help (please )

site not able to be seen on aol browser

[amandapearl]

I made a site for my husband's business and used an ftp for the first time to get it to a new host. After wondering why the site wasn't appearing I found out that it appears with no problem on internet explorer and mozilla browsers. The problem is it doesn't appear on the aol browser. Anybody know why this is happening? Wrote to the hosting company and evidently they can't help. Have written aol but not gotten an answer yet. Thank you in advance:)

[rocknbil]

Welcome aboard amanda, can you be a little more specific about what you mean when you say "doesn't appear?" Do these visitors see a blank page or do they get an error message, such as Page Cannot Be Displayed (server not found or DNS error?")

In the case of a blank page, you might visit the HTML Validator link on [w3c.org...] and see if your page validates. It's entirely possible a code error could be the culprit.

It's also possible AOL cannot connect with your server or the IP address is being banned somehow, although I've no info on how to find that out. In the past, Ive worked for a company that hosted one particular site that had nightmare problems with AOL customers getting to their site, and no one ever found a solution to this.

[bnhall]

amandapearl, you may also consider putting the url in your profile so we could look at it, although many people prefer to remain anonymous which is ok too.

[amandapearl]

rocknbil and bnhall
I was smart this time and opened the page in two windows so I can remember who I'm replying to. lol Thank you both very much for the nice welcome and your help.:)
Because of this being my first attempt using an ftp, I naturally figured I must be doing something wrong and nearly drove myself crazy for the last week trying to figure it out. (not to mention the frustration from my husband having had a site before and now having a site unable to be accessed, after recently having sent out a batch of bills that contained the new site web address.)
Oh...to that question. When I tried to get the site to come up I got a page that said the site was coming soon. In addition it said that it must have been uploaded improperly.
I got an answer back from aol (should have thought from the beginning that may have been part of the problem lol )Turns out the adapter had to be rebuilt. I'm not sure if that means that we were the only ones not able to see the site or if it's just been fixed now. lol
Now, though, my own site which was working fine yesterday is only showing correctly on the mozilla browser. lol On ie and the aol browser my logo's coming up with the dreaded white box with a red x through it and an image on the home page the same way. After managing to keep my sanity from the previous week's fiasco, I don't think I have the energy right now to try to figure this mess out now. lol I don't know if it would have anything to do with what had been done to fix the aol problem causing my husband's site problems or not. The aol browser caches had to be emptied and the aol adapter had to be rebuilt. All I know is that my site was fine yesterday and is not now.
Thanks again to both of you for trying to help...really appreciate it. :)

[oddsod]

Rebuild an adaptor?

Is AOL your service provider? AOL's er, "unconventional" ways of doing things make it the least favourite provider of choice for experienced webmasters. Just thought I'd thrown that in for you to consider.

[rocknbil]

There is a LOT that could go wrong for a beginner.

1. Case sensitivity - many servers are configured to locate files regardless of case structure, but I just encountered one that doesn't. Index.html and index.html may or may not be considered two different files. This is particulary important or linking images - if you put logo.jpg in your web page and the file is Logo.jpg, it may give you the red X.

2. Image path - some WYSIWYG editors, such as the Netscape Editor, Front Page, and others, will insert your LOCAL PATH in the page instead of just the file name. For a picture, for example:

<img src="C:\Documents and Settings\My Pictures\logo.jpg">

Shows it is going to look for the image on your computer, in Documents and Settings->My Pictures. When you upload it to the server, the directory C:\Documents and Settings\My Pictures doesn't exist on the server. So check your image linking code, it sohuld read

<img src="logo.jpg" width="100" height="50" border="0" alt="logo">

(width, height, border, alt may vary.)

Also make sure the image file name is EXACTLY the same as what's in your page. If your page is looking for logo.jpg and the file is named Logo.jpg, it may still give you the X.

3. Upload format - When uploading PAGES, select the ASCII button in WS_FTP. When uploading PICTURES, select the Binary button. That's all you need to know about that. :-)

And yes, get that link in your profile, someone will probably be able to spot the problem right off.

[g1smd]

Make sure (using the FTP again) that there is only ONE index file in each folder.

For best results always use all lower case for filenames. It will cause you less problems in the end.

Validate your HTML code at [validator.w3.org...]

Check all your on-site links using a program like Xenu LinkSleuth - it can find a lot of problems.

[amandapearl]

I'm crossing my fingers...but I think the problems are fixed. :) I had deleted the cookies, rebooted, etc. but for whatever reason I guess there was a delay with aol from having their adapter being rebuilt or something. My logo and the image are both appearing now:)
Oddsodd: "unconventional" ways of doing things.
Hmmm..that's a nice way of saying it lol I don't think my thoughts have always been so kind. lol Yeap, they are our isp. Try to contain your laughter....but I am probably one of those endangered species. lol Shamefully I must admit, we still are on dial-up. lol Can't afford the other, but hopefully we will someday.:) I think it's a 2 year deal we had gotten from them that we're in. I definitely have had my share of issues with them. I don't really know what the rebuild adapter thing is all about with them but in the past I've lost a connection and their little pop-up will say it needs to be fixed then their autofix fixes it.

rocknbil
In regards to what you said about the logo. A very nice friend of mine made the log for me and I just copied and pasted the info she gave me. I noticed now when I looked at it that it says img id=log instead of the logo. Does that make a difference?
For now, I've just been using Wordpad and recently a free htmlkit. My husband did give me Frontpage for a present but haven't even gotten to attempting to learn it yet. I'm definitely not even on the same radar with you guys here :) I only have a high school edu., and have only taught myself html, etc. from reading books and asking people questions and having them be nice enough to answer for me. I definitely try to pick people's brains to learn from them:)
What you said about the image paths is very helpful and I'm sure when I venture into Frontpage.....I'll have more questions for you here.:)
I did read somewhere about the upoading ASCII and Binary. With the htmlkit, it did all that on it's own and I didn't have to do anything about it.:)
As for: And yes, get that link in your profile, someone will probably be able to spot the problem right off. I'm assuming you mean the link to my site? I didn't think people wanted you to do that at forums? I'd be happy to put a link, but I'm not the most thick-skinned person lol and probably don't want people to trash my site. lol Constructive criticism is ok, but sometimes people can be pretty rough.

g1smd
Thank you for your help, too.:) Achieving the w3.org's blessing is on hold for a little bit til I learn more.:) Some of the affiliate links don't do well with it and I'm not brave enough to change them without fearing I'll mess them up. A very nice affiliate manager actually downloaded Xenu LinkSleuth for my site but I haven't had the time to really look at it yet. I intend to, though.
With my site, my husband's and I made a site for a niece of mine who's a teacher, I've gotten behind on quite a bit of things lately. My Dad's been recently diagnosed with Parkinson's and has had some other health issues so I've been dealing with those and trying to play catch up with the rest. :)
Thank you again to all of you. I really appreciate your help and the fact that you haven't talked down to me or anything either:) I realize my questions must sound like pretty basic things to all of you who are a lot more experienced than me.:)