GETTING STARTED
SIGNING UP WITH A HOST SERVER
When starting a homepage, the first thing you must do is to go to one of the servers who offer free homepages and register your account. The rest of this page will describe sign-up procedures for them and the features each offers for building your site or homepage. Consider what you have in mind for your homepage and read the reviews on all servers before deciding which to choose. At the bottom of the page is a summary comparison table of the servers discussed. Be sure to click on "MORE SERVER REVIEWS" for additional servers.
SIGNING UP AT TRIPODSIGNING UP AT TALK CITYSIGNING UP AT GEOCITIESSIGNING UP AT ANGELFIRESUMMARY AND COMPARISONMORE SERVER REVIEWS |
If you value your work and your website and can afford to pay $5.00 to
$10.00 a month for it then build your site at either WTV-Zone or Domania. I've had favorable reports on Terrashare which is a free server if you can't pay for your web space.
NOTICE: Some of the procedures discribed here have changed. Not
only that, but I am having trouble recommending any of these free servers
now. Last year, Geocities engaged in the wholesale deletion of Webtv
user owned websites and this year Tripod did the same thing. Talkcity
and Angelfire have remained static but it's only a matter of time with them
too.
WTV-Zone.com
Domania.net
Terrashare.com
ACCESSING YOUR FILE MANAGER
At tripod this is called your"Homepage
Housekeeper". This is where your files are
listed. From the QUICK PAGE BUILDER click on
HOMEPAGE HOUSEKEEPER in the options pannel
near the top of the page. From the CUSTOM PAGE
EDITOR after saving you page, scroll down once on
the next page. There you will find a link to
the URL of your page. Click there to view your
page or go to the next link down "RETURN TO
HOUSEKEEPER" to go to your file manager.
Be sure to SAVE THE HOMEPAGE HOUSEKEEPER
page to your favorites for future use. By saving
the Homepage Housekeeper" page and using it to go
to your files later you can avoid getting into
the wrong homepage studio by mistake and bypass
the preliminary pages. There should be one file
listed in your directory called "index.html". It
will be shown as a "QUICK PAGE" or a "TEXT OR
HTML" page. To the right of the file type are
some options. If you want to edit your own html
in a QUICK PAGE click on "convert" to change the
file type to "text or html". Once converted it
cannot be changed back. Above your file list is
a pulldown that says "Create a Quick Page". By
clicking on this you will see other options such
as "Create a Custom page" and "Create a
subdirectory" etc. Use this pulldown when you
want to add a page or a subdirectory to your
site. To edit your page just click "edit" in the
right hand column afer the file name. You will
be taken to the proper editor for your page
format. Tripod offers subdirectories and a full
page html editor but does require ftp client
software for using their uploader so WebTv'rs
will have to use a transloader to move or upload
files to Tripod. Tripod is fairly easy to use
and beginners should not have too difficult a
time there.
ALLOCATED DISK SPACE: 11 Mbytes
This one was a real
pain to sign up for. There is a lot of
information to fill out and when you finally get
to the page where you choose your address in the
neighborhood you have selected, the submit button
is likely to send you back to the same page you
just left. You will see a message there that
says that someone else already moved into that
address and to choose another from the list
shown. Your chosen address will still be on the
list. I tried to get past this road block on
three different occasions and finally got in so
don't make any other plans for the day you choose
to register there. They then ask you to log into
your account with your name and password and that
will take you to a page where you will choose
your editing preference. The "basic editor" is
your preformated, no html editor and the
"advanced editor" is your html editor. After
selecting which editor you wish to use you will
then be taken to your file manager.
At Geocities this is called your "file Manager"
and it is a very busy place with a lot of text,
links and opptions. You have to scroll down two
of three times just to see your files. When you
find them there will be only one file there named
"index.html". If you have not already started
writing information in the editor this page will
be blank. To start editing, check the box next
to the file then scroll down and choose either
EDIT, you can then start
writing your page. Geocities has a full page
html editor plus a "preview" option before you
save. No WebTv friendly uploader here so you'll
have to use a transloader for your uploads. Note
also that Geocities has very long URLs for your
site address. You may want to register with a
referrer service which Geocities will provide for
a shorter URL.
ALLOCATED DISK SPACE: 11 Mbytes
NOTE: Geocities has just merged with Yahoo so
the above procedures may have changed. The
geocities file manager has remained the same but
registration is now handled through Yahoo so
sign-up procedures may have changed. What I
can tell you is that now when you login you are
sent to a second page with no title. You have to
scroll down to the section called "MEMBERS TOOLS"
then find "File Manager and click on it.
This will send you to another page which is still
not your File Manager but has a link to enter it
where you have to click again. Then you will get
to your file manager. When you view any of your
files you will find that Yahoo has plastered
advertising and promotion banners on your page.
You will also find that Yahoo has altered your
source documents and installed their own scripts
on the html page that you have written to
generate their ad banners. Because of these
changes made by Yahoo I have removed this site
from Geocities and now host it on The Globe. The
only thing I miss is Geocities full screen html
editor. Do I recommend Yahoo Geocities to
newcommers? I wouldn't recommend it now to
anyone. If Yahoo leaves then I may come back.
Before deciding on a host server, consider your
plans for your site. What kind of a site are you
planning to build? Some features wil be handy
for certain kinds of sites while other features
will be valuable to others. Will you be writing
HTML of using the page builder for the HTML
challenged? If you don't plan to write your own
HTML then the HTML editor features are not
important. If you plan to do a lot of uploading
then you will want a host with easy uploading
features. Music and graphic sites will need lots
of disk space. In this page I have tried to
mention the features that I look for or notice in
a host server.
Below is a table for a quick comparison of the
features offered by the various servers. Make
your choice and click on the server name to go to
their sign-up page.
TRIPOD | TALK CITY | GEOCITIES | ANGELFIRE | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Disk Space | ||||
Have Sub- directories |
|
|||
WTV File Uploader |
|
|||
Photo Uploader |
|
|||
NOTE: | File and Photo uploading can be done by transloading to all servers. Angelfire requires an extra step. | |||
HTML Editor |
|
|||
Page Builders | Easy page builders are about the same for all servers||||
Elements |
(short) |
(medium) |
(long) |
(medium) |
This page is written and
Copyrighted
by Techniguy
All rights
reserved.