All OVIS users can freely put up their own homepage on OVIS's server for free. In order to make a personal home page, you must first learn HTML, the language that WWW documents are written in. To see an example of HTML, simply view the source code for this document (in Netscape, by selecting the "Source" entry from the "View" menu). By referring to the HTML documentation and by looking at the source code of interesting documents, you can put together a pretty neat page.
There are many HTML authoring tools available on the 'Net to make things easier, such Microsoft FrontPage, or Adobe PageMill. These types of programs more or less isolate you from the actual HTML code and let you create your pages in a more friendly environment. Sort of like using a word processor. For more information on developing a web page and html editors try searching one of the search engines for html editors.
OK, now you've written your home page and tested it out with your favorite WWW browser. It is very important that you name your primary webpage either "index.html" or "index.htm". This makes it possible for the server to automatically load your page when someone enters the URL or address to your page. Once you've done this, you need to copy it to your directory on our system. As an example, using the WS_FTP program:
- Select New to make a new profile. Name it something like OVIS Web.
- Set Host to ftp.ovis.net.
- Put your username and password in the spaces provided.
- Make sure Save Password is checked and Anonymous Login is not checked.
- Save the profile by pressing the Save Button.
- Open an FTP session using this new profile (press OK).
- Change to the public_html directory (personal pages only).
- Upload your web pages (HTML files, gif and jpg images, etc.).
After you create your home page, you may fill out our Submit Homepage Listing Form. This will allow a link to be created on OVIS's website pointing web users to your page. You will receive a confirmation email when you page has been added to the respective listing. Your website address is http://www.ovis.net/~username.For example, if your username is joeuser, your homepage address would be http://www.ovis.net/~joeuser..