Easy Steps For Using Your Virtual Server
To get you started with your Virtual Server, Beck Web provides you with
this section specifically for new customers.
- Design a Website
- The Virtual Server Handbook
- Upload Files to your Server
- a. Use iManager
- b. Use Windows File Share Drag and Drop Upload
- c. Use an FTP Program
- d. Use Telnet to Access your Sever
- Put Your Files in the Correct Location
- Create POP E-mail Accounts or E-mail Aliasing
- a. Using E-mail Aliasing
- b. Setting up a POP Mailbox
- c. Accessing your POP Mailbox with Eudora
- Consider Additional Help
1. Design a Website
Having a powerful Internet presence is essential for companies that seek to compete in the future. The first step in creating a powerful Internet presence is designing an equally powerful Web site. Essentially, Internet marketing is simply "good-old-fashioned-marketing", carried out in another medium. There are basically three ways to create great Web pages:
A. Learn HTML and start from scratch.
The best way to
learn HTML (or Hyper Text Mark-up Language - the code for writing Web
pages) is to look at the source code that people use to create Web pages.
The source code can be viewed by using an Internet browser (such as
Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer) under the "View"
menu, or "View-Document Source" menu. You may also want to refer
to other HTML resources such as online guides or books. There is a handy
link in our Web site listing several online guides
for creating HTML documents.
B. Get a Web publisher program and do it yourself
There
are numerous Web publisher programs available on the Internet today. PC
users may want to consider Microsoft
FrontPage or HomeSite.
Macintosh users may want to consider
Adobe
PageMill or GoLive CyberStudio. In
addition to these Web publisher programs, you can find additional programs
by typing HTML editor into any good search engine.
C. Hire someone with the Web know-how
There is a wealth
of people who have the technical know-how to construct a Web site;
however, a good Web site is much more than just HTML code. A company
should design its Web site from a marketing point of view, to ensure that
the proper message is being communicated to its potential and existing
clients. For this reason, a company should be wary about simply turning
over its Web site to someone who has the technical know-how, without
considering the marketing and design side of its Web site also.
2. The Virtual Server Handbook
Beck Web has made the Administrative Handbook available online for your
use. Please review and become familiar with the contents of the Handbook
as many of your questions will likely be answered by this document. You
are welcome to download and print out this Handbook for your personal use.
To access the online manual type the following URL in your browser:
http://www.web-design.net/support/aw/. When prompted, enter your User ID
and password. (PLEASE NOTE- This ID and Password is the same as your
administrator login name and login password as given to you in your
activation email letter.)
3. Upload Files to your Virtual Server
Once your Virtual Server is configured and your HTML and graphic files are
complete, you are ready to upload the files to your Virtual Server using
either iManager,
the
Window
Fileshare Drag and Drop method, or any
FTP
(File Transfer Protocol) program. These programs provide a graphical user
interface for sending your files from your computer to your Virtual
Server. In the next sections, iManager, the Windows 95 Drag and Drop
method, and standard FTP programs will each be discussed more fully.
A. Uploading files via iManager
BWSD has made available a
remote Web content manager and file browser,
iManager,
which has a fill-out form interface for uploading files from your local
computer to your Virtual Server. With iManager, you can use your favorite
browser client software such as Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet
Explorer to upload files to your Virtual Server. iManager also provides
you with the capability to edit files on your Virtual Server using your
browser client.
B. Uploading files via Windows 95/NT Fileshare Drag and Drop
The Windows
Fileshare allows you to map your Virtual Server's home directory to
your Windows 95 or NT desktop over the Internet. This is very nice
interface for maintaining your Web site. After your Virtual Server's
network drive is mapped, you simply need to "drag-and-drop"
files to your Virtual Server. This feature also allows you to delete,
copy, and move files on your Virtual Server as if it were a local drive.
C. Uploading files via an FTP program
If you choose to
use an FTP
(File Transfer Protocol) program rather than iManager or Windows
Fileshare, to upload your files, you will first need to get an FTP client
for your computer. You can find many free and useful FTP clients on the
Internet. Do a Yahoo or
Webcrawler search for FTP client
and see what appears.
Or, if you use Windows 95, you may use the FTP client which comes with
it. We have also found CuteFTP
to be very useful. For Macintosh users,
Fetch is
probably the most popular FTP program available.
Since each FTP program is unique in its configuration, it is
impractical to give a step by step list of how to use each FTP program.
However, despite this, there are some basics which apply for all FTP
programs. First, in order to begin an FTP session the program will prompt
you for the key information listed in the Configuration letter you
received from BWSD. The prompts will be basically like this:
Site Label: You Name It
Host Address: yourdomain.com (Server name)
User ID: loginID (Login name)
Password: loginpassword (Password)
Second, once a connection to your Virtual Server is established you
will want to follow the instructions on how to transfer files. Below we
have highlighted how to use CuteFTP and Fetch which were mentioned
previously.
Using CuteFTP for Windows Users
Once a connection is
established, two columns will appear on your screen:
- The column on the left represents your computer while the column on
the right represents your Virtual Server.
- You will want to select the www/htdocs or usr/local/etc/httpd/htdocs
folder on the Virtual Server side for placing all of your files into.
- Once this folder is opened, select the appropriate files that you want
to transfer from your computer (the left side) to your Virtual Server (the
right side) by clicking on them with the mouse.
- Once these files are selected (you can select more than one by holding
down the shift key) you simply double-click on the file or drag and drop it
to the Virtual Server side.
That's it, your files should be uploaded. One other matter, if using a
PC, be sure all your files or cgi script source codes are in ASCII format.
All image or graphic files should be in Binary format.
Using Fetch for Macintosh Users To send one file to the Virtual Server
do the following:
- Click on the Put File button.
- Select the file to transfer, then click on Open.
- If prompted to choose the format of the file, choose the appropriate
format (remove the added .txt for text files or .bin for binary files, if
necessary. Also, if using a Macintosh computer, you will want to send your
image files as Raw Data files. This can be done by simply changing the
format of the files in Fetch.). Once you have selected and formatted the
appropriate files, click OK.
To select more than one file to your Virtual Server do the following:
- From the Remote Menu, choose Put folders & files.
- Select the directories or files to add, one at a time, and click on
Add after each selection.
- Click on Done to send the files.
- If prompted to choose the format of the file, choose the appropriate
format (remove the added .txt for text files or .bin for binary files, if
necessary. Also, if using a Macintosh computer, you will want to send your
image files as Raw Data files. This can be done by simply changing the
format of the files in Fetch.). Once you have selected and formatted the
appropriate files, click OK.
D. Use Telnet to Access Your Server
To access your server you must establish a TELNET session with either:
<IP Address>
or
<yourloginID.bwsd.com>
(if your DNS registration has not been processed)
or
www.<DNS_NAME>.com
(if your DNS registration is complete)
When you log into your Virtual Server using your name and password,
you will automatically be placed in the Root directory of the Server.
The Virtual Server's default web page information can be found in the file:
-
usr/local/etc/httpd/htdocs/index.html
Your server includes access to many popular UNIX editors including pico, vi,
emacs. You can also edit your web page information on your PC and upload the
file via a FTP session.
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4. Put Your Files in the Correct Location
When you initially login to your site using either iManager, Windows
Fileshare or an FTP program you will be placed in your Virtual Server home
directory (/usr/home/"user name"). All HTML and graphic files
should be added to the www/htdocs or usr/local/etc/httpd/htdocs folder.
5. Create POP E-mail Accounts or E-mail Aliasing
If you are using a Fully Functional Virtual Server AW75 you have the
capability of adding unlimited individual e-mail boxes - POP (Post Office
Protocol) accounts or e-mail aliasing to your Server.
It's easy to create additional POP e-mail accounts or e-mail aliases
for your company on Server B and C using
iRoot. BWSD
has made available an interactive Virtual Server administrator utility,
iRoot, which allows a Virtual Server administrator to remotely perform
routine administrative tasks using their favorite browser client (Netscape
Navigator, Microsoft Internet Explorer). One of these tasks is the ability
to add and delete POP e-mail accounts. Also included in iRoot is the
ability to add and delete e-mail aliases, along with the power to maintain
numerous domain names on a single Virtual Server. The
iRoot
"wizards" walk you through a step by step process for each
task.
A. Using E-mail Aliasing
Your Virtual Server is configured with e-mail aliasing, you can test
your e-mail forwarding by setting up a "webmaster" alias to
forward e-mail from
webmaster@<DNS_NAME>.com
to
<YOUR CURRENT E-MAIL ADDRESS>
You can do this either by using the remote management utilities,
iManager and
iRoot, and your favorite
client browser software (such as Netscape or MSIE). Or you can
do it manually by editing the etc/aliases file
and adding the following line a to the end of the file:
webmaster: <YOUR CURRENT E-MAIL ADDRESS>
You can use one of the many editors available on the server
including pico, vi, or emacs. After the file has been edited
run the program "vnewaliases" to update the
~/etc/aliases.db file. After an alias is created the
mail is not stored on the virutal server but is forwarded to the
address given in the alias. If your DNS record has not been
processed you will be not be able to test the E-mail aliasing until it is completed.
B. Setting up a POP Mailbox
You
can set up a POP mailbox POP mailbox using the remote management
utilities,
iManager
and
iRoot, and
your favorite client browser software (such as Netscape or MSIE). Or you
can do it manually by logging into the server and using the command "vadduser".
POP usernames are up to 8 characters and must start with an alphabetic
character. After entering the user name enter the user's password.
Passwords and user names are case sensitive and are usually entered lower
case. Finally, enter the POP username's full name.
The POP server allows the e-mail for the user to reside on the virtual
server and is NOT forwarded on to a local ISP mail box. The POP service
on the Virtual server allows a company to setup a unique Internet E-mail
box for each employee but allowing these same employees to share a single
dialup account to a local ISP.
Virtual POP service also allows a company to easily switch ISP's
without re configuration of their e-mail client. To remove a POP E-mail
account use the command "vrmuser". E-mail POP service is only
available on the fully functional Virtual Server.
C. Accessing your POP Mailbox With Eudora
To configure Eudora to communicate with the virtual POP server select the
Configuration option in the Special pull-down menu.
Once your DNS has been processed you can change the configuration to the
following values:
- POP Account: (user)@pop.(DNS_NAME).com
SMTP
Server: smtp.(DNS_NAME).com
Return Address: (user)@(DNS_NAME).com
6. Consider Additional Help
Additional help can also be found in the
New Client
section of the BWSD web site. The
Frequently Asked Questions
section can also provide helpful assistance. If you review your email
confirmation letter thoroughly, you will also find information to access
our online Virtual Server
Handbook. If you feel you still have additional questions, feel free
to contact the applicable office:
billing@web-design.net Billing inquiries
support@web-design.net Tech support questions
sales@web-design.net Sales inquires
order@web-design.net Order questions
Good luck with your Virtual Server!
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