Laughing Squid Web Hosting

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Website Setup

Do you know of any online resources for new webmasters who are developing their website? #

Yes, please check out our Web Design Resources page.
What should a website’s default page be named? #

Any of the following will be recognized as the default page for any directory within your site including the top level directory:

index.html, index.htm, index.shtml, index.php, index.php4, index.php3, index.cgi

NOTE: Linux is case-sensitive, so Index.HTML is not the same thing as index.html.

NOTE: index.html always takes priority over index.htm. If you want to use index.htm and there is already a file named index.html, then you should delete it or rename it to index.htm.

NOTE: If you don’t upload a default page then visitors will receive a “403 Error > Forbidden” page when then go to your website. This is because for security reasons, directory listing is disabled by default on our servers. Once you upload your index.html page, they will no longer see this warning.

If you need to change a site or directory’s default page, you can do so using a .htaccess file.
Where is a website’s public directory located? #

You’ll need to upload your files to the /httpdocs directory. Please refer to our FTP FAQ for more info.
How do you transfer files from a local computer to the server? #

You’ll need to use an FTP application to do this.
If a file was accidentally deleted from a website, are you able to restore it from the backups? #

Our server backups are for restoring an entire hard drive in case of a hard drive failure or server compromise where all of the data is lost. We do not offer any kind of selective file backup/restore services, so it’s always a good idea for you to backup your website locally on your own system in case you accidentally delete files from your website or experience other types of data loss. If you are trying to restore lost files that you do not have locally, try searching for your website with The Internet Archive Wayback Machine or Google’s cached version of your website.
Where do you check a domain’s quotas and actual usage for disk space, bandwidth and email? #

Domain quotas and other statistical information can be accessed using your control panel.

View the Quotas, Usage and Statistics Tutorial

For more information, please see Plesk’s documentation.

NOTE: These reports only run once per day, so the usage amounts that are listed are not in real-time. Any changes to these values will show up when the report is run for the next day.
Where you view the web stat reports (statistics) for a domain? #

Your web stat reports can be viewed using this url:

http://yourdomain.com/webstat/ (replace “yourdomain.com” with your actual domain)

NOTE: If SSL is enabled for your site, you will need to access your web stat reports using the following url: https://yourdomain.com/webstat/ (https:// instead of http://).

Your web stat reports can also be accessed through your Control Panel along with other useful reports related to your site.

View the Quotas, Usage and Statistics Tutorial

There are two web stat services available for use with your domain(s). You can choose to use either The Webalizer or AWStats, but it is not possible to run both at the same time. Webalizer is the default program, but you can switch to AWStats at any time, but be aware that when you switch, your web stat reports will be reset, start from scratch and that when using AWStats you can only view the detailed report for the current month. NOTE: At this time you need to submit a HelpDesk ticket to switch the web stats tool used with your domain. We are in the process of configuring Plesk so that you can do this yourself, but for now we would need to make the change.

Both of the web stat services generate web stat reports from your domain’s log files. The reports provide a wealth of information about who has visited your site by day, hour, country, etc. You can also find out who’s linking to your site, what type of browser visitors are using and much more. This is included for free with all our hosting plans, but we do not provide any specific support for it.

For help on interpreting your web stat reports, here’s the documentation for Webalizer and AWStats.

Here’s an example of the type of web stat reports that Webalizer creates on our servers:

https://laughingsquid.net/webstat/ (username: laughingsquid password: web-stat)

NOTE: If you want to prevent people from viewing your web stat reports, the web stat directory can be password protected through the protected directories section of your control panel. The actual name the directory that you’ll need to setup protection for is /plesk-stat, not /webstat.

NOTE: With the way Plesk (the control panel software our servers use) implements Webalizer and AWStats, it is not possible to have individual configuration files per domain. However you can setup Webazlier and AWStats to exclude or group domains that show up in the “referrers” section of the report. This can be setup under the “Web Statistics Preferences section of the “Reports” area of your domain in your control panel.

NOTE: Web stat reports are not included with our Forwarding Squid hosting plan.

NOTE: If you have SSL enabled for your domain and you want to view your web stat report for SSL requests, then use the following url: https://yourdomain.com/webstat-ssl/ (replace “yourdomain.com/” with your actual domain)
How do you access a domain’s log files? #

A domain’s log files, both access and error, can be accessed using your control panel.
1. Log in to your control panel.
2. Select the domain name.
3. Select “Log Manager”.
4. From here you can view an entire log file, view a specific number of lines from the end of a log file, search log files, delete log files and save log files.
NOTE: Log files are not available for Forwarding Squid accounts.
How often are a domain’s log files rotated? #

By default, log files (access and error) are setup to rotate daily, keeping one compressed archive until the next rotation. The reason they are rotated daily is to reduce the amount of space they take up since log files are added to your disk space usage and large log files could cause your site to exceed its quota.

You also have the option of rotating your log files rotate weekly or monthly, just let us know by entering a support ticket through our Help Desk. Please keep in mind that extending the rotation period will result in larger log files and use up more of your disk space allocation.
Are there any alternative tools for web traffic analysis that you would recommend? #

Check out our Web Design Resources FAQ.
Do you have any suggestions for setting up a graphical counter on a website? #

Check out our Web Design Resources FAQ.
Do you have any suggestions for setting up a feedback form on a website? #

Check out the Web Design Resources FAQ.
Do you have any suggestions for setting up a guestbook, bulletin board or forum for a website? #

Check out our Web Design Resources FAQ.
Do you have any suggestions for setting up a shopping cart for a website? #

Check out our Web Design Resources FAQ.
How do you change the URL that a domain is forwarding to? #

Domain forwarding can be changed using your control panel.
1. Log in to your control panel.
2. Select the domain name.
3. Select “Setup”.
4. Next to “Destination URL” change the existing url to the new url that you want to forward to.
5. Select OK.
There are two types of domain forwarding: Standard Forwarding and Frame Forwarding. Standard Forwarding redirects a domain to a different URL with the destination URL appearing in the browser address window. Frame Forwarding redirects a domain to a different URL while keeping the original domain name in the browser address window. By default, forwarding accounts are setup as Standard Forwarding. If you want us to switch the type of forwarding for your domain, just enter a support ticket through our Help Desk.

NOTE: There are several disadvantages to using Frame Forwarding:
1. You will not be able to use a page title for your site.
2. None of the individual page titles will show up for your site.
3. The full url to pages will not show up in the address area of your browser.
4. You will not be able to give out links directly to pages without using the target url.
NOTE: If you want to upgrade from our Forwarding Squid plan to another plan or downgrade from another plan to our Forwarding Squid plan, please fill out our Hosting Plan Change form. Changing it yourself through your control panel will not complete the upgrade/downgrade since the hosting setup (disk/bandwidth quotas, etc.) and billing will not automatically be changed.
What does the web-based file manager do and how can it be accessed? #

The web-based file manager replicates many of the functions of an FTP program and it can be accessed using your control panel.

View the File Manager Tutorial

Here are some of the things that the file manager can be used for:
- view files
- create files
- edit files
- move files
- delete files
- rename files
- upload files
- set file permissions
- touch files (change the timestamp)
- create directories
For more information, please see Plesk’s documentation.
What is a web user and how do you create one? #

A web user is an account that has it’s own webspace that is separate from the main site. It can be accessed via http://domain.com/~user (replace “domain.com/” with your actual domain and “user” with the actual web user name).

Web users can be created, edited and deleted using your control panel.

View the Web User Tutorial

NOTE: Web users need to be all lower-case.

For more information, please see Plesk’s documentation.

Once you have setup the web user, you can FTP to the web user’s directory using the following:

server/hostname: your-domain.com/
username: username
password: password
remote directory: n/a

port: 21

NOTE: CGI setup for web users’ web space is different than the main web space. Check out the web user section of our CGI FAQ for more info.
Do you support streaming media, podcasting or video blogs? #

There are several online services that offer free media hosting. For video, check out blip.tv, Revver, Vimeo, YouTube, Google Video and The Internet Archive and for audio, check out Odeo, PodBean, podOmatic and MyPodcast.com.

For single streams, you can just link to the file to be downloaded from your website, then it played on the user’s local computer. This is the common approach for large media files such as QuickTime and mp3 files.

If you are doing a podcast or video blog, most blog scripts, like WordPress, will automatically encapsulate media to be downloaded. Check out WordPress’ documentation on Podcasting for more info.

Finally check out Freevlog’s excellent tutorial on how to setup a free video blog.

We are not running a separate media server for multiple, simultaneous streaming media, but you are able to do single streams via http. Here are some online resources for various streaming media formats:
- Apple Quicktime
- RealNetworks
- Windows Media Player
Check out Understanding Streaming Media for a streaming media tutorial from The University of Wisconsin.

If your website needs high-volume media streaming or the ability to have multiple, simultaneous streams from the same file or if you have large media files that are generating a lot of bandwidth, then you might consider off-loading your media files to a third-party media server or media hosting service, then just link to the files from your website. Several of our customers have used PlayStream for this type of service.
What is an .htaccess file? #

An htaccess file is a powerful Apache configuration file that can control how a site or specific directory is accessed or how it functions. It essentially overwrites the global default settings of the Apache web server. For more info, check out JavaScript Kit’s Comprehensive guide to .htaccess.

An .htaccess file can easily be created directly on the server using your control panel’s file manager feature, or with an external text/html editor and then uploaded via FTP. Make sure that it is created in or uploaded to the directory that you want to control. If you are using an .htaccess file to control the entire site, then you’ll need to create it in or upload it into your public directory.

The “.” at the beginning of the .htaccess file makes it an invisible system file for security purposes, so if you upload it via FTP, it will not show up in the directory listing of your FTP program unless your FTP has a feature that allows you to view hidden files (most FTP programs have this option). If you need to make changes, just upload a new version and have it overwrite the existing file.
How do you password protect a directory? #

View the Password Protected Directory Tutorial

For more information, please see Plesk’s documentation.

Upload the files that you want to protect to the protected directory. For non-SSL protected directories, upload your files to your /httpdocs directory. For SSL protected directories, upload your files to your /httpsdocs directory.

NOTE: If the directory that you are password protecting for does not contain a default page (ie. index.html), then visitors will receive a “403 Error > Forbidden” page. This is because for security reasons, directory listing is disabled by default on our servers. Once you upload your index.html page, they will no longer see this warning.
How do you create custom error pages? #

For each error page you want to customize, create the following html files:
- File Not Found (404): not_found.html
- Bad Request (400): bad_request.html
- Forbidden (403): forbidden.html
- Internal Server Error (500): internal_server_error.html
Once you have created your custom error pages, upload them to the /error_docs directory for your website, which is one level up from your public /httpdocs directory. That’s all there is to it, your custom error docs will start working immediately.
How do you setup special mime types to be used by a domain? #

Create an .htaccess file in your public directory and add a line in the following format for each mime type:

AddType application/x-javascript js

NOTE: Replace the mime type information with the specific mime type that you want to set up.
How do you set a website’s or a folder’s default page to something other than index.html, for example home.html? #

Create an .htaccess file in your public directory, or the directory for which you want to change the default, and add the following line:

DirectoryIndex filename.html

[change filename.html to the file name that you want to use as the default, e.g. home.html, etc.]
How do you parse .html files for Server Side Includes (SSI) in addition to .shtml? #

By default .shtml files are already parsed as Server Side Includes (SSI). In order to parse .html files, create a file called .htaccess (unless you already have one, then just edit the existing file) in your /httpdocs directory and add the following line:

AddHandler server-parsed .html

NOTE: We do not recommend this method because it forces the webserver to parse all of your .html files for SSI, even if they are not using SSI. This could have a negative affect on the peformance of your website. It is always better to use the .shmtl extension with any file that you want to use SSI.
Is it possible to setup a cron job for a website? #

Yes, you can use a cron job with your website, but it is something that we will need to setup for you. Just enter a support ticket through our Help Desk and let us know what command you need to have run and how often. For server performance reasons, we do not allow any cron jobs that run more frequently than once every 15 minutes.
Why are visitors receiving a “403 Error > Forbidden” page when they try to view the contents of a directory? #

If a directory does not contain a default page (ie. index.html), then visitors will receive a “403 Error > Forbidden” page. This is because for security reasons, directory listing is disabled by default on our servers. Once you upload your index.html page, they will no longer see this warning.

If you wish to enable directory listing for a website or a directory of your website, you’ll need to create a .htaccess file that contains the following line:

Options +Indexes

Next upload this .htaccess file to the directories that you wish to make publically browsable. If you want this to be applied to your entire site, then you’ll need to upload it to the top level of your /httpdocs (or /httpsdocs) directory. If you are already using .htaccess files, make sure that you include the existing information from your current .htaccess files before you upload your new version.

NOTE: By turning on directory listing instead of using an index.html file, you are greatly reducing the security of your website.
How can I create a 301 permanent redirect? #

Due to the way Plesk handles allowing domains to be accessed both with and without the prefix “www” there is not an option to setup a 301 redirect from the control panel. However you can edit your .htaccess to do the redirect for you.

For more information on the .htaccess file please see that section from our FAQ. Also if you use Wordpress there is a new feature (Canonical URLs) in Wordpress 2.3 that can handle this for you.