3 Introduction to the HTTP / World Wide Web Service
All of your Web services are handled through the NT server of your BLUEHILL.com NT
Solution. The following chapters explain how to upload your pages using FTP or
Microsoft® FrontPage®, and how to create dynamic content using tools such as Allaire’s Cold Fusion or Microsoft’s Active Server Pages.
In order to administer your BLUEHILL.com NT Solution, you need to have some type of connection to the Internet. Although your BLUEHILL.com NT Solution is connected to the backbone of the Internet, and is therefore online 24 hours a day, you can only access and administer it if you are connected to the Internet as well. For this reason you will need an account with a local Internet Access Provider. A simple dial-up connection is sufficient to access your BLUEHILL.com NT Solution remotely. Because BLUEHILL.com is not an Internet Access Provider, we cannot provide you with dial-up Internet access. However, there are many Internet access providers that can help you get online access. These include both national providers like NetCom, AOL, AT&T, MCI, Sprint, Juno and others, as well as local providers that are available in most areas.
The remaining sections of this chapter, as well as the following chapters, provide basic information to help get you started; for more advanced topics or troubleshooting tips, we recommend you refer to the documentation provided by the distributors of the particular software you are using.
3.1 The HTTP Protocol
The HTTP or World Wide Web service is by far the most well known and widely talked about Internet service available today. When most people refer to “surfing the Web,” or “going online,” what they are really talking about is accessing the HTTP service through their Web browser.
HTTP, which stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol, is the means by which text, images, sound, and other media are quickly transferred from a Web server to anyone in the world who has access to a Web browser. Some of the most common files that are accessed through a Web browser include the following:
- .html or .htm files. These files, more commonly referred to as Web pages, are written in a simple language called HyperText Markup Language (HTML).
- .asp files. These files, called Active Server Pages, are like HTML files except that they allow you to embed programming statements and functions inside them.
- .gif files. GIF files are graphics files that contain no more than 256 unique colors, and therefore load more quickly than JPEG images. Two popular types of GIF files are animated GIFs, which contain simple animation, and interlaced GIFs, which come through in layers of increasing detail.
- .jpeg or .jpg files. JPEG files are generally used for photographs and highly detailed artwork. Because they can contain up to 16 million colors, these graphics files generally take longer to transfer than do GIF files.
- .midi or .mid files. MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) files are small files containing sequences of digital numbers that can reproduce simple musical tones and instruments.
- .wav files. These sound files contain digital information that can recreate sound waves and produce a wide variety of audio signals through a computer.
Many other types of files are also viewed or otherwise processed through Web browsers, and the list of media types continues to grow.
3.2 Accessing Your Web Server through HTTP
Your Web server has been assigned a unique IP address that identifies it from all other computers on the Internet. It looks something like 209.176.24.128 – a series of four numbers separated by dots. The exact numbers vary depending upon the physical location of your Web server on our network. You received this IP address when your BLUEHILL.com NT Solution order was processed. You can access your Web server at any time through a Web browser by typing your IP address into the address bar. This IP address may change from time to time to support our network infrastructure and growth.
Because you want your Web server to be easily accessible, you likely registered a domain name to point to your computer’s IP address. If so, you can also access your Web server using this domain name. Be aware, however, that if you are using a new domain name, or a domain name that previously pointed somewhere else, it may take several days before your domain name points to your Web server properly. If this is the case check out our TTL tool. For more information about domain names and domain name services, please refer to Chapter 17, DNS.
Every file on every Web server on the Internet is also accessible through a unique address. These addresses, called Uniform Resource Locators or URLs, all follow the same format. All URLs start with a protocol type, followed by a domain name or IP address that identifies a computer, then the path to the file. For example, to access the home page of the BLUEHILL.com Web site, you would enter the following URL in your Web browser’s address bar:
- http://www.4domains.com/index.html
The http:// is the protocol definition, which means that you want to access the server’s HTTP service (as opposed to another service such as email or FTP). In many browsers, you can simply omit the protocol definition because it assumes you want to use http:// if no other protocol is specified.
Next comes BLUEHILL.com, the name that points to the actual computer that houses the BLUEHILL.com Web site.
Finally, /index.html is the path to the file containing the HTML code that makes up the homepage of the BLUEHILL.com Web site. By default, if no file name is specified, your Web server looks for a file called index.html. If no such file exists, it builds an index of all the files in the specified directory and displays this instead. This means that the page in this example could also be referred to as http://www.BLUEHILL.com/, or even www.BLUEHILL.com in most Web browsers.
3.3 Web Publishing on Your BLUEHILL.com NT Solution
You’re probably anxious to put up a nice looking, quality Web site. You have several options available to you as you decide how to create your site. The option you choose depends completely on you, your goals, interests, and resources. Some options are:
- Learn about HTML and Web publishing yourself and use a text editor, HTML editor, and other tools to create your Web site.
- Use a Web site creation tool such as Microsoft® FrontPage® 2000, which helps you create documents in a “what you see is what you get” environment, translates your work into HTML code, and uploads your work to your Web server automatically.
- Hire an expert to create your Web site for you.
If you choose to learn HTML yourself and code your pages by hand, the best place to start is with a beginner’s HTML book or to learn about HTML through the Internet. One of the best ways to learn HTML is to use your browser’s View Source function to see the HTML code of existing Web sites that you find interesting. There are a wide number of resources available that can teach you everything you need to know. HTML is relatively simple and easy to learn. Check out both our developers library and suggested links located at http://www.4domains.com/support/
One decision that you will need to make if you choose this option is which editor you will use. You can use a simple text editor like Windows NotePad, or a commercial HTML editor such as HomeSite. If you create and edit files on your desktop computer rather than through an online text editor, you’ll also need to use FTP to transfer them to your server.
If you would rather not learn HTML, but would still like to create your Web site yourself, a Web site creation tool like Microsoft FrontPage 2000 is a great alternative. FrontPage 2000 allows you to create, edit, and maintain your Web site in a graphical environment and transfer your site’s contents automatically without the use of FTP. If you choose this option, you’ll need to purchase FrontPage 2000 from Microsoft or your local software dealer. The FrontPage 2000 Server Extensions have already been installed on your Web server. The FrontPage system is described completely in Chapter 4 of this guide.
Professional Web designers have extensive knowledge of HTML, as well as all the latest trends in Web site creation. Most produce very fast results. If you choose to hire a professional Web page designer to create your Web site for you, you will need to do one of the following:
- Upload their content to your Web server through FrontPage or FTP;
- Trust them with your administrative password; or
- Provide them your administrative password and then change your administrative password once their work is complete.
3.4 Uploading Your Web Content
You can upload your Web pages to your BLUEHILL.com NT Solution in one of two ways:
- Using an FTP client program
- Using FrontPage
For FTP instructions, please go on to the next section, Uploading Your Web Content Using FTP. Instructions for uploading your content through FrontPage can be found in the Microsoft FrontPage chapter.
3.4.1 Uploading Your Web Content Using FTP
FTP is a standardized method of transferring files between computers, regardless of the platform or operating system the computers are running on. FTP services can be accessed through an FTP client program. There are two types of FTP access available to you, depending on the particular BLUEHILL.com NT Solution you own. One is Administrative FTP, which is described below. The other is Anonymous FTP, which is described in Chapter 21.
You can upload your Web content via Administrative FTP. Administrative FTP access, which is available on all NT servers, allows the administrator of your Web server to connect through an FTP client. If you don’t currently have an FTP client, you can download one for free from the BLUEHILL.com Web site at the following URL:
Once you obtain an FTP client, you should install and configure it according to its documentation.
Administrative FTP access gives the administrator complete access to all of the Web server’s files and directories and is useful for transferring files back and forth between your PC and your NT server.
Now, try an Administrative FTP connection by connecting to your own NT server. Enter the following information into your FTP client:
- Hostname: domain.com
- Username: your_username
- Password: your_password
Whenever you upload Web pages or anonymous FTP files through your FTP client program, make sure to connect to domain.com. This will connect you to the NT server, which houses all your Web services.
Once you connect, your client will attempt to log in using the username and password you provided. If successful, you will be able to administer your file system through your FTP client. Be aware that you can upload, download, and delete files on your Web server through Administrative FTP. Any files you send to your Web server will automatically overwrite existing files of the same name, so be sure to back up important data if you intend to upload any files.
3.4.2 Uploading Your Web Content Using FrontPage
For instructions about creating and uploading content using FrontPage, please refer to the Microsoft FrontPage chapter, or refer to Microsoft’s FrontPage documentation at the following URL:
