NCSA imagemap program which is installed in the cgi-bin directory on the server. The steps to creating an image map are as follows. Create your image and map file. Place the resulting map file in your directory. If you are a business user then use the following URL to refer to the map: <A HREF="http://www.almac.co.uk/cgi-bin/imagemap/your_directory_name/file.map"><IMG SRC="file.gif" ISMAP></A> If you have personal web account then the URL to refer to the map is: <A HREF="http://www.almac.co.uk/cgi-bin/imagemap/personal/your_directory_name/file.map"><IMG SRC="file.gif" ISMAP></A> Using CGI (Common Gateway Interface) ScriptsCGI scripts can be used to implement forms, chat forums, guestbooks, animations and many other features on your web pages. PERL is the only available language for using CGI scripts on Almac's web server. Web account owners can use CGI scripts in his/her web
sites by placing the scripts directly into their
directory or into a sub-directory. In order for them to
work it is essential for the scripts to
be named with a .cgi file extension, ie. script.cgi #!/usr/local/bin/perl You must save the file in UNIX format. If the file is saved in DOS format then there will be an extra (Control M or ^M) at the end of the line. Macintosh format text files appear as single line to UNIX. These will cause a 500: Server error message. Ensure that the Web Server has permission to write to/create the file. This is done by granting world write permission to the file (if it already exists) or world write and execute permission to the directory in which you wish to create the file. Using CuteFTP you can change file permissions by following this procedure.
Unfortunately, due to time constraints our Web Staff cannot give any assistance on the implementation/debugging of CGI scripts. Internet Wave: Putting sound samples on your web pagesAlmac supports Vocaltec's Internet Wave format. Internet Wave is an Audio on Demand Helper Application for web browsers which delivers live, top quality audio in real time. Web account owners on Almac can now place live voice or music sound samples on their home pages. The Internet Wave Player, and Encoder is available from Vocaltec's web site at http://www.vocaltec.com The site also contains full instructions on how to set up your pages to contain IWave sound samples. Some examples of Internet Wave files in operation can be found on our Electric Scotland pages. Help on constructing a web site
Disclaimer
By uploading to the homepages host, you will be deemed to have agreed to and accepted the terms and conditions of use of Almac's web hosting service. |
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