Archive-name: authoring/freeserve-faq
Posting-Frequency: Weekly
Last-modified: 2002-08-15
Version: 1.4.5
This FAQ was originally written by Andrew Mills to whom all due
credit should go for getting it off the ground and maintaining it
for the benefit of these newsgroups until May 2001. Andrew can be
contacted via <mailto:andy@wharne.freeserve.co.uk>
It was extensively written in July and August 2002 to take into
account the new MySite offering from Freeserve and a few new
Frequently Asked Questions have been added.
The weekly posting in now in News Digest Format to allow easy
forwarding of particular sections in suitable news clients.
Current maintainer: Pedt Scragg <mailto:fhw-faq@pedt.demon.co.uk>
First created: 3 February 1999
Changed since last posting: Yes
This is a "Frequently Asked Questions" document for the following
newsgroups and is essential reading for new users:
freeserve.help.webspace and freeserve.webspace.authoring
The following sections are included:
1. What's here
2. General Information
3. Connecting and/or viewing problems
4. HTML authoring problems and questions
5. Other information
------------------------------
Subject: 1. What's here...
Section 2 contains general information
2.01 An introduction
2.02 Do Freeserve provide their own FAQ?
2.03 Posting guidelines
2.04 Page names and extensions
2.05 What do I use to edit pages?
2.06 Do Freeserve supply a counter?
2.07 Do Freeserve supply a mailform?
2.08 Can I use my own CGI scripts?
2.09 Can I use PHP, ASP, SSI, Frontpage Extensions etc?
2.10 How can I "retro" install FrontPage on the Freeserve CD-Rom?
In Part 2
Section 3 contains connecting and/or viewing problems
3.01 I can't connect to the web-server (uploading via FTP)
3.02 What are the settings for connecting to the upload server?
3.03 Why do I see an old page after I have uploaded a new one?
3.04 Why do I keep seeing Freeserve's default page?
Section 4 contains HTML authoring problems and questions
4.01 Why can't I view any images on my pages?
4.02 Why don't my links work?
4.03 Why doesn't my mailform work?
4.04 Why can't I see the form confirmation page?
4.05 What is all of this garble I get from a form?
4.06 How do I password protect a page?
Section 5 contains other information
5.01 Can I ask the author or maintainer of this FAQ for help?
5.02 Useful links
5.03 Credits
5.04 Disclaimer
5.05 Copyright notice
5.06 Amendments and additions
------------------------------
Subject: 2.01 An introduction
The purpose of this FAQ is to provide basic help and answers to the
Frequently Asked Questions found in the newsgroups named at the top
of this document, and pointers to more detailed FAQs regarding the
use of the 15Mb of webspace provided by Freeserve. You can also find
more detailed information at the links mentioned below and also in the
"Useful links" section in Part 2.
Please make sure you read this FAQ before you post here, as most of the
questions posted to these newsgroups can be answered by you doing a bit
of research before-hand, failure to do so may result in a "curt" reply
to a question that has an obvious answer (if you even get a reply). You
can also find help and information at the following places:
http://www.zymous.freeserve.co.uk/ABG/
has some guides with examples on using your webspace
http://www.gcw.org/uk/grapht/webgraphtut.htm
has worked example of optimising JPG images written by Graham Wood
The following characters show the changes (if any) since this FAQ was
last amended and will be placed in front of the appropriate section:
* = Minor addition or correction to section
# = Major rewrite or addition
This whole document can also be found online at:
http://www.pedt.demon.co.uk/faq/fhwfaq.txt (plain text)
http://www.pedt.demon.co.uk/faq/fhwfaq.htm (hyperlinked)
------------------------------
Subject: 2.02 Do Freeserve provide their own webspace FAQ?
Yes, they do. Information about Sitebuilder and FTP My Site can
be found at http://www.freeserve.com/sitebuilder/
You can also request the webspace FAQs by email:
For the original 15Mb Freeserve space then send a blank email
to webspace@freeserve.com with the subject of help
For the SiteBuilder and FTP My Site then send a blank email
to mysite.support@freeserve.com with the subject of help
Please note that the first one provides less information that
to be found here and the MySite address listed in the first
one (mysite.support@) bounces at the present time. I think the
latter should be support.mysite@freeserve.com but I have had
no reply from it as yet.
For SiteBuilder then the offical online information at the URL
above is to be recommended.
------------------------------
Subject: 2.03 Posting guidelines
The "rules" or "guidelines" for posting to newsgroups (& the internet
in general) are covered by a set of documents called "RFCs". However,
not everyone has the time/patience or will to read them. Coverage of
the relevant RFCs is beyond the scope of this FAQ.
Below are some "netiquette" (Internet etiquette) guidelines, that if
followed will help you get the most from posting to newsgroups and
will hopefully, save you from getting "flamed" (seriously "told off").
a) Make sure you have already researched for an answer to your
question in the appropriate places before you "dive in" and post
to a newsgroup.
b) If you have an HTML related problem, make sure you include the
*full* URL/link (including the http://) to the problematic page/s
or, if short enough, the actual HTML you are having problems with
- the group are not mindreaders and and an example helps immensely.
"Format" links in your post as below, this will make the link
"clickable" in some news readers. It will also help prevent the URL
from "wrapping" onto two lines. It also means that links that do
wrap onto two lines will still be clickable for most people.
<URL:http://www.link.to.page>
c) Include the name and version of the software you use that you're
having the problem with. This applies for HTML authoring, browser
and FTP software, etc.
d) Include any other information that you think may help us to help
you, such as server error codes or responses.
e) Please make your subject / title meaningful though short. A subject
of "help" is not, errm, very helpful whilst the same post with a
subject of "My table has gone screwy" gives enough information very
quickly - remember that a lot of people may only be downloading the
newsgroup infrequently and may well pass over subjects where there
is no information about the content of the post.
f) Only quote the most relevant parts of the post that you are replying
to. You can cut out some parts and insert something like [snip] to
indicate that you have done so. Replying to a 100 line message just
to add one or two lines of your own wastes bandwidth and is
generally regarded as bad netiquette.
g) Some newsgroup reader software suggests that you enter your reply
before the text you are quoting. This is considered to be bad
practice and your reply should always follow the text you are
quoting.
Putting your reply at the top of the message can make it difficult
to follow the thread as, in real life, you wouldn't normally reply
to someone, before they had asked the question!
h) Posts to newsgroups should only be made in "plain text". Most
newsgroup reader software can be configured to post in this way.
Posting in HTML wastes bandwidth and seriously annoys many people.
To set Outlook Express to post in plain text, first select "Tools"
from the top menu, followed by "Options..." from the drop down
menu.
Next select the "Send" tab and make sure that "Plain text" is
selected in the "News sending format" section.
Finally check that the "Reply to messages using the format in
which they were sent" option is NOT ticked. This prevents you from
accidentally replying in HTML, if somebody else posts in HTML.
See also part (j) below.
i) According to "Netiquette", you should read a newsgroup for two weeks
before posting - a week at a minimum. This is to allow yourself to
familiarise with the "regulars" and to not ask a FAQ that would be
covered in a document like this or a question that might even insult
someone.
There are times though, when you may need answers quickly, in this
case, it may be possible for you to retrieve older postings with
your newsreader - check your manual on how/if this is possible. It
can often be done easily if your newsreader uses "NewNews" as you
only need to set the collection date back by a few weeks. You can
also check on http://groups.google.com, a searchable archive of
posts to all newsgroups - more information on Google Groups is in
Section 5.01 in the second paragraph.
j) On no account post any "binary" (any kind of attachment such as an
image, sound, word file etc.) to a "non-binary" newsgroup. You
should insert any excerpts from text files as plain text and not
as an attachment.
Treat all newsgroups as text only unless you already know different.
With very few exceptions, absence of the word 'binary' or 'binaries'
in the newsgroup name will mean that the group is text only. If none
of the title, charter (if there is one) or FAQ (if there is one) do
not make it clear that binaries are acceptable then do not post them.
The two newsgroups this FAQ is posted to are text only newsgroups.
Please put binary files on your webspace for those interested in
downloading them. Remember, some people will have to pay to
download it via their phone bill and will not be happy to do so.
Although a PGP signed post will show as a binary attachment on some
newsreaders, there are a few possible occasions when a signed post
may be needed. Please do not use PGP signing unless esential.
k) Please give people chance to reply before sending a second request
for help. There is a good chance that someone who can help with a
specific request is not going to be online for a while - we all do
have other things to do with our time. It's usually best to wait a
full day before resending your post - in other words, be patient.
l) Please do not clutter up these groups with test posts to see if
your news software is working. There are many newsgroups available
for you to make test posts, two are: freeserve.test and alt.test
Do not let these few "rules" put you off posting, a polite request for
help will, 99.9recurring% of the time, be answered within a few hours
and, sometimes, within a few mintes.
------------------------------
Subject: 2.04 Page names and extensions
HTML pages can be called almost anything you wish for the filename
before the extension. There are though, a few points to note...
a) the majority (including Freeserve) of operating systems that
web-servers run, use case sensitive filenames, e.g. Index.html is
*not* the same as index.html. To keep things consistent and avoid
mistakes, always use lower case letters.
b) you can use either .html or .htm file extensions.
c) Do not use spaces in your filenames.
Some web browsers will cut off the name at the space unless it has
been encoded as "%20". Not all HTML authoring software will do
this for you, so you often have to edit the HTML documents to
encode the spaces manually.
If you really need to split a filename then use a hyphen ('-') or
an underline character ('_').
d) It is best to restrict the characters used in your filenames to
'a' to 'z', '0' to '9', '-' (hyphen) and '_' (underline). Some
other characters have a special meaning in URLs and can cause
problems.
e) Keep your filenames as short and concise as possible. Try and use
filenames that will help you to maintain the site - The purpose of
"page6.htm" is not obvious, "contactme.htm" is far clearer.
------------------------------
Subject: 2.05 What do I use to edit pages?
Which method you use will depend a lot on your personal taste. I'll try
and not to get into "politics" with editors too much, but starting
with the most expensive way...
a) WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get)
The term "WYSIWYG" is a bit misleading as WYSIWYG editors are not
really "true" WYSIWYG - a page created with a WYSIWYG editor will
/always/ look (albeit, often slightly) different in various browsers
(in fact any page will, no matter how you create them). There are
several WYSIWYG editors available, among them are MS FrontPage2000
HoTMetaL and Dreameaver - these are web authoring editors. It is
also possible to produce web pages with Microsoft Word and Publisher
and some Desktop Publishing programs - they will not produce as
good a result as a program written for HTML authoring.
Advantages: you do not need to learn HTML itself and it can be one
of the faster ways to produce a reasonable looking page.
Disadvantages: they are expensive to buy/register, some will produce
HTML pages that contains unnecessary, extra code (aka "bloated"),
making your pages download slower. FrontPage98/2000 will also use
"special" non-standard tags that are only compatible with MS
Internet Explorer - which will mean, only about 55-95% of your
site's visitors will be able to make use of them. Also, Freeserve,
like most home page providers, do not support FrontPage98/2000
"extensions".
Perhaps one exception to the rule is Dreamweaver, it (apparently,
from the comments I've read by Dreamweaver users) allows much more
control over the final HTML code, but again is very expensive...
The above paragraph was written by Andy Mills. I agree.
b) Text editors
An option that's better on your pocket and for your HTML skills is
to actually *learn* HTML. It's not difficult. You can create HTML
pages using nothing more than a plain old text editor like Notepad
on Win95, Wordpad will also do the job. The only disadvantage is that
it's easy to mis-spell a tag and introduce errors.
c) Dedicated HTML text editors
There are HTML dedicated text editors that take the drudgery out of
adding tags, etc. "Arachnophilia" is one and is completely free -
http://www.arachnoid.com/arachnoid/ - Also http://www.evrsoft.com
provides "1st Page 2000" which is also free. There is also a freeware
version of "Notetab" http://www.notetab.com which is worth trying.
There are plenty of others out there - either freeware, shareware
or commercial. Take a look at and search http://tucows.mirror.ac.uk
Which one you end up using is down to personal taste...
d) Online
Freeserve have "recommended" an online web authoring tool called
"ZyWeb". I've never used this, but as it's an "online" service, it
may cost a fortune in phone bills to use. More info at;
http://www8.zyweb.zy.com
Please note that "ZyWeb" has nothing whatsoever to do with "Zymous"
whose pages are linked to in this document...
(I would appreciate any extra info from anyone who has actually used
ZyWeb)
------------------------------
Subject: 2.06 Do Freeserve supply a counter?
No.
You will have to use a "third party" counter "supplier". These include;
http://www.thecounter.com (TheCounter.com now provide tracking stats)
http://www.linkexchange.com
Or you can use a "tracker", a tracker will give you much more detail
than just "how many" visitors your site has received. These details can
include how many visits per hour/day/week/month, which browser they are
using, which operating system, how many screen colours and what screen
resolution your visitor used to view your site, etc., etc. You will
need to visit one of the tracking services sites for more detailed
information on the service they provide. Some of the trackers available
can be found at:
http://www.fxweb.com/tracker/
http://uk.nedstat.net
http://www.extreme-dm.com
See also: http://www.zymous.freeserve.co.uk/ABG/counters.html for more
information on counters in general.
------------------------------
Subject: 2.07 Do Freeserve supply a mailform?
Yes and no.
If you use Sitebuilder or FTP MySite then there is no mailform
available.
If you use the original 15Mb webspace then a mailform script is
available for use.
The barebones of the HTML needed is as follows:
<FORM method="POST" action="/cgi-bin/mailform.cgi">
<INPUT type="hidden" name="mailuser" value="address">
<INPUT type="hidden" name="targetpage" value="awebpage">
<INPUT type="submit" value="submit">
<INPUT type="reset" value="reset">
</FORM>
If you prefer your form to email as plain text then add
<INPUT type="hidden" name="textoutput" value="yes">
Do not change the name= part of <INPUT type="hidden" as they
are essential to the working of the provided script.
You need to change the value= part of "mailuser" and "targetpage"
For "mailuser" then the value needs to be an email name before the
@ of a full email address that you wish the email from the form
submission to be sent to.
For "targetpage" then this *must* be the *full* address of the page
that you wish to be shown to your visitor and not just the filename.
For example, if I had a thanks.htm page on my own FS webspace then
I would have to use the line
<INPUT type="hidden" value="targetpage"
value="http://www.network-operations.freeserve.co.uk/thanks.htm">
See http://www.zymous.freeserve.co.uk/ABG/mailform.html for more
information and a worked example.
------------------------------
Subject: 2.08 Can I use my own CGI scripts?
No. Freeserve do not make a CGI-BIN directory available to users on
any of the free webspace.
The reason is that CGI scripts may be server CPU intensive and bog
down the server. Also there may be security risks and a badly written
script may take down the whole web server.
If you want to use CGI scripts other than the provided mailform then
you will need to use other, either free or commercial, webspace.
------------------------------
Subject: 2.09 Can I use PHP, ASP, SSI, Frontpage Extensions etc?
Again, no. Freeserve do not support any of the server side scripting
languages on their webspace. You can only use technologies that work
on the web browser (client side). A short, (not exhaustive), list of
what can and cannot be used follows:
Can be used Cannot be used
HTML/DHTML PHP
Javascript (client side) ASP
Java Applets SSI
Flash Movies Frontpage Extensions
Audio JSP
External CGI (counters,etc) CGI scripts
SVG Cold Fusion
Client Side imagemaps Server Side imagemaps
You can still use FrontPage to create your pages for use with your
Freeserve space as long as you do not use any of the extensions on
your web pages.
------------------------------
Subject: 2.10 How can I "retro" install FrontPage Express ?
FrontPage Express would only have been installed if you had chosen
"full" install when you first installed your Freeserve software from
the Freeserve CD. If you wish to "retro" install FrontPage Express,
you need to use one of the utilities listed below to unpack the
"FPESETUP.CAB" file which you will need to search for on your
Freeserve CD - it will likely be in "WinXX\EN\packages\" folder
on the Freeserve CD. Unpack the files to a temporary folder on
your hard drive - you will then be able to run the setup program
and install FrontPage Express.
# If you haven't got a CD then you can probably get a CD with FPexpress on
# at your local Dixons/Currys/WHSmith/et al by picking up one of the "free
# internet access" CDs.
(Note: XX will vary depending on which disk you have).
WinZip http://www.winzip.com - shareware
PowerZip http://www.trident-software.com
You can also use the Windows extract.exe utility - type
extract /? for a list of options.
------------------------------
Subject: 3.01 I can't connect to the web-server (uploading via FTP)
Although any FTP software on any platform should work, there have been
problems reported with some FTP software. For Windows users, WS_FTP
lite (the free version) from http://tucows.mirror.ac.uk/ftp95.html
(also look on internet magazine cover CD-Roms) appears to work well.
and is used by many in the group so support is easily found. Other
points to note are...
a) You must be connected to Freeserve and not another ISP to connect
to the webserver (where do you think they get their income?)
b) Make sure the Host name/Address (address of server you wish to
connect to) is set and your User ID/name is set correctly. See
Section 3.02 for information on the settings needed.
c) Passwords are case sensitive, make sure you enter it exactly the
same as you defined it when you joined.
d) Some FTP clients have an input field for "Initial" (or default) host
directory and many users don't know what to put in this field. The
field should either be left blank or should contain "/" (just the
forward slash without the quotes).
e) You are intentionally or unintentionally with-holding your phone
number (aka CLID - Caller Line I.D.). You must not use 141 when
calling Freeserve, or must use 1470 to make sure it is released.
This is a measure taken by Freeserve to help prevent abuse of their
services by "spammers", etc. See Freeserve's support site for more
info about CLID:
http://195.92.178.4/help/articles/art_CLID.htm
f) If you are running a firewall, you will need to explicitly tell your
firewall to allow uploads.webspace.freeserve.net on Ports 20 and 21
are allowed. You may also need to set 'Passive Transfer Mode' (PASV)
to be on.
------------------------------
Subject: 3.02 What are the settings for connecting to the upload server?
a) Connecting to the "old style" webspace:
Server Name: uploads.webspace.freeserve.net
User ID/name: everything after the @ in your email address
Password: your dialup password
Your webspace address will be http://www.everything after the @
For example, my email is sysadmin@network-operations.freeserve.co.uk
and the web address is http://www.network-operations.freeserve.co.uk
You use the same approach whether your address is domain.fsnet.co.uk,
domain.freeserve.co.uk, domain.fslife.co.uk, domain.fsbusiness.co.uk,
or domain.fsworld.co.uk
b) Connecting to the new FTP My Site webspace
Server Name: sitebuilder.freeserve.com
User ID/name: email on sitebuilder|sitebuildername
Password: sitebuilder password
For example, if I signed up on SiteBuilder / FTP My Site using the
email address bofh@pkuatb.fsnet.co.uk for a site called pebkac then
when FTPing to the sitebuilder upload server, my User ID would be
bofh@pkuatb.fsnet.co.uk|pebkac
(On DOS/Windows/Unix, generate the | using the Shift key and \ key,
on an Apple Mac use Shift Alt L)
------------------------------
Subject: 3.03 Why do I see an old page after I have uploaded a new one?
Your browser is viewing the old version from the "cache" on your hard
drive or a web-cache between you and the page you wish to view. You will
need to "refresh" the browser by holding the "shift" key and pressing
the "reload"/"refresh" buttons - this applies to most Windows, Unix
and Mac Browsers. With MSIE 4+ you can press "ctrl" (or "shift") and
"F5". You only need to press the "reload" button the once in the
Ibrowse and VoyagerNG Amiga browsers.
If you find yourself doing this a lot, then you can set the cache
preferences to "verify = every time", exactly if/how you do this
depends on your browser. Please be aware that changing this setting
can degrade your browsers performance.
You can also try adding "?x=y" to the end of the full reference, (no
quotes) including the name of the page in the request. This will often
force the browser to refetch the page though use a different "x" and
"y" each time.
------------------------------
Subject: 3.04 Why do I keep seeing Freeserve's default page?
There are a couple of things that can happen here
a) when you enter a URL, e.g. http://www.<host>.freeserve.co.uk, the
server will send the browser the "default page". With Freeserve,
this is "index.html", if this is not found, it will look for and
send "index.htm" - also see note below. In this case you may have
uploaded your page as "index.htm" and, as Freeserve already have
their default page there (index.html) from when you first joined,
this is sent to the browser. If this is the this case you need to
either delete the "index.html" and/or rename your "index.htm" to
"index.html".
Note that it seems that only the original freeserve.co.uk domain
uploads a default web page. The newer fsbusiness, fslife, fsnet and
fsworld.co.uk domains do not.
b) you've already "visited" your web-site before you uploaded your own
index.htm/l page and your browser is viewing this page in the local
"cache" as in 3.03, above.
------------------------------
Subject: 4.01 Why can't I view any images on my pages?
The main reasons are...
a) the images are not in the .jpg, .gif or .png format. Please note
that .png is a standard that is supposed to replace Compuserve's
.gif format. It has not yet "taken off" and not all browsers support
it. Some word processing software that has an "Export as HTML" option
may have saved your graphic as .bmp which only later IE browsers will
understand. It is recommended to stick to .jpg and/or .gif files at
the present time as all graphical browsers understand them.
b) the paths to the images are referenced as if they are still on the
hard drive. For example:
<IMG SRC="FILE:\\\C:\path\to\picture.jpg">
instead of:
<IMG SRC="picture.jpg">.
As a side note, you should always add the image size and an "ALT"
text. For example:
<IMG SRC="picture.jpg" WIDTH="200" HEIGHT="100" ALT="An Image">. I
won't go into detail here, but the image size attributes will help
the page load quicker and the "ALT" text will be displayed when
image loading is turned off or where a text only browser such as
lynx is used.
c) Unix, the most common operating system used on webservers, requires
forward slashes "/" and not back slashes "\" as used by Windows,
for example "path/to/image.jpg" and not "path\to\image.jpg".
d) as mentioned earlier, file names are case-sensitive, "image.jpg" is
*not* the same as "Image.jpg". This also applies to file extensions,
so image.jpg is *not* the same as image.JPG or Image.JPG
e) You haven't uploaded your images... Just uploading your completed
pages will not also upload your images. You will also have to select
the required images linked to in your HTML documents and upload them
as well (I know it may seem obvious to some, but it has happened).
Some home page "publishers" or "wizards" that are built into some
HTML editors will not always upload images automatically and will
have to be told to do so (refer to your software's documentation
for more information).
f) Some people have experienced problems with MSIE5 where no images
will load at all, no matter what settings have been used. If this
is the cause of your problem, please make sure that you have
the latest version of MSIE5 installed or upgrade your browser to
MSIE5.5 or 6.0 - this has only been reported on MSIE5 as far as
I am aware.
g) You have uploaded the images as "ASCII" (text) files rather than
as binaries. Check that your FTP software is in "binary" mode
before uploading the images. Some software can be set to recognise
file extensions and automatically select the correct mode. See the
FTP software's help files for more details.
------------------------------
Subject: 4.02 Why don't my links work?
Basically, most of the same rules apply to links as to images - so
read the section above ;).
If the links are external to your site, then the most likely cause
is that you have forgotten the http:// at the start of the link -
you must always start with http:// for external links
There are other problems that can occur with links, but they are,
perhaps, beyond the scope of this FAQ.
------------------------------
Subject: 4.03 Why doesn't my mailform work?
a) Have you got the following as the first line of your mailform:
<FORM METHOD="POST" ACTION="/cgi-bin/mailform.cgi">
b) You may be putting a complete email address in the value of the
field for "mailuser". The value of this field is the username
before the @ sign of the Freeserve web space only. You cannot,
BTW, have the results of submitting the form sent to any other
email address other than one for the web space that the form
is on - note that a form will only send email to the owner of
the web site that it used on. Example - a hyphothetical form at
http://www.network-operations.freeserve.co.uk/form.html, will
only send email to <user>@network-operation.freeserve.co.uk.
See also Section 2.07
------------------------------
Subject: 4.04 Why can't I see the form confirmation page?
You can specify a page in the form which will be loaded in the browser
after the user presses the "Submit" button, this page can contain a
"Thank you for submitting your information" message, or anything else
you wish to say. You will need to alter the following line in your
form;
<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="targetpage"
value="http://www.yourname.freeserve.co.uk/redirect.html">
Change the "yourname" to your hostname (the first bit after the @ in
your email address). You can add a folder to the address used if your
confirmation page is not in the root of your web site.
You do need to use the whole of http://www........./filename.html as
the value of this field, otherwise the script does not know which
website to return to. value="redirect.html" will not work.
See also Section 2.07
------------------------------
Subject: 4.05 What is all of this garble I get from a form?
By default, Freeserve's form returns its results in HTML. So, you can
view it in a browser, or go to Tucows (http://tucows.mirror.ac.uk)
and find an HTML to text converter or another utility that will make it
"readable".
You can also add another hidden field to the form that will return the
results as text:
<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="textoutput" VALUE="yes">
See also Section 2.07
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Subject: 4.06 How do I password protect a page?
Normally, this is done on the server by creating ".htaccess" and
".htpasswd" files. Sadly, you don't have access to the htpasswd
programme on Freeserve's servers to create the htpasswd file that
contains the encrypted password and .htaccess files are ignored.
To protect an area or file as much as possible, try the following:
Create a directory (or folder, if you prefer to call it that) in your
web space with an obscure name, eg., "7fdjjs". Now give your protected
page an obscure name, eg. "loadmenot.htm(l)" and place within the
folder you created above.
Just in case someone should guess the directory's name, create and
an index.htm(l) default page with the following META tag in between
the <HEAD> tags:
<META HTTP-EQUIV="refresh"
CONTENT="0; URL=http://www.yourpage.freeserve.co.uk">
Doing this will prevent the directory's contents from being displayed
and force the browser to follow the link specified in the time given,
in this case "0" seconds. There's no need to put anything in between
the body tags, but you can put a link there in case the viewer's browser
does not support meta tag refreshing (or has it disabled). Once done,
all you need do is to give those "authorised" the full URL to the page.
There are also Javascript solutions, one of them is called "Gatekeeper"
can be found at http://www.pagetutor.com/keeper/. The only problem is,
this requires a Javascript capable browser and for the user to have
Javascript enabled for it to work at all.
Both of these solutions are not very secure, but are the best you will
get without the use of .htaccess/.htpasswd or any other server side
authentification.
------------------------------
Subject: 5.01 Can I ask the author or maintainer of this FAQ for help?
Preferably, no. Why? Because the answers to many of the problems asked
in these two newsgroups can be found in, or through the links in this
document, posting to the newsgroups or even doing a bit of research
using a search engine like Altavista (http://www.altavista.com) or
Google (http://www.google.com).
Also use the newsgroup archives at http://groups.google.com and
follow the link to the advanced search - typing your query and
limiting the newsgroups to one of freeserve.webspace.authoring
or freeserve.help.webspace should find you an answer if your problem
has been discussed before - one tip that you may find useful: set
the more than the default 10 results so you can see more of the
archived posts that match your query.
We are not trying to be "mean" (we will always /try/ and help where
possible), but we are generally busy and may not be able to give you a
timely response to your questions. You are far better off asking your
questions in the newsgroups where it is likely someone will respond
quickly.
Also, an important point: newsgroup answers not only benefit others who
are learning to use their webspace but are subject to peer review and a
duff answer will be spotted and corrected fairly quickly.
------------------------------
Subject: 5.02 Useful links...
<URL:http://www.zymous.freeserve.co.uk> General user resources
<URL:http://www.wharne.freeserve.co.uk/free/> Amiga user resources
<URL:http://www.arachnoid.com> Free HTML editor
<URL:http://www.evrsoft.com> Another free HTML editor
<URL:http://tucows.mirror.ac.uk> Net software resources
<URL:http://www.ipswitch.com> WS_FTP FTP software
<URL:http://www.gcw.org.uk/> Web graphics tutorial
<URL:http://www.freeserve.com/sitebuilder/> Sitebuilder & FTP My Site
------------------------------
Subject: 5.03 Credits...
I would like to thank the following people for their suggestions,
input and any other help they have provided.
David Dorward | Duncan Clarke | Zymous | Paul C |
Garry Knight | Lemming | Ian Gregory | Tim Jackson |
Mike Bartlett | Phil Foster | Richard A. Abbott | Me ;-) |
Andrew Mills | John Lowe | Gazza | Wivens |
And not forgetting the "unsung heros" that wished to remain anonymous -
you know who you are...
Have I forgotten you? Then let me know at the address above.
------------------------------
Subject: 5.04 Disclaimer
You use the information in this document at your own risk. The author
and/or the contributers will not be made liable or responsible for any
damage or loss incurred in any way by the use of the information
contained within this document. The information concerning Freeserve
webspace may become out of date at short notice if Freeserve make any
changes to their web servers.
This is an unofficial FAQ that has been written by Freeserve users, it
is in no way supported by Freeserve.
------------------------------
Subject: 5.05 Copyright notice.
Original document is copyright © Andrew Mills. Additional material
is © Pedt Scragg.
You can post this document to the Freeserve newsgroups or to any other
Freeserve user as long as it stays intact and is not altered in any
way. If you wish to publish this document on a website, or by any other
means (including paper, etc.) please gain the maintainters's permission
first (even though it's very unlikely you will be refused permission).
------------------------------
Comments and errata are welcomed. Please send them to Pedt Scragg
at the email address <mailto:fhw-faq@pedt.demon.co.uk>