Creating Your Own Web Site

Creating Your Own Web Site

How do I get my own web page?
When you sign up for BICnet, send an e-mail to support@bicnet.net requesting space be set up.

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Where is my home page?
The address for your personal web page is as follows: www.bicnet.net/~username. This assumes that your main page is titled index.html.

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How do I upload my web pages?
Uploading your web pages is effortless. All that is involved is to FTP your files to ftp.bicnet.net, logging in with your username and password. You must place these files in a directory labeled public_html.

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How do I upload my virtual web pages?
Uploading virtual web pages is equally as simple as uploading regular web pages. Just FTP your files to ftp.yourdomainname.com, logging in with your username and password. You must place these files in a directory labeled public_html.

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How do I publish a personal web page from Microsoft FrontPage?
First go to Publish FrontPage Web under the File menu. Once there, click on More Webs. The location that you want to specify will be www.bicnet.net/~yourusername. The next screen will ask for the FTP Server Name and a Directory Path. The FTP Server Name is ftp.bicnet.net and the Directory Path will be /home/yourusername/public_html. The public_html directory must already exist on your FTP site before you publish your web page. Click Next to continue. The publisher will now ask for your User Name and Password. Enter these fields and click Finish to publish your web page.

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How do I create a web page?
You can create your home page with any word processing program that can save your file in HTML format, or a web page editing tool, such as Microsoft's FrontPage. For more information on HTML refer to any of a number of books on the subject available in bookstores, or search for information on the World Wide Web.

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Can I use CGI scripts on my home page?
CGI stands for Common Gateway Interface. CGI is used on some web pages to make them interactive. CGI can enhance your page for forms, image maps, or even search engines.

BICnet does not allow any custom CGI scripts on its servers because of security issues. If you wish to create your own CGI scripts, BICnet will be more than happy to allow access to them, after a senior programmer has reviewed them at the cost of $125 pr hour.

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How do I put a counter on my page?
Many of our customers wish to have a 'hit counter' placed on their home page or other Web pages. We have provided easy instructions below to help you accomplish this.

Step 1:
E-mail support@bicnet.net to let us know you want a counter, and we will create a data file for you. It will be named yourusername.dat. We must create this file before your counter will work.

Step 2:
Add the following HTML code to your page where you would like the counter to appear:

yourusername.dat is the name of the data file which we create for you. If your username is gloria, then the name of the file will be gloria.dat

Currently, there are 5 different styles of the counter. They are named A, B, C, D, E. To try another style, simply change the letter in the html tag. Ex: where it says dd=B cahnge it to dd=A, or dd=C.

A	B	C

D	E

That's all there is to it! Good luck. Any problems give us a call or e-mail us.

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How do I create forms on my page?
This HTML page demonstrates how to successfully call the BICnet forms processor.

This example collects data in a File, which you can read with any text editor or copy to another place for later processing.

The HTML to call the forms processor is as follows:
<form action="/cgi-bin/bicform?~test/data.out" method="POST">

You substitute your username for test, and your data output file for data.out. Note: The filename MUST end in a .out extension.

The Output Data File
The output data from the form is stored in the specified output file, in this case data.out. It is very important to note that the output data file MUST end in a .out extension. All other filenames will be rejected. This is a security measure to protect you and other users. The file must also exist, and be world writable. The forms processor will not create the file for you.

The data in the output file is stored with each form element on its own line. This makes it very easy to read the file or develop a simple parser, if desired.
In this case, the directory where the file data.out will reside is the directory belonging to the user test. You would substitute your username for test.

The Response File
Once a user has successfully submitted a form, the forms processor will send back a response file (which you create) to the user. This file must be located in your public_html directory, and end with either a .htm, or .html extension. All other response filenames will be rejected by the forms processor.
To specify a response file, use a hidden field with the name responsefile, and specify the entire response file URL as the value as shown here:

For a Virtual Domain:
<input type="hidden"name="responsefile"value="http://www.domain.com/response.htm">
For a BICnet Personal Account:
<input type="hidden"name="responsfile"value="~username/responsefile.htm">

Making a Field a Required Field
To make any field a required field, simply include the word Required before the field name as shown here:
<input name="required_user_name">

The above example will cause the forms processor to reject all forms submitted without the field required_user_name filled in with some type of data.

The Example Form
Here is the example form.

Name *:

Organization :

Street address :

Address (cont.) :

City :

State/Province :

Zip/Postal code :

Country :

Phone Number :

E-mail :

Which operating system are you using?
Windows 3.1 Windows 95 Windows NT

Please comment on anything else you would like to say...
(How's the weather?...What do you do on weekends, etc?)

* required fields

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Can I use the BICnet form processor to send mail?
This HTML page demonstrates how to successfully call the BICnet forms processor to send a mail message containing the user's data..

This example collects data in a Mail message, which will be sent to a mail recipient, which you specify in your HTML.

The HTML to call the forms processor
The HTML to call the forms processor is as follows:

Specifying the Mail Parameters
The data which is collected from the form is sent to a recipient that you specify. You specify the recipient, subject and sender in your HTML using hidden form elements. Here are examples:

All of the elements recipient, subject, sender_email and sender_name are required in order for the Forms Processor to be able to send mail successfully.

Each item of the form will appear on its own line in the email message, and each time someone submits the form, a new message will be generated and sent. If an error occurs in buinding the message or accessing the sending application, the person submitting the form will receive an error message which will explain what went wrong.

To specify a response file, use a hidden field with the name responsefile, and specify the entire response file URL as the value as shown here:

Making a Field a Required Field
To make any field a required field, simply prepend the word Required ahead of the field name as shown here:

The above example will cause the forms processor to reject all forms submitted without the field required_user_name filled in with some type of data.

The Example Form
Here is the example form.

Name *:

Organization :

Street address :

Address (cont.) :

City :

State/Province :

Zip/Postal code :

Country :

Phone Number :

E-mail :

Which operating system are you using?
Windows 3.1 Windows 95 Windows NT

Please comment on anything else you would like to say...
(How's the weather?...What do you do on weekends, etc?)

* required fields

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Can I use Microsoft Front Page extensions to publish my web page?
The Microsoft FrontPage Extensions are not supported on personal webpages. They are supported on virtual web pages. Please call 978-772-9500 for details.

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Call Tech Support @ 978.772.9500
Or e-mail support@bicnet.net