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Getting Started

Verizon provides a number of utilities and references for creating your Web Site and home page:

In order to get started, you'll need to establish your site and an FTP account by visiting the Site Builder homepage. Click on "Start Using Site Builder". Once you have gone through the initial set-up, you can continue to use Site Builder or begin using your FTP account. (The FTP "account" is part of your subscription package, and is available at no extra charge.)
If you're interested in posting additional pages or doing more sophisticated things, Verizon has compiled a list of references and resources for Creating Web Services

Attention FrontPage® Users: The server does not support all FrontPage extensions (bots, etc.). You should avoid using them.

If you've already established an FTP account, created a basic home page, and are ready to move on to bigger and better things, you'll need to review the following information about accessing your Web site and about the Verizon directory structure.

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Connecting to Your Site

In order to access items on your Web site, you will need an application called an "FTP client."

Windows users - download WSFTP
Macintosh users - download Fetch

Using an FTP client application, the following steps will establish a connection to your personal directory on the Verizon users' server:

Open a TCP/IP connection - just as you do when you wish to use a browser. (In fact, you can have a browser application and an FTP client open at the same time, though doing so may slow each considerably.)
Launch your FTP client.
If a dialog box does not automatically open, there should be a prominent button or menu item for connecting to a remote host - activate it.
In the dialog box that appears, you will need to enter the following information:
- HOST NAME: ftpmysite.verizon.net
- User Name: your user ID (e.g. - jsmith)
- PASSWORD: your password

At this point, you should be connected to your site on the Web server.

If you are using a PC and WSFTP, you should be looking at a screen with two menu lists: the menu on the left is your hard drive, the menu on the right is your directory on the Web server
If you are using Mac and Fetch, there is only one menu, which represents the contents of your directory on the Web server

Both WSFTP and Fetch allow you to save log-on information to a file, so that you only have to manually enter it the first time. This is an especially convenient option, but it is not advisable to include your password in the information that will be saved to disk.

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Web Site Management

Once a connection has been established, you will be able to manipulate the files on the Web server just as if they were on an external hard drive connected to your computer (albeit only through your FTP client's file management system).

TIP: Create a directory or folder on your hard drive entitled "Home Page" and store copies of all the files you plan to post. Doing so will make managing your Web site more convenient: finding the files will be easy, and you'll have a convenient "working copy" of everything, so you won't need to download a copy to edit.

Primarily, you will use FTP to upload, download, rename, and delete files on your Web site

UPLOADING FILES

"Uploading" is the process of moving files from your hard drive "up" to your directory on the Web server. The procedure differs among applications and platforms:

If you are using a PC and WSFTP:

In the left menu, which represents your hard drive, find the file you wish to upload.
You will notice two radio buttons beneath the menus:
Select the left button, ASCII if you are uploading a text file.
Select the right button, Binary if you are uploading any other kind of file.
Between the windows, there are two arrow buttons - use the bottom button, which contains an arrow that points to the right (toward the menu for the Web server and away from the menu for your hard drive).

If you are using a MAC and Fetch:

Select the button or menu item for Put File - this will activate a dialog box.
Use the dialog box to find the file you wish to upload.
Once the file is selected, another dialog box will appear, providing format options:
If you are uploading a text file, select Text.
For any other file, select Raw.
Another dialog box will open, confirming your decision and providing an opportunity to rename the file. This may prove especially useful, because Fetch has a tendency to append extensions to file names.

DOWNLOADING FILES

"Downloading" is the process of moving files from the Web server "down" to your hard drive. The procedure differs among applications and platforms:

If you are using a PC and WSFTP:

Highlight the item you wish to download in the menu on the right.
Specify the location you want the file to be saved on your hard drive in the menu on the left.
Click the bottom arrow button between the menus, which points to the left (toward your drive, away from the Web server).

If you are using a MAC and Fetch:

Highlight the item you wish to download in the menu.
Select the button or menu item for Get File.
Use the dialog box that opens to specify the folder in which you want the downloaded file to save.

RENAMING FILES

It's always most convenient to name the files on your hard drive exactly as you wish them to be named on your Web site. However, there may be instances in which you need to change the name of a file on the Web server.

If you are using a PC and WSFTP:

Highlight the item you wish to rename in the menu on the right.
In the column of buttons to the right of the menu, select the one labeled Rename.
In the dialog box that appears, enter the new name.

If you are using a MAC and Fetch:

Highlight the item you wish to download in the menu.
Select the button or menu item for Rename File.
Use the dialog box that opens to provide the new name.

DELETING FILES

Downloading a file merely makes a copy from the Web server to your own hard drive, but does not remove the file. In order to remove a file from your Web site, you have to delete it.

If you are using a PC and WSFTP:

Highlight the item you wish to delete in the menu on the right.
In the column of buttons to the right of the menu, select the one labeled Delete.

If you are using a MAC and Fetch:

Highlight the item you wish to delete in the menu.
Select the button or menu item for Delete File.

After uploading/downloading/managing files as necessary, disconnect from the Web server and quit the FTP client application. (Note: Although most FTP clients will automatically disconnect when you quit, it's always best to manually disconnect before closing to ensure the security of your data on the Web server.)

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The Verizon Online Directory Structure

The following information is important to Verizon subscribers who wish to know ...

How to determine the Internet address (URL) of pages on their site
How to reference their Web pages in other documents
How to use files from the Verizon site

Determining Your URL

Knowing your Internet address is as important in the virtual community as knowing your street address is in the physical world. If you wish to locate your Web site, or give others the address of your home page, or have your page listed in the various Internet directories, you'll need to know your URL.

Verizon subscribers have their own server, mysite.verizon.net, each user's site will be in a directory that bears the user's name and each user's home page will be named index.htm

Putting it all together, the Internet address of your home page will be:

http://mysite.verizon.net/username/index.htm

Any other page on your site will have to be referenced by name. For example, John Smith (jsmith@verizon.net) posts his resume (in a file named resume.htm) - a pointer directly to his resume would read as follows:

http://mysite.verizon.net/jsmith/resume.htm

IMPORTANT: Subscribers should make sure to name their home page index.htm - individual listings in the Verizon directory depend on it, and your readers' browser applications will not find your home page if it is named differently.

Linking Your Pages

Any page in your directory may be linked to any other page in your directory using a simple relative URL. For example, if your resume is named resume.htm and your home page is index.htm, then your home page may call your resume by using <A HREF="resume.htm"> and the resume may be linked back to the home page by using <A HREF="index.htm">. (By the way, it's a good idea to have at least one link in every page, even if it's a link back to where the user came from. It's bad netiquette to leave readers "dead-ended".)

If you wish to use absolute URLs instead, you'll need to use a tag like this:
<A HREF="http://mysite.verizon.net/username/index.htm">.
Alternately, you may abbreviate that tag as
<A HREF="/username/index.htm">. (The slash at the beginning is very important.)

However, if you add subdirectories to your directory - which you may eventually do if there are a lot of pages on your site - you will need to include them in the URL, thus:
<A HREF="http://mysite.verizon.net/username/subdirectory/file.htm">
The more subdirectories, the longer the URL will become - and the more tedious it becomes for users to type in, and the greater the chances are that they may make an error in typing it. For that reason, it's best to keep things as simple as possible on your site.

Using Verizon Files

In developing the Verizon site, the WebMaster and design team created and a amassed myriad of art files, which subscribers are welcome to use in their own pages. Linking these files directly from their present location can save space in your own folder, which will provide more room for documents as your site expands.

gifs index
Individual graphics files, such as bullets, arrows, and icons, are stored in subdirectories of the "gifs" folder. You may use the link above to browse the contents.
To use these files in your page, you will need to use an image tag - specific tags for each image is provided in the index document.

backgrounds directory
There is a special folder for seamless background tiles, called "backgrounds." Use the link above to view its contents. To use these files in your page, you will need to use a body tag such as:
<BODY BACKGROUND=
"http://www2.verizon.net/myaccount/manage/backgrounds/filename.gif">
If you use one of these backgrounds, you may need to change the color of your text and links as well - most HTML tutorials provide advice and instructions for doing this.

Three things to be aware of:

If you wish to link the art from its home in the Verizon directory, you'll have to use it as-is. If you need to modify the art, make a copy that you can edit and store in your personal directory.
The art on the Verizon site changes periodically. Large image files and seasonal images (such as holiday art) may be purged after the pages that contain them have been taken down or altered. While you are free to use other art files from the Verizon site, you do so at your own risk - only the files listed in the indices, above, will be maintained permanently.
While we openly invite you to use our art in your Web site, there is an exception: please refrain from using any images that include the Verizon logo. Corporate lawyers tend to be unpleasant about that kind of thing.

Publicizing Your Web Pages

After your home page is posted, announce it to the Internet community. Having your home page listed with the indexes and search engines is usually free, and requires only a few minutes for each site.

An important consideration before you advertise your site ... Is it really ready?
Users who are drawn to a new Web site by an announcement don't expect to see "under construction" signs or pages that don't load properly - and they can be rather rude if they do. To be a good e-citizen and avoid flame mail, make sure that the site is 100% ready, in complete working order with every "i" dotted and every "t" crossed, before you announce it.

If everything checks out, make a list of important information about your site - the URL and title, a short paragraph to describe it, keywords by which users should be able to find it, and so on - and proceed to the following sites:

AltaVista - One of the oldest and largest search engines on the Internet.
Lycos® - A popular search engine that sends a "spider" to your site.
WebCrawler^TM - A remarkably large volume of pages cataloged by a remarkably fast search engine.
Yahoo!® - Provides one of the Internet's largest catalogs of personal home pages under its Entertainment/People section.

NOTE: There are other places to advertise your Web site - the locations above welcome personal home page listings, some of the others do not. As a matter of netiquette, spend some time investigating a service, making sure your site is appropriate to its listings and categories, before submitting your URL for their list.

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