How do I set up my free webspace ?

[Simon]

Congratulations, Lance, you just hit 3500 posts.

... and in some of them, he hasn't even said ...

IE7 on Vista is also at present the safest browser available!

    Lance!!   

[Rik]

 

[Dont mention Talk Talk !!]

I gave up guys, i just dont have a clue and am going to have to get my brother, who is a hardware technician to help me 

James

[Sebby]

Any of us will be happy to help further if you want, but if you think it'll be easier for your brother to help, that's fine.

[Lance]

... and in some of them, he hasn't even said ...

    Lance!!   

I remember being on a course before, and it was said that if you want to get your point across and get it remembered, then it should be said at least three times!

Thanks simon and rik!

[Simon]

[drummer]

At the risk of mounting a familiar hobby horse and getting flamed for it, here's my two penn'orth on this thread.

As of now, the thread contains 30 posts.

The OP (James) posted five times.

Six or seven replies relate directly to the question raised.

So if my sums are right, that means 18 (or thereabouts) of the replies don't actually relate to the original question.

I'm guessing James's problem could've been resolved pretty easily via this forum, as many of the regulars here are familiar with uploading websites using FTP.  My earlier post was a feeble attempt to get the ball rolling for James, but the thread became a vehicle for unrelated opinions.

This isn't necessarily a criticism, mereley an observation about how the forum can be improved.  Let's face it, the opportunity to veer wildly off-topic is abundant throughout the entire forum, so all I'm suggesting is that replies posted in the IDNet Help section are only related to the actual question.

It really isn't a big deal and I'm not asking for heavy moderation, just an acknowledgment that when someone posts a reply in Help, they are aware of the difference between verbal noise and a genuine attempt to help the OP with their problem.

Although I'm only trying to be constructive, my asbestos cloak is fully operational because I know some of you get very defensive about any criticism of this forum. 

Sorry about that but healthy debate is a good thing, isn't it?

[Lance]

Hi drummer,

I've just looked through, and don't see too many posts which are wildly off topic. Where a help thread does go off topic, we try to split it off at a suitable point and move the split to IDNatter.

In this case, we had tried to help James, but when it comes to FTP and setting up websites, some people can struggle to understand. This is no critism of James, it's just that some people are more technical and higher up the learning curve then others!

Thanks for the feedback, and have a karma for it! Watch out though, the asbestos cloak could be bad for your health!!!

[Ted]

Hi James
Don't give up its not that bad.
The following assumes you have an editor like NVU and an FTP client like FireFTP installed and running. If not, do it now.
What we're going to do here is, connect to the Idnet ftp server, download a file, edit it and then upload it again.
Firstly, create a folder on your desktop and name it something like "web pages".
Open the Ftp client and connect to the remote server, you should see 2 windows one is your local machine, navigate to your web pages folder. You will also see the remote site containing one file "index.html", drag it to your web pages folder and it will download, don't worry a copy will stay on the server. You can also select the file and press the appropriate arrow "up\down".

Open NVU and then open the file you just downloaded.
Type something on the page, "hello world" is always good,  save the file.

Back to the FTP client, connect, and drag the edited file from "web pages" back to where it came from. You will be asked if you want to overwrite the file, you do, so overwrite.

Go to a web browser, navigate to your site, press refresh page and you should see the change you made earlier.

If you have problems configuring the FTP client, let us know and we'll get you through it.


Hope this helps, if not let us know

[Broadback]

My heart goes out to James.  We do not know the extent of his knowledge, but we are throwing alphabetic soup at him. What do you wish to do James as regards your web site?  Perhaps you should sit down with a pencil, a rubber and a blank sheet of paper and try writing what your aim is.  Then we need to know what programmes you have that might help you, for example Microsoft suite.
Perhaps we can then build up a picture of what you envisage, then help you get it on your web page. The simpler the better to start with.
I set out some years ago to write a web page, it took me a long time, and many sighs, however I ended up with this:
http://lock74apps.dnsalias.org/74th/index1.php

Now hosted by a friend.  So do not give up hope just eat the elephant, one slice at a time.  The help you will get here will be inexhaustible.

[Sebby]

I'm guessing James's problem could've been resolved pretty easily via this forum, as many of the regulars here are familiar with uploading websites using FTP.  My earlier post was a feeble attempt to get the ball rolling for James, but the thread became a vehicle for unrelated opinions.

I appreciate your point, but I've got to say that I disagree in this case. If you look at the OP's question, and the posts that follow, they are all directly related to his question.

The OP came back and said it was perhaps a little beyond him, and that he was going to get someone to show him in person. You'll see that I even said that we can still help if he wants to give it another try. I don't believe the OP came to this decision because the thread went slightly off topic towards the end.

[Ted]

Sebby
No need to justify off topic posts, in my opinion free speech and a sense of humour (you know who you are) are the mainstay of a forum such as this, which is why it works so well and to my thinking is quite unique, i wouldn't want to change that.
Having said that, i feel this "topic" should be split off to its own thread as its now going wildly "off".

Ted