Southern Star - Webmaster Information

General

This is some general information about administrating your domain's web site.

You should have your domain's web site info. This was mailed to you when the web site was configured.

Hostname
Username
Password

Initially all that is there is a default start-up page. What's needed is for you to to put your web site files on the server.

For FTP or SFTP updates use the above information to log in to the host. This will start you in your personal account. Do not use the personal web directory in this account. Instead, move to "../../web", the domain's web directory, before uploading your web site files.

Again, when using FTP or SFTP do not use the web directory in your personal user account (which is where you log in). Type "cd ../../web" to get to the domain's web directory. Also, when transferring the files, make sure to use the correct mode. Use "ascii" for text files and "binary" for image files.

As far as we know, Internet Explorer offers no way to go "up" a directory level at a FTP site. So it can not be used to upload your web site.

For FrontPage updates use the above information to log in, except for the username. For that use "webmaster". Do not mix using FrontPage and FTP to do updates. Pick one method and stick to it.

In addition, you can manage certain aspects of the site yourself and see various information, including usage reports and logs (3 months), by pointing your web browser to http://www.<domain>/siteadmin. For example, http://www.sstar.com/siteadmin. Log in with the username and password.

Features

In case you are curious, the web server is a Sun/Cobalt RaQ XTR. It is based on the Apache web server running on the Linux operating system. Software features include:

HTTP 1.1
CGI scripting with Perl, PHP 4, and Chili!Soft ASP
FrontPage 2000 Server Extensions
Java support for Sun's Java run-time environment 1.3
128-bit SSL support
SQL Database support using MySQL
Log Analyzer for Web Site Usage Reports
Backup/Restore functions (manual or automatic, FTP or SMB)
SSL, Telnet, SSH, FTP and SFTP WebMaster access

For additional information, both the web server user manual and the ASP manual are available online.

Notes

The username and password are both case sensitive.
If you are moving from an old web site to here, until the DNS is changed to point here you can FTP to web.sstar.com instead of the hostname. After you have uploaded your web site files ask whoever is hosting your DNS to point the web record(s) to web.sstar.com (204.14.144.6). You won't be able to surf to the new web site till this is done.
Optionally, if your DNS is hosted here we can set it so that <domain> points here now. This way you can upload your web site files and surf to the new site for testing using <domain> instead of the hostname. When you are ready, ask us to complete the switch by pointing the hostname here also.
It will take up to a day or so after a DNS change for it to point to the web site. Until then you won't be able to surf to it. You can FTP to it, however, by going to web.sstar.com instead of the hostname. Note: If we handle your DNS and if you are connected to us for DNS then you won't have to wait, but the rest of the world will.
Some versions of Windows and some applications running under Windows do not expire DNS information when they should. They continue to operate, sometimes for days, with obsolete DNS info. Rebooting solves this problem.
File and directory names are case sensitive.
The startup file should be "index.html". You might want to save the one that is there already before you replace it.
Let us know if you need FrontPage extensions enabled.
Let us know if you need CGI, PHP, or ASP enabled.
For CGI scripts use filename extension ".cgi" or ".pl". Set permissions to 775. Place in the cgi-bin directory.
For PHP scripts use filename extension ".php". Set permissions to 664.
For ASP scripts use filename extension ".asp". Set permissions to 664.
For Perl scripts use path "#!/usr/bin/perl".
For sendmail use path "/usr/sbin/sendmail".
Let us know if you need a MySQL account and database set up. By default we set up just local access. Let us know if you also need remote access. Here's the info you will need.
- Database
- Username
- Password
Let us know if you need shell access. You can use either Telnet or SSH. The log in info is the same as for FTP.
You can customize some of the common error messages by editing the files in the error directory.
If you need more disk space it is available for a fee.
Make sure to backup your web site. We do not make a backup of it here.