Set up your homepage the easy way

By RICHARD WOOD

Most people know they can have a website, but don't realise just how easy it is.

Usually your internet provider will give you a few megabytes of space for homepages when you sign up for access.

Or you can find separate website hosting deals that are dirt cheap - $15 a month or less.

You can fill your web space with web pages you've created in tools as simple to use as Microsoft Word, or download free web page design tools such as SoThink HTML Editor or Ace HTML 5 Freeware to create them.

But there's another factor involved that tends to bog people down. It's called FTP - file transfer protocol. But all you need to know is that FTP software is the tool you will use to get your website files up on the internet. It's the missing link.

I've been using one such FTP tool since December that is available free on the internet. Its latest version is AceFTP 3 Freeware for Windows-based computers.

You can download it from Visicom Media or search the web for other FTP programs such as FTP Commander or SmartFTP.

The web space provided by your internet provider or hosting service is simply a directory where you can place files or folders of your own.

FTP software presents your hosted directories in much the same way as your files on your disk, and shows the two views alongside, or above and below, each other.

A small set-up procedure is required to tell AceFTP where on the internet to look.

For separately hosted services there may be a particular folder name to note, which is where all your publicly viewable files and folders will reside.

To set up AceFTP you simply choose the "connect" and "create" commands and enter the server name, user ID and password provided by your hosting service.

Once connected to your site, make sure you have opened the correct folder. Then use the Windows Explorer style view to choose the file you want from the left-hand side and "drag" it to the right-hand window.

Alternatively, you can select all the files you want and then press the right arrow button between the two.

AceFTP has a handy feature which, if the file already exists, will give you 10 seconds to choose whether to overwrite or rename the target, or cancel the transfer.

Don't forget, you need to have one file called index.html in your main directory. You will link to your other files from that home page.

One little catch for beginners is the different naming conventions you may face. I use a Linux hosting service. I find I occasionally need to rename files in small letters, and files in my home view don't show the file extension (such as ".html") where in the host view they do.

Once you've mastered FTP basics there are a wealth of additional features in AceFTP and other FTP software which allow you to have multiple connections open at once and twiddle with a host of presentation and configuration settings.

For more advanced features you can cough up some dough and get a paid version.

AceFTP 3 Freeware

* Free download: Visicom Media

* Pros: Free and easy to set up and use

* Cons: Few, but perhaps too many features for the basic user.

* Rating: 9/10