Gastown Webspace FAQGastown Webspace FAQ
Q1: What are the conditions on your free trial?
Q2: Help! I can't find my secret directory!
Q3: Help! I just uploaded the wrong page!
Q4: How long does it take for my pages to be updated?
Q5: How can I make a link that allows people to download (FTP) a file?
Q6: Do you charge 'per hit' transfer charges or just for space?
Q7: Can I decide how my pages will be presented?
Q8: Do you support fill-in forms?
Q9: Do you support clickable imagemaps?
Q10: Can I have my own domain name like www.mycompany.com?
Q11: Can I have an e-mail auto-responder like info@mycompany.com?
Q12: I am working in a DOS/Windows environment. What should I do?
Q13: What is your connection to the Internet?
Q14: How many accesses does our index page get? How much disk space I am using?
Q15: What are your commercial-use policies? Can we re-sell your webspace?
You must use the "change directory" feature of your FTP program to go directly into the secret directory. Your secret directory is invisible so that people browsing through the incoming directory anonymously will not be able to replace your files. If your FTP client's graphical interface does not have the "cd" feature in a menu item, you may need to use a text-based program.
Log into ftp.xmission.com anonymously (example follows):
Name (ftp.xmission.com:root): anonymous
Password: [not echoed to the screen]
type bin to switch to binary mode (Type set to I).
cd /pub/users/g/gastown/incoming/your-secret-directory
Now put index.html and all of your other files.
When finished, type quit
Please be VERY careful that you are uploading the correct files, since they will overwrite any existing files in your HTTP area. Please note that the gasmail sub-directory is only where you put files that you want to have available in the outgoing FTP site (see explanation later in FAQ).
You can't rename or delete files since the server is more secure than most - it simply does not allow anonymous users to perform those functions at all. You need to wait for the transfer run to occur (see next question for waiting time; you will receive e-mail notification when it is done), then perform the steps outlined below. If you want to delete some obsolete files from your web area, just upload files with the same names that are either empty or are only 1 byte long. Then send e-mail to The Mayor <gastown@xmission.com> asking to have the "sweep" command run on your account.
The transfer script currently runs at the top of the following hours on the 24hr Mountain Time clock:
01:00, 03:00, 05:00, 07:00, 09:00, 11:00, 13:00, 15:00, 17:00, 19:00, 21:00, 23:00.
You need to upload your files about a half-hour before that since the ftp server needs time to change the ownership of the files from "nobody" to "gastown" so that my script has permission to move them.
Private outgoing FTP space is available to Gastown Webspace residents who lease at least 1 MB of extra space (see rates). Just upload the files into the "gasmail" directory which is inside your assigned secret directory in the incoming FTP area. A script will move them into your private area. For example, to link to a file your FTP area use the URL:
ftp://ftp.xmission.com/pub/users/g/gastown/outgoing/your-name-here/sample.zip
Presently there is no charge to you when people view your pages. This policy is subject to change if XMission changes its policy, but they currently do not track transfer charges either. If you plan to have an extremely popular site with such heavy usage that it clogs up XMission's T1 line, then I may have to deny service (although I can't imagine that situation arising).
Policies and procedures for leasing additional space are flexible by necessity. If you exceed your disk space allotment for a number of days, you will be asked to replace some files with smaller ones or arrange to lease additional space.
Gastown Webspace assumes no responsibility for the content of its resident's documents. However, residents must comply with the terms of service described in this document. GASTOWN WEBSPACE RESERVES THE RIGHT TO REMOVE OBSCENE, CRIMINAL OR OTHER OBJECTIONABLE MATERIAL FROM CUSTOMER ACCOUNTS WITH NOTICE OF THE REMOVAL TO FOLLOW BY E-MAIL. Pages should reflect honest business practises and not make claims that cannot be substantiated. Examples may include the following (but do not restrict the above limitation):
Acceptable
The Mayor does not necessarily look at all of your pages during your trial period, so if you are concerned about some of your content or layout work, send e-mail asking to have it previewed. The intent of this restriction is not to enforce some kind of "politically correct" censorship, but to protect Gastown Webspace and all of its tenants from suffering decreased traffic due to a damaged reputation for the site.
Please visit the Gastown Police Department page for complete details about the enforcement of the above policy.
Yes! But if all you want is a simple way for visitors to send you e-mail while browsing your pages, use the tag:
<A HREF="mailto:name@host.domain">If supported by the browser, this link will pop up a special window which will let them fill in a subject line and contents to send to you as a free-form text e-mail message. This method is not supported by all browsers, but it is widely used. Although you may have heard about using "mailto:" as an ACTION in more complex scripts, the best way to make purchase order forms or similar screens is as follows:
NEW! You can make your own customized e-mail response form with pre-formatted output by following these two steps:
<FORM METHOD="POST" ACTION="http://www.xmission.com:8000/cgi-bin/cgiemail/~gastown/your-name-here/feedback.txt"> </FORM>The following tags use NAME="variable" in the tag to identify the contents to be used the in template e-mail message. If the variable begins with required- then the form cannot be submitted until that item is filled in. Where applicable, ROWS and COLUMNS specifies the size of the item in characters.
To make a simple text box , use the tag:
<INPUT NAME="required-from" SIZE=25>
To make a pop-up menu, use this tag:
<SELECT name=required-wanted> <OPTION SELECTED>First option (the default in this case) <OPTION>discussion </SELECT>
To make a list that allows multiple selections (i.e. by shift-clicking or Command-clicking), just add the word MULTIPLE to the tag. The SIZE tag determines whether or not you will need scroll bars to see the entire list.
<SELECT name=referral MULTIPLE SIZE=6> </SELECT>To use radio buttons:
<INPUT TYPE="radio" NAME="browser" VALUE="Netscape">Checkboxes are simply:
<input type="checkbox" name=urgency value="URGENT">The Template Message file: You must be careful that this file will be accepted by the server's sendmail process. Carriage-returns should be in UNIX format (not MS-DOS CR/LF) and the mail headers (From/To/Subject) must not have any preceding spaces. All you need to do is layout your mail message and use the variable names from the FORM by enclosing them in square brackets. The warning included below is recommended to remind you to distinguish normal messages from FORM messages, since anyone could fill in a fake reply address in a form. For example:
From: [required-from] To: gastown@xmission.com (Gastown Webspace) Subject: Request for [required-wanted] [urgency] ** WARNING: THIS MESSAGE SENT FROM A WEB-BROSWER CANNOT BE TRUSTED ** My operating system and connectivity is: [opersyst] My primary web browser is: [browser] Other platform/connection/browser info: [otherinfo] I learned about Gastown Webspace from: [referral] Full Name : [fullname] Organization : [organization] Location : [location] Alternate e-mail : [altemail] Comments: [comments]That's it! For an example "View Source" on The Mayor's e-mail response form.
Yes! If you want to make a clickable map, you need to generate a NSCA-compatible .map file which specifies which areas correspond to linked URLs (remember to specify a default URL as well). You can generate this file with help from applications such as WebMap for the Mac. An example family.gif.map file contains:
# # Created by WebMap 1.0 # Sunday, February 5, 1995 at 1:36 AM # Format: NCSA default http://www.xmission.com/~gastown/sorry-xmission.html rect http://www.xmission.com/~gastown/family.html 44,25 87,88 rect http://www.xmission.com/~gastown/family.html 30,93 88,228 rect http://www.wimsey.com/~khiebert/index.html 134,0 190,80 rect http://www.xmission.com/~gastown/amsoil/index.html 93,75 132,243 rect http://www.xmission.com/~gastown/family.html 163,117 227,268Then you use the following code in your page to tell the server how to get at your map file. Substitute your account name for "your-name-here" and "your-image.gif":
<A HREF="/cgi-bin/imagemap/~gastown/your-name-here/your-image.gif.map"> <IMG SRC="http://www.xmission.com/~gastown/your-name-here/your-image.gif" ALT="[imagemap]" ISMAP></A>
For links to applications for creating graphics and map files (Windows, X, and Mac), check out:
Netscape's Cool Tricks Web Development Page
Yes, you can establish URL redirection so that when someone types in http://www.your-name-here.com the browser will change its location to http://www.xmission.com/~gastown/your-name-here/. For full pricing information and instructions, visit the Gastown Upmarket page.
For your information, some browsers require the trailing "/" while others do not need it. Either method retrieves the default page called index.html so that you do not need to mention it when quoting your URL.
Yes! You can have an e-mail address that instantly responds to any message sent to it (body and subject ignored) by replying with the contents of a specified file from your directory. This "e-mail on demand" is perfect for making calendar of events pages, price lists and other files available to the much larger audience of people who don't have web access. If you don't have your own domain established, you can have an address like info-yourcompany@gastown.com instead.
To get your auto-responder, send a message to The Mayor <mayor@gastown.com> specifying the e-mail address to use and the name of the file to be returned upon request, then send in the US$20 fee payable for the next six months of service.
If you are working in a DOS environment and you upload your files, the only thing Gastown Webspace will do is rename a file called index.htm to index.html for you. This allows people to use the short form of your URL (without specifying the default filename index.html). Your other .htm files will not be renamed and your links to them will all work. Please note that all filenames are *VERY* case-sensitive! Ensure that upper- and lower-case letters are consistent throughout your filenames and links.
If you would prefer to upload 8+3 styled filenames but still want your short URL to work, just ask me to create a filesystem link from index.html to INDEX.HTM for you.
Gastown Webspace operates as an account on the Spinner web server (port 80, the usual port) of XMission, a Utah service provider with multiple-T1 access to the Internet. CGI-BIN executables are run from an Apache web server on www.xmission.com:8000 (not the usual port). If it seems a bit slow to download a page, it is probably just because the server is heavily loaded with requests at that time of the day.
Both of these questions are answered by a page called gastown-stats.html which is automatically updated within your directory every time your files are updated. Please note that the "approximate" number of kilobytes used may be quoted as being larger than your actual disk usage by around 10Kb to 50Kb. Remember that your hit statistics include accesses from your own site when your are testing your pages.
If you want to have a hit counter on a page, use the following HTML tag which the web server supports:
The number of times this page has been viewed: <accessed type=linus>
Which causes the page to look like this:
The number of times this page has been viewed: 2266 since Wed Sep 13 14:14:59 1995
Outgoing FTP statistics are currently unavailable, but are being worked on.
See the restrictions above for a plain english description of my current content policies. Yes, you can charge others for publishing their web pages, subject to a few (reasonable, in my opinion) restrictions. Send e-mail to have your specific case considered, but essentially you can choose one of the following two options that make up my Value-Added Reseller policy:
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