Hi I have been reading the forum for a couple of weeks but am new to posting on it so i hope this is in the right place!!! Being very new to the whole web design thing i have been working on my first site. I recently got some space on a server and up loaded my site today using "aceftp" the thing is i can't work out how i change the standard index page which says "welcome to "mysite.com" this site is under construction" to see my website. I can appreciate that this is fairly mundane stuff for the pro's but would greatfully recieve any help. Thanx Ollie
Hi Ollie and welcome to DP! Looks like you're a n00b so we'll take it slowly starting at the beginning... When you opened aceftp and connected to your server, it would have shown you a few folders. Like in explorer in windows when you browse around your own hard drive. It's important you stick the files in the correct folder on the server. Different hosts use different default folders unfortunately but often it's something like 'www', or 'httpd_docs' or 'public_html' etc. We first need to know where you stuck it and whether that's the correct place. When it's in the correct place, we need to know whether you uploaded a file with the filename index.htm or index.html or index.php etc. Please report back and we'll help you on your way.
Thanks for your interest. In ace ftp when i open public_html folder my site name appears in that folder and below it there is an index.default file. To be honest I am not sure if I uploaded the site in the right place?? as this is the first time i have done this??
Hello Dowie, Just upload you main page (index.html or index.htm or index.php) on public_html and then open you site and see if its showing your that page
Hi Dowie, Just connect to your hosting account via ace ftp once you are connected open public_html folder delete the index.htm/index.html/index.php and upload your main page and dont forget to rename your site main page to index.html Thanks, Saad
For a little insight to why you need your main site page named index.html, .htm, .php, etc. When you type in the URL of a site such as, greatwebsite.com, you are simply choosing a "location", not an actual file. When a site is accessed this way, the server looks for the default file named index.*. This is the file it will send back, when no file is specified. If you named your home page homepage.html, you could type in yoursite.com/homepage.html and the page would load. It sounds as though your host installs an index to a new account. All you need to do, as others have mentioned, is over-write the existing index file with your home page named index.*
When you login to your space, I would delete the default index.html file from public_html and upload your index file