What is FTPing again?

Remember, "you have to 'upload' your file from your little desktop PC (personal computer) at home or in the lab and put it on Earlham's big computer so folks can find and read it.

This can be done with a program called FTP (File Transfer Protocol, but you don't need to know that).

The program takes the files you made and puts them on the web at an accessible web address (ie. www.earlham.edu/~your username/filename.html)."

Preparing to Transfer

You must save your first page (the page people will first come to when they visit your home page) with the file name: "index.html". The quotes are not included.

All subsequent pages (linked pages) should be saved with an 8 letter file name which is hopefully somewhat descriptive (they should also end in ".html" - see note).

NOTE:
The most important thing when naming your files is consistency. The ending can be ".html" or ".htm" and you can use capital letters, but the format needs to be consistent for all your pages and all your links.
** A link or address which is not an EXACT match to the filename will not work. **
To avoid much pain and heartache, I try to do all mine in a consistent format so there is less chance I will get confused - ie. all my web names are lower case, 8 characters or less, and end in ".html".

Save all the pages you want to upload onto the web to someplace you can easily find them again (Anywhere except the desktop, I suggest using a zip disk - Drive D:\).

I recommend making a new folder and saving everything for your web page in one folder which you use only for your web pages. This way you can upload everything in that folder and have less trouble with broken images/links etc.

To FTP your web page to the earlham.edu site

Click on the FTP program icon on your desktop. (Mac users will have to use a different program.) It will look like an electrical plug and socket and will probably say something like "WS_ftpLE". If in doubt, try it and see whether the next instructions make sense...

If you do not have an FTP icon on your desktop:
It is possible there may not be a shortcut from the program to your desktop even if it is on your computer. If you do not see an icon for FTP on your desktop, go to the "Start" button in the corner of your screen and select "Find," and "Files or Folders." Type in "ftp" under "named:" and click on the button "find now". If a program that looks like it says ftp with a picture icon shows up and it lists it as an "application" under "type", click on it.
If you are not on a lab computer you may have to download an FTP program off the web. WS FTP LE is available free to students, faculty and staff at educational institutions and to the non-business home user.

When you click on the WS_FTP icon, a window titled "Session Profile" will open up. For your Earlham website, the settings need to be as follows:

Profile name: Earlham (if no profile named "Earlham", you will have to set the host name & type)
Host name: yang.earlham.edu
Host type: automatic detect
User ID: (your e-mail username)
Password: (your e-mail password)

When you have typed all this in, click on the OK button.

(On campus, you will have to enter your password a second time)

This should give you a window which is split into two parts and has two arrows in the middle.
On the left are the files on your desktop computer,
and on the right are the files in your account on the Earlham server computer.

On the right side, click on the folder labeled "www". This is the folder into which you will put all your web page files, including any pictures, graphics or backgrounds.

On the left you will need to go find the location in your computer or on your zip disk where you saved your web pages.

If they are on your zip disk, scroll down the list and then select [-d-].
To find them within your computer hard drive, the green arrow bumps you up one folder-level, and the "Local system" window tells you where in your computer you are looking. If you just click the green arrow a whole bunch of times you will end up in the root of C: (your hard drive, aka. My Computer) and can start fresh from there.
Locating your files this way is a little harder than using successive windows starting with "My Computer," but it is the same idea. Click on the next step each time to get progressively closer to your files...

When your web page files are displayed on the left side of the FTP window, select a file on the left (in your computer) so that it turns blue, and click on the arrow pointing to the right. This will transfer that file (a file/page of your home page) from your desktop computer (left side) to the server computer (right side). The other arrow does the opposite. Warning: the computer will not necessarily warn you when you are about to overwrite a file and replace a newer version of a file with an older version-it may just do it.

When you have transferred a file from one side to the other, it may not show up on the new side until you click on the "refresh" button on that side.

Your new home page (index page) should now be on the web under the address:
www.earlham.edu/~username
where the word "username" is replaced with your username/user ID, and the character before your name is a tilde, made by simultaneously pressing the shift key and the key in the top-left corner of your keyboard (not "Esc").

Open your web browser (Netscape or Internet Explorer) and see if it worked!

(hopefully, it did)