| Web Page Services |
| What
kind of web services does Comcast offer? |
Comcast offers two types of web hosting.
Personal and Virtual Hosting
Personal Hosting is included with every primary account that we
offer at no charge. All primary residential accounts include at least 40 MB of
space (for files and email) on our server, and some of the business accounts include more.
Virtual Hosting allows you to have a website linked to a domain
name (e.g. www.mydomain.com). |
| Are there any charges for using my
Personal web space? |
There can be, depending on how
active the site is. If 100 MB of transfer from your site is exceeded
during the month, you will be charged an additional $0.10 per MB
transferred. |
| What about with
my Virtual server? |
Comcast offers a couple different Virtual web
server accounts, and the costs associated are different, depending on the
account. |
| What if I want
more space or more bandwidth? |
Both Personal and Virtual Hosting can have
more space added at the rate of $10 per month per additional 10 MB of
space.
Personal web sites are limited to 100 MB of transfer before being
charged, this cannot be upgraded.
Virtual web sites transfer rates are based on the type of VWS account.
|
| What is
my web address for my personal account? |
Your web address, or URL is
"http://www.suscom-maine.net/~username/". This is what you, or others, will
type into your web browser to view your website. This is not where
you will upload your files to. See the instructions on uploading your page
below. |
| What if I
want a different address for my webpage? |
You can request a web alias. Before
requesting a web alias, you must have the page uploaded. A web alias will
take the form of "http://www.suscom-maine.net/aliasname/". To request an
alias, call our support department (1.800.COMCAST) with your current address and
the alias address you would like. You may want to prepare alternate choices
in case your first choice is already in use. |
| What kind of
web server does Comcast use? |
Currently, we run the extremely robust Apache web server on BSDi. |
| Creating a Web Page |
| How do I
create a Web Page? |
You can create "raw" HTML using a simple
text editor like NotePad in Windows. Or, there are many HTML editors
available at cost or for free that can allow you to design a web page
without knowing HTML. |
| What is HTML? |
HTML stands for HyperText Mark-up Language.
It is the language that is used to create a web page. All of the text on
any web page looks the way it does because of HTML commands. Try the "View
Source" command of your web browser to see what really makes up a web
page. |
| What should I name
my files? |
Our servers do not have a lot of
restrictions for file names, however, there are several recommendations:
- In HTML, file names are Case Sensitive. This means home.html
is different than Home.html. To keep things simple, we
recommend that you keep all filenames lowercase.
- While spaces in filenames are allowed, they can cause many problems.
Rather than using a space, we recommend using the underscore or dash
characters. (e.g. web_page.html or web-page.html,
not web page.html.)
- On HTML pages, you can use either .html or .htm as the
extension, either will work fine.
- Your "home" page file needs to be named one of the following:
home.html, home.htm, index.html or index.htm. If one of
these files is present in a directory, it will load automatically. It is
highly recommended that you only have one file in a directory
with one of these names. (i.e. do not have both home.html and
index.html in the same directory.)
|
| Can I hire Comcast to
make my Web Page? |
Comcast does not provide Web Design. |
| Can I use
Microsoft Front Page Extensions? |
If you have registered a domain name, and a
VWS with Comcast, you can have Front Page 2000 Extensions added to your site.
Front Page Extensions are only necessary if you use the special features
of Microsoft Front Page when designing your web site. Personal web sites
can never have Front Page Extensions. |
| Can I use CGI
Scripts? |
Yes. See below for tips and instructions on
their use. |
| Can I use
Server Side Includes (SSIs)? |
If you have a VWS, Server Side Includes are
possible. Please contact our support department (1.800.COMCAST) to request them. |
| Can I protect my web
page with a password? |
Yes, our servers support the .htaccess
password protocol. |
| Can I add a Hit
counter to my web page? |
Yes, Comcast already has a counter cgi
installed for you to use if you like. If you prefer, you can install a counter cgi of your own,
which can many times give you more control over your web site. |
| How do I setup an
e-mail form on my web page? |
The easiest way would be through cgiemail,
which we already have installed on our servers. |
| On-Line
Auctions |
| Can I use my
web space for on-line auction images? |
Yes! The same restrictions of a normal web
site apply. |
| What type of
image files are best? |
On the web, .GIF or .JPG files are the most
commonly used and easiest to view. Remember that the size of the image
files matters quite a bit. It is usually recommended that an image file
not exceed 50 KB, or 100 KB at the most. On an average modem connection, a
50K file will take around 15 seconds to load. A 100K file will take
roughly twice that. |
| What should I
name the images? |
Naming an image file has the same
recommendations as naming an HTML file from above, except for the
extensions.
- File names are Case Sensitive. This means niknak.jpg is
different than NikNak.JPG.
- While spaces in filenames are allowed, they can cause many problems.
Rather than using a space, we recommend using the underscore or dash
characters. (e.g. old_niknak.jpg or old-niknak.jpg,
not old niknak.jpg.)
- The extension at the end of the filename should reflect the type of
image file. (i.e. .jpg for a JPG/JPEG file or .gif for GIF
file.)
|
| How do
other people see my images? |
You need to post the URL, or address of
your images. Assuming that you are uploading these image files to your
personal web space, the address will be
http://www.suscom-maine.net/~username/filename.ext. If you do not have a
home page in your personal web space, you can get a list of all of the
file names through the address http://www.suscom-maine.net/~username. |
| Uploading a Web
Page |
| Where do I
upload my files to? |
Personal
Virtual (VWS)
|
| How do I upload my
files? |
The most common way is to use an FTP
program. There are several free FTP programs available for both Macintosh
and Windows computers. Some web page editors have FTP capabilities built
in. Most computers do not come with a built-in FTP program, so you will
need to download and install one first.
To confuse the issue even more, different types of files need to be
uploaded in different formats. Many FTP programs take care of this
automatically.
- Text files (.html, .htm, .pl, .cgi, or .txt) need to
be uploaded using TEXT or ASCII as the method.
- Image files (.jpg, .gif) need to be uploaded using RAW DATA
(Mac) or BINARY (PC).
|
| What if my
site has Front Page 2000 Extensions enabled? |
Then you can use the publish feature of
Microsoft Front Page. You will be connecting to the host
www.yourdomain.com. You will also need your Front Page username and
password, which you will have been contacted about once Front Page
Extensions have been setup. |
| CGI scripts |
| Where do I install
my CGI scripts? |
CGI scripts need to be installed in the
cgi-bin directory in the root level of your website (the same place you
would put your home page). Usually, this directory does not exist, and you
will have to create it. |
| What is the absolute
path for my CGI scripts? |
Personal
Virtual (VWS)
|
| How do I call my CGI
scripts? |
Personal
Virtual (VWS)
|
| What is the path for perl
on your server? |
/usr/bin/perl |
| What about perl5? |
/usr/bin/perl5 |
| Troubleshooting |
| I keep getting the
error "HTTP 404: Not Found", why? |
This indicates that the address you are
trying to load is incorrect. Typically this is because you are trying to
load a file that either doesn't exist, or there is a slight spelling error
or typo. For example, if you entered the address
http://www.suscom-maine.net/~username/test-page.html, but the file
test-page.html was saved as Test-Page.html you would get the
404 Not Found error. The reason for this is because file names are Case
Sensitive. This is why we recommend that all file names are kept
lowercase. |
| I keep getting a
"Forbidden" error, why? |
The Forbidden error usually indicates that
the file or directory you are trying to load may have its permissions set
incorrectly. Permissions of a file determine who can see, modify or use
the file or directory. Most FTP programs have an option for modifying the
permissions of a file or directory. There are 3 groupings of permissions
on any file or directory: those for the Owner, Group and World. You are
the Owner, Group and World are those viewing the site.
|
UNIX CHMOD Value |
Owner/Group/World |
| Directory |
755 |
RWX / R-X / R-X |
| File |
644 |
RW- / R-- /
R-- | |
| My CGI's aren't
working, why not? |
CGI scripts are very particular about where
they are installed, what their permissions are, and how they are called.
Any one of these settings being incorrect can cause them the not function.
- Make sure that the script is installed in the cgi-bin directory.
- Make sure that the scripts were uploaded using the TEXT or ASCII
method.
- Make sure that the script itself is set to permissions level 755.
- Verify that you are calling the script correctly.
If all else fails, contact our support or webmaster departments with as
much information as you can (script name, script location, error message,
URL) and we can take a look. |
| Graphical Hit
Reports |
| Does Comcast offer graphical
web-based hit reports? |
Yes. This service is available to our
DELUXE VWS accounts. |
| How can I view my hit
reports? |
Simply visit webreports.gwi.net |
| What is my Login
name? |
Your Login/Password will be the same as
your FTP login name and pasword |
| Can I have referer logs
and agent logs added? |
Yes, we can do this upon request |
| Are daily and weekly logs
available in this format? |
As of now, no. However, most of this
information can be seen in the monthly logs |
| Will I still be sent reports
via e-mail? |
Yes, Reports will still be sent via
e-mail |
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