IP Address -vs- Domain Name...help

[RabelDaq]

Yes, I'm obviously new to this...I need a little quick help please.
How can I make my Domain name point to my start page?

Currently, I have to use this:
http://www.MyDomainName.com/~MyPassword/public_html/MyStartPage.htm

All I want is this:
http://www.MyDomainName.com
- OR -
http://www.MyDomainName.com/MyStartPage.htm

There's a better way, I just don't know it...help anyone? I know about the forums and FAQ's, but is there a more detailed tutorial available anywhere so I can figure it out myself?

THANX,
RabelDaq

[RabelDaq]

Oh yeah, I forgot about the Subject of my previous post...my IP address points to my "public_html" folder online. Why does my Domain name point to an index with "CGI" and "STATS" folders?

THANX AGAIN,
RabelDaq

[TomD]

Originally posted by RabelDaq
Yes, I'm obviously new to this...I need a little quick help please.
How can I make my Domain name point to my start page?

Currently, I have to use this:
http://www.MyDomainName.com/~MyPassword/public_html/MyStartPage.htm

All I want is this:
http://www.MyDomainName.com
- OR -
http://www.MyDomainName.com/MyStartPage.htm

There's a better way, I just don't know it...help anyone? I know about the forums and FAQ's, but is there a more detailed tutorial available anywhere so I can figure it out myself?

THANX,
RabelDaq

I am going to guess that you recently signed up with HR and your domain name has not had time to resolve yet.

There are two steps involved in getting a WEB site. One is renting space and the other is getting an address. HR will handle both of these for you by renting you the space and registering your name. These are two different functions that happen over different times.

As you already know the space you are renting is available immediately. The address part takes a little time. Your domain name needs to be registered and then the registrar needs to let everyone know your new address. The "letting everyone know" part can take "up to 72 hours" according to HR but I have seen it take 5 days. As long as your domain name is registered and the HR names servers have been setup with the registrar the "up to 72 hour" process is in the works.

As for having MyStartPage.htm be seen when people enter www.MyDomain.com the Apache WEB server is much happier if you name this page index.htm or index.html. While there are ways to force Apace to use MyStartPage.htm as your index page I think it is easier to just rename it.

Good luck.

Tom

[don5408]

"How can I make my Domain name point to my start page?"

As Tom said if you elected to have HostRocket register your domain name for you this will all be done automatically, it's just a matter of time. By the end of the week typing your domain name into your browser should bring you directly to your site's index page.

If you registered your own domain elsewhere you have to go to your domain registrar and set the DNS settings for your domain to point to HostRocket's nameservers. If that's applicable here and you need more info post back.

"All I want is this: http://www.MyDomainName.com/MyStartPage.htm"

Well that's doable however I ditto the suggestion to name your start page "index" (index.html, index.htm, index.php, index.shtml) which will make it be displayed as your "index" or start page automatically.

In addition to that personally I'd avoid using upper case characters in the files you upload as part of your site. While you can use file names such as MyStartPage.htm keep in mind the file names are cAsE sEnSiTiVe so MyStartpage.htm will be considered a different file from MyStartPage.htm and unless the file name in link tags is identical to the name of the file you uploaded you'll get a Not Found error. I find that it simplifies matters to be consistant by (a) using all lower case characters in file names and (b) picking either .htm or .html as your extension of choice for HTML files and using it exclusively.

"my IP address points to my "public_html" folder online. Why does my Domain name point to an index with "CGI" and "STATS" folders?"

If you look inside the public_html folder you'll find that cgi-bin and stats are folders created by default. The public_html folder is your "root web accessable directory", all files you wish to be able to access from the web should be uploaded somewhere under public_html.

If you upload a file named mypic.gif to the public_html folder once your domain resolves it can be viewed in your browser using the URL http://www.yourdomain.com/mypic.gif. If you create a folder named "images" and upload the mypic.gif file there the 'address' of the /public_html/images/mypic.gif file would be http://www.yourdomain.com/images/mypic.gif

The directory list you see now is the default index page, again to replace it with a page containing your own content just upload your page using the file name "index.html" and it will appear instead of the folder list automatically.

Best o' luck!
Don