General Frequently Asked Questions

1.   How do I upload files to my virtual web server?

The easiest way to upload files to your web site is to use FTP. All web site authoring packages support this method of "publishing" your web site. In the preferences of your authoring package should be an area where you tell it what server and what directory to publish to. The entries should be something similar to these:

           Server: ftp.your_domain.com
           Directory: /domains/your_domain.com/public_html/www.your_domain.com

If you are not using a web site authoring package, then you'll have to upload your files using an FTP client. Windows includes a very basic FTP client (go Start->Run->ftp ftp.your_domain.com). A better way would be to pick up a shareware or commercial FTP client. For the Windows platform we recommend WS_FTP which can be found here:

           http://www.ipswitch.com/

For the Macintosh try Fetch:

           http://www.usd253.org/tutorial/fetch.htm

2.   How do I retrieve my mail?

Please see the Virtual Mail Controller FAQ.

3.   Why do I get a "Relaying Denied." error when sending mail?

Please see the Virtual Mail Controller FAQ.

4.   How do I stream RealAudio/RealVideo files?

RealAudio and RealVideo files can be streamed using the web server. To do this you must create a .ram meta file for each RealAudio or RealVideo (with the .ra or .rm extensions) file. The .ram meta file is a simple text file with one line of text in it -- the URL to your RealAudio or RealVideo file.

For instance, if you upload "my_real_file.rm" to the "/real" directory of your web site, then the .ram file would contain the following line of text:

http://www.your_domain.com/real/my_real_file.rm

Windows users can use Notepad to create the .ram file; Macintosh users can use SimpleText. When you reference the RealAudio or RealVideo file in your HTML page, reference the .ram meta file like this:

           <a href="/real/my_real_file.ram">Play Me</a>

An unlimited number of simultaneous streams can be viewed using HTTP streaming. When encoding your RealAudio and RealVideo clips be sure to encode them as a "Single Rate" file (RealProducer lists this as the "Web Server Compatible" format).

5.   How do I make a new subserver?

Subservers are not enabled by default unless you requested them at the time your account was set up. If you didn't request them then just drop a quick email to support and ask that they be activated for your web site.

To create a new subserver simply make a new directory in the "public_html" directory. This can be done either with an FTP client or via the shell using the "mkdir" command. For instance, if you wanted a new subserver called "images.your_domain.com" you would do the following from the shell:

           mkdir ~/domains/your_domain.com/public_html/images.your_domain.com

You may now upload files to that directory and begin using it.

6.   How do I password protect a directory?

You can set up your virtual web server to prompt for a username and password by using .htaccess files. A complete description of dynamic control files can be found here.

To protect a directory create the proper .htaccess file and place it in the directory you wish protected. Here is a sample .htaccess file:

AuthName Restricted Area
AuthType basic
AuthUserFile /local/home/a0000/domains/your_domain.com/passwords/memberfile
Require valid-user

Be sure to replace the "AuthUserFile" line with the proper path to your password file. The password file is a simple text file with one line for each user. The line consists of the username, followed by a colon, followed by the encrypted password.

You can add users to the password file using the "htpasswd" command from the shell:

htpasswd -c ~/domains/your_domain.com/passwords/memberfile username password

Alternatively, you can use our online htaccess authentication utility located here. This utility will generate the appropriate line of text to add to the password file. Simply paste that line of text into the password file.

7.   Where are perl and sendmail located?

Perl is located here:
           /usr/local/bin/perl

Sendmail is located here:
           /usr/lib/sendmail

8.   Why are there so many extra hits for "/" in my nightly statistics?
      --What type of server monitoring do you perform?

All of our servers are monitored by two separate probing systems 24 hours per day.

Our primary monitoring system lies internal to our own network and probes each of your virtual servers once every five minutes. A HEAD request is made from each virtual server and the monitoring program looks to ensure that the web server is accepting connections, that it is processing requests, and that when it processes a request it does not return an error.

Our secondary monitoring system lies external to our network and probes each server once every five minutes to make sure that all services are still running (HTTP, FTP, POP3, IMAP, SMTP, telnet, etc.).

If either monitoring system logs an error condition, an alert email is sent to our support staff and our support staff is also paged.

Because our primary monitoring system actually makes a HEAD request from each virtual server, you will notice an unusually high number of hits for your main index page ("/") in your nightly statistics. The probing itself accounts for approximately 1.5 Megabytes of transfer per month (negligible).

9.   How do I set up a custom 404 error page?

You can customize your Error 404 pages through the use of .htaccess dynamic control files. Simply create a ".htaccess" file in your document root and then add the following line to it:

ErrorDocument 404 http://www.your_domain.com/404.htm

More information on dynamic control files can be found here:

           http://www.svwh.net/htaccess.php

10. Why is my disk space usage so high?

The disk space calculation includes everything underneath your home directory. This includes your log files. For those sites that are very active, these log files can grow to be quite large. To help reduce the size of the log files, each log file is rotated out on a nightly basis and then compressed.

At the beginning of each month the log files are rotated into the "archive" directory. The logs will stay in the "archive" directory until the first of the following month and then they are automatically deleted (unless you've requested that the log files be kept indefinitely).

By way of example; the log files for January are rotated out and moved to the "archive" directory on February 1. On March 1 the January logs are automatically deleted and the February logs are rotated into the "archive" directory.

The log files for the current month are always kept through the month, however you do not have to keep the archived logs if you do not wish. By deleting the archived logs you will reduce your disk space usage. To automatically deleted the archived logs each month simply make the following entry into your crontab:

15 23 6 * * rm -rf /local/home/YOUR_LOGIN/domains/*/logs/archive/STATS.* > /dev/null 2> /dev/null

Be sure to replace "YOUR_LOGIN" with your user ID. Please note that the crontab entry above should be all on one line (if it appears on two lines that is because your web browser wrapped it).

11. How do I add my own MIME types?

You can tell the web server about your custom mime types via a .htaccess file. Simply create a file named .htaccess in your document root and add the MIME type using the AddType directive.

Example .htaccess file:

           AddType application/pdf pdf

If you already have a .htaccess file in your document root then simply add the "AddType" line to the end of the file.

More extensive information on Dynamic Control Files (.htaccess files) can be found here:

           http://www.svwh.net/htaccess.php

12. How do I make my .html and .htm files server parsed (SSI)?

Add the following AddType directives to a .htaccess file in your document root:

           AddType text/x-server-parsed-html html

           AddType text/x-server-parsed-html htm

Setting up the server to parse your .html and .htm files is no different than adding any other MIME type as outlined in the question above:

More extensive information on Dynamic Control Files (.htaccess files) can be found here:

           http://www.svwh.net/htaccess.php