Technical Hosting
Frequently Asked Questions
[for commercial domain name accounts]

• What are all the files and directories in my home directory?
• What type of technical support do you NOT provide?
• How do I use the anonymous ftp site?
• How do I manually create email redirects?
• How do I use the autoresponders/infobots?
• How do I see who is using my infobots?
• How do I use Real Audio/Video?
• How do I change my FTP/TELNET login password?
• How do I check the web usage stats for my domain?
• What are the proper settings to configure my POP email accounts?
• What is the correct path to perl(and other programs)?
• How do I create my own "404 Not found" error page?
• How do I use the secure server for my order page?
• How do I upgrade or add features into my domain account?

What are all the files and directories in my home directory?

When you connect to the root or "home" directory of your account via ftp, you will see the following system files & directories/folders which are landmarks suggesting a successful connection: 

    File/Directory Name          Description

    -----------------------------------------------------------  

    .bash_history                System File

    .bash_logout                 System File

    .bash_profile                System File

    .bashrc                      System File

    .htpasswd                    Encrypted Password File

    .redirect                    Email Re-Direct Variables File

    .screenrc                    System File

    access-log                   System File

    anonftp                      Anonymous FTP Directory

    infobots/                    AutoResponders Directory

    maillists/                   Mailing List Directory

    pass                         System File

    www/ <-----------------------Place Your Web Pages In Here!

All your HTML files and subdirectories should be placed in the www directory. Your CGI-BIN is also located in the www directory.

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What kind of technical support do you NOT provide?
We do NOT provide any technical support relating to HTML syntax, Java programming, JavaScripting, any software or script installations, CGI programming, the re-editing of pre-installed CGI-scripts (we offer pre-installed CGI scripts "as-is"), nor any other non-network related aspect.

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How do I use the anonymous ftp site?
Your anonymous ftp site is completely different from your web site. When people ftp to your domain anonymously, this means they are accessing the public ftp portions by typing ftp://yourname.com. They will see the following directories:

bin/
dev/
etc/
incoming/
lib/
pub/

"pub" is where you should put all your accessible files for the public to view and download. Place the files for public download like so ftp://yourdomain.com/pub/your-file-name

"incoming" is for the anonymous users to upload files. You are responsible for any "pirated" software uploaded by the anonymous users. Remember "pirated" software is strictly prohibited on any On-Site Express web hosting accounts! The anonymous ftp sites will be periodically monitored for any abuses. You may ignore the other directories.

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How do I manually create email redirects?
Assume your domain is "example.com". You need to edit the .redirect file in your home directory. Here is a sample .redirect file for example.com:

default example@example.com
webmaster example@example.com
sales joe@aol.com,mike@whatever.com
info robert@example.com

That will automatically redirect all webmaster@example.com emails to example@example.com, sales@example.com to joe@aol.com AND mike@whatever.com, and info@example.com to robert@example.com. All others will go to example@example.com. PLEASE NOTE: DO NOT alter the default. The first line of your .redirect should not be altered or your real email(POP) accounts will malfunction.

It's important to note that the second column must be REAL (POP) accounts. You cannot redirect emails to an alias. Please note that it takes about 5-10 minutes for the .redirect file to go into effect after you've updated it.

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How do I use the autoresponders/infobots?
Very simple. Just create a text file and put it in the infobots directory. Let's say that the name of the text file is "info". Now, when you send mail to info@example.com, you will get the text file mailed back to you. That's it. Try it out. There is no limit to the number of these infobots. Note that the name of the file is simply "info", and not "info.txt".

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How do I see who is using my autoresponders/infobots?
Assume your infobot address is info@example.com. Just put the following line in your .redirect file. Its important that you have the infobot installed before entering the address line in the .redirect

       info example@example.com

The original email message will be sent to example@example.com, and the original sender will get the infobot text.

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How do I use Real Audio/Video?
Real Audio/Video is available for a small extra charge (email webhosting@onsiteexpress.com for more info)

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How do I change my FTP/TELNET login password?
Using Telnet software, login to your domain. Your username is yourdomain without the www or .com. Your password is the same as your FTP password. After you've logged on, type "passwd" and follow the simple instructions. You can exit the telnet session by typing "exit".

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How do I check the web usage stats for my domain?
Stats are updated once a week.
You may check your stats by going to http://yourdomain/wusage with your favorite browser.

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What are the proper settings to configure my POP email accounts?
Mail server username: Whatever is before the @ sign within your POP email address. For example, if your POP email was sales@example.com then your Mail server username would be "sales".

Outgoing mail (SMTP) server: yourdomain.com
Incoming mail server: yourdomain.com

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What is the correct path to perl(and other programs)?
perl5: /usr/bin/perl
perl5.003: /usr/bin/perl5.003
perl5.004:/usr/local/bin/perl5.004
sendmail: /usr/sbin/sendmail
date: /bin/date
java: /usr/bin/java
python: /usr/bin/python

Domain paths
using example if your domain was fred.com

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How do I create my own "404 Not found" error page?
Simply modify the missing.html file in your main web directory.

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How do I use the secure server for my order page?
Normally, any text(such as your credit card number) sent from your browser to the web server is sent as plain text. This means that a hacker could potentially intercept(however unlikely) the information sent from your browser and read it. Therefore, by using the secure server, the information is encrypted before it is sent from your browser. It would be practically impossible for anyone to decrypt it without knowing the key. Please use the secure server only when necessary. When you FTP to your site, you will notice a file called faq.html within your www directory. In there, it explains how to access your secure space. Access this information by typing http://yourdomain.com/faq.html#16 using your favorite browser.

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How do I add or upgrade features into my domain account?
Email us at webhosting@onsiteexpress.com

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