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Common Shamash Webmaster's Questions

1. What software can I use to make my web pages?
2. What software can I use to make my graphics?
3. Now that I've built my web pages, what software should I use to get the pages to Shamash?
4. How can I use Netscape 4.0 Composer to do one button publishing to the shamash site?
5. Where are some Jewish web index sites? Where I can register my new web page?
6. My web site is not on Shamash, but I've put together a great site. Will you link to it?
7. I've updated the information on my web page, and FTP'ed it to Shamash, but my web browser still shows my old pages. What did I do wrong, and why aren't the pages at Shamash?
8. Does Shamash support the secure transfer of confidential data (like credit card information) through its web server?
9. Does Shamash support streaming audio and visual material like RealAudio and VDO?
10. Does Shamash support server side includes (SSI)?
11. Can you put Microsoft FrontPage server software on Shamash, so I can just push the publish button my FrontPage and so I can get all the webbots to work?
12. I would like to move a web page I created to a different part of my web site. Can I automatically redirect web traffic from one page to another automatically?
13. When I look at a web page I made with one browser it looks great, but with another browser it doesn't look right. Why?
14. Does Shamash have a counter? How does it work? Why is it not advancing?
15. How can I have people fill out a form on my web page and have the result mailed to me?
16. How can I get a Jewish Star graphic when I add my web site to My Favorites in Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0?
17. How do I contact Shamash?
18. I would like to shut down my website. Who do I ask to do this for me?

1. What software can I use to make my web pages?
   The list of Web authoring software is growing month by month; feel free to use whatever software which makes you comfortable. We do have a few suggestions...
   If you are looking for a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) web design tool, then both Netscape Communicator and Microsoft Internet Explorer have some outstanding tools built into them to make new web pages. Versions of these packages will be/have been released in both Windows PC and Macintosh environments. PageMill is one of a number of very good commercial packages available for both environments mentioned above. If you would rather create the HTML with an advanced text editor, then Arachnoid (Windows PC) and BBEdit (Mac) are very helpful tools, and are available as careware and freeware respectively.

2. What software can I use to make my graphics?
   The list of graphics software is vast, so feel free to use whatever software which makes you comfortable. We do have a few suggestions...
   The most popular program out there is Adobe Photoshop, (Windows PC and Macintosh) although the price tag is a bit high, especially if you are not a graphic artist. Another really good one is PaintShop Pro (Windows PC shareware) You can really use any software that you are comfortable with, or that you have on your computer. If you need programs to view and transform images from one graphical format to another, then we suggest LViewPro 1.D2 (Windows PC evaluation copy with no expiration date) and Graphic Converter (Mac shareware). Of course, you may always ask other webmasters if you may use their graphics. Remember that it is illegal to take someone else's graphics without his or her permission .

3. Now that I've built my web pages, what software should I use to get the pages to Shamash?
   We suggest that you use WS_FTP Limited Edition for the Windows PC and Fetch for the Macintosh. These packages are free for non-commercial and non-profit use respectively. Configure your FTP program to ftp to the host: shamash.org
   Be sure to enter your username and password as provided to you. You will place your web files into the www subdirectory.
   Alternately, you may use a program which supports FTP one button publishing like Netscape 4.0 or FrontPage as described below.

4. How can I use Netscape 4.0 Composer to do one button publishing to the shamash site?
   If you would like to use Netscape 4.0 Composer's One-Button Publishing you may follow this method:
   1. Click on the Publish button in the toolbar (or Publish from the File menu). You will get the Publish Dialogue box where you need to fill in the rest of this information:
   2. Fill in a page title and HTML filename which is appropriate for your web page.
   3. In the HTTP or FTP publish location type in: ftp://shamash.org/home/USERNAME/www/
      Replace USERNAME with your login username (in lower case letters). Your login username was provided to you when you received your account on the shamash system.
      If you are a UAHC congregation, then in this case your username should be replaced with uahc/USERNAME. For example if your USERNAME was xx402 then you would type in: ftp://shamash.org/home/uahc/xx402/www/
      If you are a JRF congregation, then in this case your username should be replaced with jrf/USERNAME. For example if your USERNAME was abcde then you would type in: ftp://shamash.org/home/jrf/abcde/www/
   4. In the User Name put the username: (i.e. just xx402 or abcde)
   5. In the password put the password for that account.
   6. If you'd like to associate other files with this one, then click the appropriate buttons as requested.

5. Where are some Jewish web index sites? Where I can register my new web page?
   
   • Add a link to Shamash Jewish Links site
   • e-mail to links@shamash.org and Shamash will store your link for future reference.
   • Determine if your site would be eligible for a link on Andy Tennenbaum's Judaism and Jewish Resources Site This page says "I list sites that are of broad interest, or sites that keep indexes of interesting Web sites devoted to part of the Jewish world. "
   • Add a Link to Maven: The Virtual Know-it-All
   • Add a link to the Atarim the Hebrew/English Search Engine
   • Add a link to Walla!, a Hebrew site.
   • If you are a congregation or temple and would like your web site listed in AOL's Jewish Community synagogue/temple directory (if not already there), e-mail to JCommWeb@aol.com

6. My web site is not on Shamash, but I've put together a great site. Will you link to it?
   Thank you for your interest in Shamash. We are delighted that you are maintaining an online resource of interest to the Jewish community. Mazal tov.

   Feel free to add your Jewish link to our newest resource: The Shamash Jewish Links Site. If you add it to the site above, it will be added to a listing of Jewish sites, which you can see by going to: http://shamash.org/links/ This collection of Jewish links is connected to every page in our site through the key word "Links" in our header.

   At http://shamash.org/trb/judaism.html#indices you will find a list of pages which have fairly comprehensive lists of Jewish resources and which may be able to list your resource.

   Once again, thanks for your interest in Shamash and good luck with your site.

7. I've updated the information on my web page, and FTP'ed it to Shamash, but my web browser still shows my old pages. What did I do wrong, and why aren't the pages at Shamash?
   The pages have most likely successfully made it to Shamash (if your FTP client said they did) , but you're unable to see the change using your browser because it's kept a copy of your old page in its temporary cache. This generally saves time, but occasionally causes your to view obsolete copies of pages. In order to view your updated pages on your browser you will need to Reload or Refresh the page. Press the Reload or Refresh button on the toolbar in your browser. If this does not work you will need to empty your Web Browser Cache. Follow the directions given below for your software (software versions can usually be found by going to the Help menu and pulling down About). All efforts to be inclusive have been made here, but we cannot list every browser possible. We hope this list is helpful:
   • Netscape 3.0 Go to the Option Menu, click on Network Preferences, select the Cache folder tab, then click on the buttons labeled: Clear Disk Cache Now and to Clear Memory Cache Now.
   • Netscape 4.0 Go to the Edit menu, click on Preferences, in the Category window (on the left side) double click on Advanced then click on Cache. Then (on the right side) click on the buttons labeled: Clear Disk Cache and to Clear Memory Cache.
   • Microsoft Internet Explorer (MSIE) 3.0 Go to the View Menu, click on Options, select the Advanced folder tab. Under the Temporary Internet Files click the Settings button, then click the Empty Folder button. Press the Okay button on both open windows.
   • AOL 3.0 Click on the Prefs button on the AOL browser window, then select the Advanced folder tab. Under the Temporary Internet Files click the Settings button, then click the Empty Folder button. Press the Okay button on both open windows.
   • Netscape Macintosh version special trick If you hold down option key while choosing 'view' menu you will get a 'super reload' choice which will obviates any need to clear the cache.

8. Does Shamash support the secure transfer of confidential data (like credit card information) through its web server?
   This technology is called the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) and as of right now the Shamash staff is implmenting this for use by all of our members, at no extra charge. Watch your email for an annoument about this feature.

9. Does Shamash support streaming audio and visual material like RealAudio and VDO?
   We currently support these file types, so you can put RealAudio compressed material on our site. Feel free to download the ReaProducer G2 FREEWARE at. http://www.real.com/products/tools/producer/index.html?src=toolsmain Currently we are supporting streaming audio and video using the Real Media Server for a few internal tests and applications. But, in a very short time we plan to offer this service more readily to our clients. If you are interested in streaming audio, please email accounts@shamash.org.

10. Does Shamash support server side includes (SSI)?
    Yes, Shamash does support Server Side Includes (SSI). SSI allows the webmaster to create pages which are dynamically created each time they are viewed. This allows for information to be automatically updated in pages, but it also means that pages will take longer to appear, and place a greater load on the Shamash web server when loading.

    SSI lets you embed a number of special 'commands' into the HTML itself. When the server reads an SSI document, it looks for these commands and performs the necessary action. For example, there is an SSI command which includes one file within another file.

    Please see our documentation on server side includes for the full details.

11. Can you put Microsoft FrontPage server software on Shamash, so I can just push the publish button my FrontPage and so I can get all the webbots to work?
    You may currently use Front Page generated pages on Shamash, even though we do not currently have the FrontPage extentions (webbots and others) installed on Shamash. To do this currently, you may use the "one button Publish" feature of FrontPage. It does require a one time set-up where you provide information to FrontPage about your user-ID, password, and the location of the files. On subsequent use, FrontPage compares all pages on the local PC with those on Shamash, and then FTP's the ones that have been updated to the Shamash computer.

    Charlie Brenner has kindly provided the following directions for the one time configuration of FrontPage 2000

    1. Select Publish... from the "File" menu
    2. Enter ftp://shamash.org/www in the box labeled "Specify the location...".
    3. You will then be challenged for username and password.
       • The username is your login ID, as assigned by Shamash. (for UAHC clients this will be of the format xx000, where xx represents a state abbreviation and 000 represents a number.)
       • The password is the password assigned to you along with your login ID.

    When you want to upload changes only, after the first time you FTP your files, everything except the password should default nicely when you push the Publish button.

    Charlie Brenner has kindly provided the following directions for the one time configuration of FrontPage 98 (Don't type any of the quotation marks you see below.):

    1. Select "Publish..." from the File menu.
    2. Select "More Webs...".
    3. In the Location field, enter any name. I use "Shamash_server"
    4. In the next dialog box, in the FTP Server Name field, enter "shamash.org".
    5. In the Directory Path field, enter "www".
    6. In the next dialog box, in the username field enter your login ID. (for UAHC clients this will be of the format xx000, where xx represents a state abbreviation and 000 represents a number.)
    7. In the password box, enter your password.

    That's it. From now on, just push the "Publish" button whenever you've made changes. Only the changed and new pages will be ftp'd to Shamash. If you need to upload unchanged pages for some reason, select "Publish..." from the File menu, and clear the checkbox marked "Changes only".

12. I would like to move a web page I created to a different part of my web site. Can I automatically redirect web traffic from one page to another?
    Yes. The refresh is accomplished by the use of this META Tag which goes in between the <HEAD> and </HEAD> of any web page:
    

    <META http-equiv="refresh" content="10; URL=http://www.shamash.org">

    The content is 10, meaning wait 10 seconds before going to the URL. (The URL can be a relative or dynamic URL.) Please note the unusual placement of quotes in the example above, this is the only way to do this. This trick works for Netscape and MSIE 3.0 and greater. So, for backward compatibility you should also have a normal link on that page that says, "This page has moved to http://www.shamash.org". (In both cases, replace www.shamash.org with the URL where you want the person to go.)

13. When I look at a web page I made with one browser it looks great, but with another browser it doesn't look right. Why?
    HTML is a very fast developing language, with new standards created almost monthly and with every release of a new browser from either Netscape or Microsoft. It's good practice to try to make your pages backward compatible when possible, while also taking advantage of new features. (e.g. If you use <frame>, then have a <noframe> part of your <frameset>). This is a difficult balance, but worthwhile. If you would like to see how your web page appears on an older browser, you can simulate this at the Web Page Purifier http://www.delorie.com/web/purify.html and the Web Page Backward Compatibility Viewer http://www.delorie.com/web/wpbcv.html.

14. Does Shamash have a counter? How does it work? Why is it not advancing?
    Please see the counter documentation at http://shamash.org/help/counter.shtml

    Please not that the most frequently asked question about our counter is "why is it not advancing?" As a security measure the version of the counter which we installed in Sept 1997 records the IP address of the browser which causes it to advance. It won't increment until a different IP address asks it to do so (thus someone else may not artificially increase your counter without you being aware of it). Each time you log on to a internet provider, you are typically given a new IP address. So, you may get around this problem by logging off, then logging back in. (or call a friend and ask them to load the web page, so you can then load it and see the count increment.)

15. How can I have people fill out a form on my web page and have the result mailed to me?
    Please see the formmail documentation at: http://shamash.org/help/formmail.shtml

16. How can I get a Jewish Star graphic when I add my web site to My Favorites in Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0?
    You have to create an icon (using an icon editing program) and then place that file named favicon.ico into your directory. You may find a copy of shamash's icon file at: ftp://shamash.org/pub/computers/favicon.ico Download this file, and then upload it to your web directory, and walla, you will also get the same jewish star for your site in MS Internet Explorer 5.0 in the favorites section.

17. How do I contact Shamash?

    abuse@shamash.org	Abuse matters/SPAM
    accounts@shamash.org	Creation of a new account or list/billing matters
    webmaster@shamash.org	Problems with web pages
    help@shamash.org	All other client relations/and user questions

18. I would like to shut down my website. Who do I ask to do this for me?
    e-mail to accounts@shamash.org and we'll take care of it for you.

This page has been viewed times since August 1, 1997.
Web Author: webmaster@shamash.org
Last modified: Thursday, 13-Nov-2003 09:24:27 EST

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