I dove headfirst into this website thing. This morning I knew very little about it and now it's 7 pm---I've registered my own domain, set up my webmail, learned how to use an FTP to upload pics, etc. Yet even after reading all that free literature I still can't figure out how to VIEW MY SITE. Whenever I type the URL into my browser it comes up with a directory titled "Index of /" and then lists Name, Size, Description. I know this is a listing of things I've uploaded but HOW do I make it so that others can't see it? When someone types in the URL, I'd like them to view the main page.

I'm pretty sure this is a very easy question and I'm probably only missing minor details. Please help. THANKS!

You need to make sure you have either index.html or index.php as your homepage file in the root directory. Also be aware that if you only registered your domain today it usually takes between 24 and 48 hours to become active.

Thanks. Well, I purchased the site a few days ago but the emails I received from the host instructed me to wait before proceeding as the registration could take 3 days. Still... I pretty much did everything in one day.

I understand that I need my index.html page in the root directory... the thing is, when I try to upload the page via FTP, it just doesn't show up as a completed transfer. Not only that, but they gave me three folders to begin with: my mail directory, logs, and an empty folder. I do not know which folder is my root directory. It seems like it would be the "logs" folder, but again, I can't upload anything into that folder. I'm really confused.



Thank you for your help!

The root folder is the one you are viewing which then has the logs folder as a sub folder. What FTP software are you using? can I suggest you try using http://www.smartftp.com

I'm using 1st Page Transfer... it works in conjunction to the 1st Page HTML tidy... but I will take a look at smartFTP. Won't be able to use it if it's not free, though... lol. One more question: I uploaded my page temp.htm into the root folder. It didn't publish. Do I need to name the file index.html or is there a difference between .htm and .html? Thank you once again!

There isn't a difference between .htm and .html, (.htm is a throwback to when file extensions were limited to 3 characters) but it is good practice to stick to one file type throughout the project.

Is there a folder showing up called 'docroot' (or something similar)? If there is then that's your root directory for all your html files. If not then they all go in the highest level folder (the one that shows up when you open the domain in the ftp program).

The first page that loads up when someone accesses your site will be index.html (or .htm, .php .shtml etc) - these are all special file types to tell the server how to process the files - All your other pages will need to be accessed from the index page.

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I changed the index.html file attributes (CHMOD) to readable and executable and it seemed to work. Although, I'm not sure if it was the correct way to fix the problem... Oh well. =)

It helps if other ppl are allowed to read the file! :-) any help you need just ask, there are enuff ppl here to help, I'm sure someone will know the answer.

Thank you!!