How to Publish your Website
When you make the decision to publish your new Troop web site, you'll need get acquainted with the simple process known as FTP (File Transfer Protocol).
You use FTP to transfer files from one computer to another (your computer to ours for instance). Once you become familiar with this process and how it works it will become easy to publish and update your web site anytime you wish.
As you upload new or revised web pages to our server the are immeadiately viewable on you own web browser (Microsofts Internet Explorer for example). However, you will likely need to clear or delete your temporary Internet files. In most cases the link is in the Tools >> Internet Options >> General Tab in your browers window to see the new pages.
Since all ScoutsOnline troop web sites are actually a sub-site of scoutsonline.com your web site address will look like this:
www.ScoutOnline.com/troop123
(Using whatever your Troop or Pack is of coarse)
Note: Your Home Page should be named Default.htm
When your account setup is completed you'll receive by email your ftp address, username, and password to load and update your web site. A temporary home page showing showing your web site is now under construction will also be created. You can just delete or overwite it when you are ready to FTP your new site up.
Note: You can use Front Page to design your site but you will still need to use FTP to upload it.
To upload your web site there are several ways to do this. For Microsoft Windows users the easiest (and free) way is to use the built-in FTP capability of Internet Explorer.
If you want or need to use another program, we suggest using either WS-FTP
or CuteFTP, or if you are a
Macintosh user then download Fetch.
My preference falls towards WS-FTP because of it's interface, If you are a Macintosh user then you really don't have many choices available your pretty much stuck with Fetch.
Use this link to WS-FTP to download the program.
Use this link to CuteFTP
to download the program.
Use this link to Fetch to download the program.
If this is your first time uploading a website to our server, make sure you
account has been setup. If it has you should have received an email with your
account information. If not, you will need to email our Technical Support staff
for this information to upload your web pages to our Internet servers, and
enable them to be viewed on the Internet.
How to use Microsoft Internet Explorer to upload your web site
Internet Explorers built-in ftp capability wiil allow you to upload and download files to your website without needing to purchase any other program. It's very simple and useful as it allows you to transfer your web pages, graphics, and other types of files easily and efficiently. The following steps will get you started with uploading your web site using FTP.
- Make sure you're connected to the Internet before starting.
- In the address bar navigate to your ScoutsOnline website (www.scoutsonline.com/troop123 for example).
If you have the correct address you should see the line "Temporary Home Page" in your browser window.
- Now delete everything in the address bar and type in the following address exactly as shown below and press Enter:
ftp://66.114.148.67
- If you are Loging in for the first time the User Name and Password will not be filled in. Enter the User Name and Password provided by ScoutsOnline.com and select Login.
- If all information is correct and your account has been setup Microsoft Explorer will connect you to our servers and display your web site directory and images folder.
- To transfer your web site to our server, simply open a new window and navigate to the folder on your computer that contains your web pages, highlight the pages and folders (your images folder for example) you wish to send, then either drag and drop or copy/paste them into your web site folder in the other window. You can also copy files back to your computer using the same method but only in reverse.
A Note about images
We recommend keeping your images in a gif or jpg format. Your image file size
should never exceed 30 - 40 kbytes and the images size should not exceed 350 x 350 pixels.
If you make images larger it will take a long time for the image to display on your visitors
browsers. An image at even this size can take thirty seconds for people with slower connection speeds to load.
