posted on March 3, 2001 10:58:58 AM new
Goodbye, delphi. Sorry you feel the information so generously shared by the posters here in this site to be useless.
posted on March 3, 2001 11:14:01 AM new
I will try to explain the index directory, but i am not sure if I can do it right. Hopefully others will help me out.
You have to create and name a page to have a "home" for the pictures to FTP into.
When you have a website, the main page is usually named the index page (index.html). If you're getting started and looking to make a site, you could make this your "home page" and have people navigate around it with links. If you are a AWer in a hurry who doesn't want a public page, you just want to store pictures, your index.html page could be where you store them.
Does that make sense?
Start by getting the home ready for the pictures to go into, name the page, and then do the FTP'ing to that page.
If you want to make your home page a real site, not just a photo hosting space, later on, don't use the index page. You will need that for the home page that you will build and moving your pictures will slow you down. Start another page instead and call it "images" or as someone suggested "March01Images" or what ever you want to call it, and then open your FTP program and send your pictures to that page.
posted on March 3, 2001 11:29:29 AM new
Yep, been using my own ISP for hosting images for over 4 years. I use FTP for uploading and it couldn't be more simple. There are plenty of fee FTP utilities available from download.com or shareware.com.
Many ISP provide the necessary setup info on their web sites. If not, customer support can easily deal with it over the phone. It truly isn't very complicated.
I use my own templates and Keyboard Express (available from download.com) for creating my listings. It's fast and easy AND I don't have to depend on these "free" .....whoops, "not free" sites that are so overloaded that they can't be depended upon anyway.
posted on March 3, 2001 11:34:10 AM new
brighid868....
What happens when you use FTP is you create directories on the remote server....liken them to folders on your hard drive...
I would suggest creating an "index.html" page, even if blank, to prevent surfers from snooping around your directories...
Let's call the main directory (below the top level directories the host determines) "images"....then if you wanted to resolve your images by date, create another directory called "030301"...be careful about symbols used in directory and file names; FTP servers are very particular about the characters in your name.
OK....say you have a pic named "mypic01.jpg"....when referring to it in HTML as:
<img src="http://FTPsite.com/images/030301/mypic01.jpg">
The image will end up in its programmed space on the auction template and will be downloadable as an image only....in other words, raw data with no text.
I've been using free FTP clients on my Mac since the mid 90's...they're easy to use....
posted on March 3, 2001 01:33:16 PM new
With Road Runner, the index.html page is the "main" page of your web site. If you are making an actual web page, the first page of your site is named index.html. When you upload that to your space, it replaces the blank or empty page that you start with.
Using sub-folders or directories is a smart idea. It will help you with managing your images, especially if you are selling all unique items and not the same things over and over again.
You could name them by the date or month, or by catagory, whatever works best for your items. I sort mine by Month, since that is the way I manage and sort them on my own systems hard drive. I don't delete any images from my web space or my hard drive until that item is shipped and the transaction is completely finished.
posted on March 3, 2001 01:45:42 PM new
I just wanted to pop in here & remind some of the NEW users who are probably freaking out about all this right now ................
Start Slow - 1 step at a time.
You don't need to have fancy lad templates to list an item on eBay. All you really need is some basic HTML [which is VERY easy to learn], and a place to store your pics on the WWW.
That's it!
If you can do this <b>My eBay Item</b> [bolds your title]
And this <p> [leaves a paragraph space]
You're already half way there!
The next step is downloading an FTP tool, and learning [1 step at a time] how to transfer those images on your computers hard drive, onto your spot on the WWW.
If you've already figured out how to list auctions on AW, or any of the other once FREE sites, you can figure out this as well.
It all seems scary at first, but if a dim wit like me can do it, so can you.
You'll find all sorts of info on these boards, and if you need help, just start a thread, or check back to this one.
posted on March 3, 2001 03:06:11 PM new
Ok, I'm already stumped.
I have an index.htm page, and I've created a folder called "images". No problem getting all my auction pics into that folder, BUT, if you delete the /images/nameofpic/.jp off of my URL for that image, you end up with my images directory page, with all of my auction pics.
Not that I really care if anyone goes to the trouble to snoop at all my pics, but is there a way to prevent someone from getting my directory page for all my images?
posted on March 3, 2001 03:35:23 PM new
reddeer...
Did you create a blank index.html page for your subdirectory called "images"...?
I have all my website files in one directory so I only have the one index page, which happens to be the home page for my business...
Since I don't have my own domain, I also created a blank index page with my business logo and a referer at the top level of my ISPs subdirectory (my user ID) so people couldn't browse my own created directory at will...
A professional web site administrator can likely give you better advice but what I've posted has worked for me with a couple of different ISP's over the last 4 years...
Someday we'll get out of the Model T era of computers and the net...*G*
posted on March 3, 2001 03:44:07 PM newSmw ..... LOL, no worries there.
It's just that when I tried that with my pics [on your site] all I ended up with was a sign in page about the weather?
I was going to E you & ask you how you did that.
Pat ...... I'm not sure I follow you?
Did you create a blank index.html page for your subdirectory called "images"
Not by the looks of it? I'm still waiting for my domain name to go through, so for now all I have is an IP addy. Perhaps that's the problem?
I'll see what shakes loose once I have my domain name up & running.
posted on March 3, 2001 03:59:38 PM new
reddeer...
Sorry about the cryptic response....it means I know enough to be dangerous but not enough to explain this stuff to you in simple layman's terms...
If you have the ability to create your own directory on the FTP site, you can make an index page for that directory...using an HTML editor..
Just imagine that the web browser looking at your site is looking for an "index.html" page after the last "/" in the URL in the browser address line....
So, if you have a URL that ends in "images/", the browser wants to see an index of that directory....if you've not provided one through an "index.html" page (even if blank) in that directory, the browser will create its own listing all the files (your pictures) in the directory.
You may be ending the URL with "images/mypic01.jpg" but anyone can just strip the "mypic.01.jpg" off and see what happens....I do it a lot just to see what else lurks in a site...you never know..*G*
I'm hoping a site administator or web designer will pop in here and explain this better....
posted on March 3, 2001 04:12:41 PM new
Hmmmm. Ok, if I simply transfer the pics to my site, without sticking them in the images folder, I seem to have solved the problem.
Now if I remove the /mypic.jpg portion, it simply takes me to the web site hosts page.
Damned if I know? All this work is making me hungry, be back later ...........
posted on March 3, 2001 08:33:49 PM new
Good evening reddeer. I posted a thread in your honor in the EO Forum but I thought you might come here first if your email is turned on. This site takes you through the steps of building a web page and explains how to do the index.html thingy.
posted on March 4, 2001 06:50:26 AM new
I haven't been here lately, and it seems I've missed much of the "excitement" over the impending changes in AW services.
I've never used them, not because I didn't want to, but because anything I was interested in didn't seem to work well with WebTV's Jurassic-age browser and lack of somewhere to download to. In fact, that's pretty much the case of most sites which offer bells and whistles, whether they're free or have fees.
So, two years ago I found a free image host (the only one I've found which is truly WebTV-friendly, despite the claims of some of the others), and learned how to make my own bells and whistles (the ones I wanted for my listings). WebTV Networks offers a small amount of web space, about 4MB per address and strictly for non-commercial use, so I'm slowly putting together a website now.
If you're using a computer, as most of you are, you can do all of this, and then some, much more quickly and easily than we WebTVers can!
posted on March 4, 2001 03:42:01 PM new
Just a quick thought for those on the @home network, they allow users to have 5 different email addresses and each email is considered a profile, in turn each profile is allowed free web space. I presently use 40 MB's (10 per profile)of web space for free.
At no time have they said anything about using it commercially and I'd be surprised if they were ever bored enough to search where and how I'm using my images.
posted on March 4, 2001 04:04:58 PM new
For those of you that don't want to learn FTP, You can store pics on Netscape and MSN.
Use photo album on MSN. Upload your picture. Right click on mouse and up will come your URL. This is a free service.
posted on March 4, 2001 04:29:34 PM new
I am glad that reddeer is having fun with her domain at f4tc0w. Name is censored for obvious reasons.
I have known HTML and FTP for awhile (FTP is actually quite simple, you don't need to know any commands), as I have ran numerous sites in the past 0_o.
I am REALLY considering getting a domain with f4tc0w, it just seems like such a good deal, and having my own domain called BlueeNET (bluee.net) just makes me all warm inside.
Bluee.com is taken by a German company. They help other businesses with their web front and other media presentations, I think. My German is a bit rusty 0_o.
I wonder why they took the name Blue-e, it isn't a German word, and it isn't an American word!
Oh, and for space on my ISP? I wouldn't trust @home with... with... nothing! They only have my service because I need broadband and DSL isn't here. I don't even use their e-mail because the servers are pure crap and drop a lot of mail!
Does anyone have any post-sale/post-auction management suggestions? I was spoiled by AW's...
posted on March 4, 2001 05:00:32 PM new
FYI - this deer is a buck.
I use @home for email, and other than twice in the past 3 years, I've had no serious problems. I think it depends on the local cable company? But the website sux.
posted on March 4, 2001 06:04:53 PM new
Regarding post-auction management, I read a tip here some months ago that has saved me a lot of time.
I use the "signature" feature of my e-mail program to create end-of-auction e-mail templates. I have several different signatures/templates (each with an appropriate name):
- eBay buyers who win 1 item
- eBay buyers whowin more than 1 item
- Yahoo buyers who win 1 item
- Yahoo buyers who win more than one item
- query as to status of payment
Whenever I want to use a template, I simply insert the appropriate signature and then customize the message where necessary.
I also have been using a little program called "hotkeys" (www.hotkeys.com) which allows me to program certain key combinations to make keyboard shortcuts. For example, I have the "windows" key in combination with the "B" key programed to type out a certain feedback comment. I have the CTRL key plus the "E" programed to type "eBay #". It might not seem to be much of a time savings but a few seconds saved here and there for each transaction can add up to a hefty savings in time over the course of a year.
posted on March 4, 2001 07:06:55 PM new
@home's websites do suck yes, and it's nationwide not just yours. Downtime in our area is what forced me to use a hoster for a .com personal site.
If @home wont work out for the auctions I'll probably open a new acct. with them.
40.00 Cdn a month for 50MB's, a 5000 per month transfer limit and quite a few on-site features like their own ftp. They do have other packages available and one may be more suited to strictly holding images.
bluegenesis.com if anyone wants to check out even more options than whats already been posted.
posted on March 4, 2001 07:12:44 PM new
Stockticker, thanks for the tip on the sig lines. I'll check hotkeys out too.
I've always stored my auction's pics on my ISP. I've been using WS_FTP for a couple of years now. One of the real advantages I saw to services like AW was the scheduling of auctions. Also AW creates a smaller pic thumbnail instead of just forcing the with of the pics down in the browsers.
I had a thread which was deleted by AW on how to shedule auctions yourself on a home pc. From Joice's reply in the mod's corner I think she says it's ok if I add this tip here. So here it goes.
_____________________________________________
Well, with all the upcoming changes, I decided I had to try and figure a way to schedule my auctions myself and not use paid for services, unless I absolutely have to.
I found it's possible to schedule auctions to launch at a preset time from a computer by using a combination of three software's working together.
I used:
1-Windows98 task scheduler
2-RTVReco
3-name deleted at request of AW in order to remain within the community guidelines. I'm allowed to mention to use the auction software of your choice instead.
For those not familiar with RTvReco, it's a small shareware that can be configured to recognize windows and send keystrokes or push buttons for you. It can be downloaded from ZDNET.
In a nutshell, I had previously created a test auction and stored it in the auction software's outbox. I used Win98 tasks scheduler to schedule the opening of the two other programs daily. RTvReco first at 21:19 then the auction software at 21:22. RTvReco is set up to recognise the auction software windows and buttons. It pushes the correct buttons to Send All auctions automatically and post them on eBay.
Obviously, you need to leave your computer on if you leave the house. Make sure you are connected to the internet or set up RTvReco to connect for you a few minutes ahead of time. Once all is finished, Win98 task scheduler can be configured to shut down the programs after a determined lapse of time.
______________________________________________
I have setup a small web page with detailed pics of settings for it to work. I think I am not allowed to post the url. Please correct me if I'm wrong on this Joice. Thanks.
