| [a] | I don't have any webspace ! |
This is an interesting question, and as far as I know every BTinternet/BTYahoo! user has a BTinternet/BTopenworld webspace allocation, even though it's not actually mentioned! Users during 2006 when Geocities/Yahoo! webspace was introduced as part of the package were effectively informed that they no longer receive BTinternet webspace. I know this to be false for new pay as you go customers, as there is a 10MB allowance given per account. It now transpires that all customers have webspace, with broadband users having 50MB of allowance. Note that this is per account, not per email address. By default the primary email address will be associated with the webspace and accessed via [b1] below. There is no particular activation needed, though uploading a file to the webspace may start things going. It is possible that any of the account email addresses has the associated webspace, this can be checked by my main shortcuts option [2] (www.andyweb.co.uk/shortcuts). Entering the account primary will list any secondaries and say if a secondary is associated with the webspace. If nothing is mentioned, then the primary email address is the one associated with the webspace. If you are still unsure if you have webspace, then read through section [b] below for pointers on access and possible activation. |
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| [b] |
1. http://www.btinternet.com/~username 2. http://www.username.btinternet.co.uk 3. http://uername.users.btopenworld.com |
There are three ways to access your webspace URL as shown. The first is called the absolute URL access with the other two being virtual URL access. The latter two have sometimes been flaky and prone to being inaccessible at times over the years, however recently I have seen no reports to suggest any failures. Note 1: If the email address contains the underscore character (possibly hyphen), only option 1 will work. Note 2: Using the virtual URL can cause problems with the counter and guestbook CGI scripts. (More on these further down) Note 3: Using the virtual URL can cause problems addressing sub-folders, for example you must specify an end forward slash / for example :- http://www.username.btinternet.co.uk/page2/ whereas http://www.btinternet.com/~username/page2 is accepted. I recommend always using option 1 If you are getting the following display error message (opens a new window/tab, just close that to return), then you will definitely have a webspace allocation against another of your email addresses in the account; the primary address if your URL was against a secondary and visa versa. Keep trying differnet URLs for your email addresses until you get a different internet display. That will actually be your webspace URL. The different page will be one of a couple of displays. Either it asks you to login/sign in to the BTYahoo! system (or takes you straight in), or you could get a blank webspace page like this, where xxxxxx is your mail address portion associated with the webspace. If the different page is the login/sign in to the BTYahoo! system, then all you need to do is upload a file (using the method as shown in section [d] below). By doing this, it activates your webspace. Upload a picture file, say a .jpg file. Then using the option 1 URL you should see something similar to this My thanks to another Andy for confirming that my belief was correct. |
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| [c] | http://help.btinternet.com/yahoo/helpnb/topics/0,,3_9_0_0,.html |
Clicking the link will open a new browser tab or window and give some basic details for webspace. Note: some of the information is out of date, with some of the detail incorrect. |
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| [d] | Using an FTP program/client, examples from FileZilla |
Clicking the link will open a new browser tab or window and gives some detail about using an ftp client to administer your webspace. Note: You can't use IE7 or later to update your webspace - use windows explorer. Although it may be possible to use this method via other browsers, I personally don't recommend it. To use, enter the following into the location/address bar ftp://username@ftp.btinternet.com replacing username with your own user name. (An alternative is to use ftp://username:password@ftp.btinternet.com, but this is less secure) You should get presented with a password entry box. Enter the password for that email address and you should get a list of the files on your website. You should then be able to use the usual drag & drop method for file transfer. It is best to use a dedicated FTP client program such as Filezilla. |
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| [e] | Link to enable change of webspace URL to a different mail address |
By default the primary email address is used for the webspace URL. This can be altered to a sub account by using the link on the left. You will of course have to have a sub account in order to proceed. Note: Altering the URL can take around 24 hours, any existing email addresses coded in the web pages will need to be altered including items such as counters. Also you will need to change the access to your webspace for updating via FTP etc. The access will use the new email address and relevant password. Note: Also note that this link may require Internet Explorer or possibly Opera (in Windows), but doesn't seem to work in Firefox for any OS. |
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| [f] | Webspace features |
1. The BTinternet web servers do not allow spaces or other special characters in file or folder names. I suggest using the underscore "_" character as a replacement. Attempting to upload a file with an invalid character will result in a 533 error message from a FTP client program. 2. All file and folder names are case sensitive, hence any links to your site pages need to be checked (particular attention needed for picture files, as these are easy to forget). If you have a mirror of your website on your computer (you have, haven't you ?), Windows does not actually care about the case of the filenames. So even if your site appears to work on your computer, it is not guaranteed to function online. I recommend using only lower case. 3. Frontpage extensions are not supported. 4. Server side scripts (ASP) or PHP is not supported. The only supported scripts are the 2 supplied ones of counter and form2email. See below. |
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| [g] |
Page counter This item is actually a hit counter that increments by one every time the page is visited or refreshed, even by the owner. There are many free online counters (e.g. statcounter.com) that do the same, but also provide a variety of stats. There are 5 counters available for use, and these are stored as text files in the root folder of your webspace (e.g. www.btinternet.com/~username). They are called :- counter.datax where x is from 1 to 5 and hence can be viewed online without incrementing, for example by using http://www.btinternet.com/~username/counter.data1. Alternatively they can be downloaded via FTP and viewed using a text editor e.g. Notepad. If the counter file does not exist (or has been deleted), the first visit to a webpage using a counter will create the file and store 1 in the file. Since the file is just a text file, it can easily be downloaded, edited and re-uploaded with a different number. The counter has the following basic syntax and should be placed within the <body> and </body> tags of the page you wish to be counted, and replacing username with your own user name :- The above line will update counter number 1 and display as six digits, padded with zeroes if relevant The full syntax of the counter is :- where X is from 1 to 5, and Y is from 1 to 8. The length option shows the counter with that many digits. If the counter is larger than the specified digit length, then only the partial counter is shown. For example if the counter has reached 1234 and the length is set to 3, then 234 will be shown. A length of zero will stop the counter from working. It is possible to hide the counter from casual viewing by using the height/width options set to zero. You can set the height/width to other values :- You can alter the way the numbers are displayed by providing your own set of customised digits. You need to create a sub folder called digits below the root directory, and upload 10 image files. These image files must be called 0.gif, 1.gif ... 9.gif and will be used for all the counters, since it's not possible to specify a different set for each counter. Note: these image filename and the folder name must be in lower case, otherwise a default digit will be used, causing a mixture to be shown! One last feature providing you use the absolute URL to address the webspace. You can use the shortened version :- This is very useful for mirroring your own webspace on your computer, since viewing a page with a counter using this particular syntax will not increase the hit counter by your own testing and updating. Note: Using this particular method will result in the no counter updates if using either of the virtual URLs Note: People have mentioned it, and I have personally seen it, that the counter can ocassionally be set to zero. If it is important for you, then make a regular note of the value. |
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| [h] |
Form to Email The Form2email feature is a fairly basic entry system to provide various items say for example a survey form, feedback information or even a simple ordering system. It can also be used for people who don't have an email address, or for those using internet cafes. However the system is not a secure encryted method, so personal details should not be included (e.g. no credit card details etc). Note: There is no guarantee that anyone filling in the form and pressing the Submit button has entered correct or even their own details. Below is a sample form, which I will explain later. Similar to the counter, place the code within the <body> and </body> tags at the place in the page you wish the form2email to be shown :- i. Lines [1] and [10] are required and accesses the BT script using the form. ii. In line 2, the value set is used as the email Subject title on receipt. iii. The value in Line 3 is the btinternet email address to which the the received form is sent. At present this can be any btinternet email address, not necessarily belonging to the user! Make sure that SendMailTo is as shown. iv. Line 4 contains a page redirect, which is optional but recommended, and if exists sends the user to that page after pressing the Submit button. The thanks page can be called anything, but if one is referenced and it doesn't exist (or incorrect filename case), then an error will occur. v. Lines 5-7 contain user controlled entries. These can have their own names which will be referenced in the received email form. You can have as many different items as you require. vi. It should be noted that if a user name field uses any of the ones shown in the hidden types above, those will be replaced. Hence if name="Name" is used, then the email is received with the subject title the user enters. This may not be desirable. vii. A special mention about line 6 in my example above. The name field *must* be called E-mail if an email address is to be correctly shown as the "From" email address in the received form. The BTinternet help information is incorrect in this respect about the name field. If this particular name field is not used, then an email is received with a [Blank] email address. This can cause some email clients to crash when hitting reply. Note that the email address entered can be anything at all, hence not necessarily a valid structure, since this entry is not validated. viii. Line 8 contains the Submit option, and the value text can be set to your own requirement. ix. I've included a Clear form option in line 9, which clears the form of all user input, useful in case of mistakes. x. The items <br> are line breaks which tells the browser to go to the next line, and hence makes the display better. xi. You are not able to check that the script works by using a mirrored PC version, submitting the form in this manner usually results in an error and a failure. Below is a sample form received via email :- |
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| [i] |
Guestbook This script has been removed by BT. |
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| [j] |
1. http://www.thehewitts.eu/ftpdemo/ftpdemo.html - demo of FTP upload using WS_FTP. Thanks John 2. http://www.btinternet.com/new/content/custhome/build/faq.html - very old BTinternet webspace information, containing many incorrect and out of date details. More to follow shortly |
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