Problem Uploading New Site With Ftp Old data, error messages, the works Its just not my day

[iGuest 3]

Let me briefly explain the situation, then the problems that have arisen from it. I created/uploaded a website for a book I'd written using Dreamweaver 8 for Windows (yes, I'm one of THEM), and have recently gone through to change it. Everything went swimmingly until I tried uploading the thing, then the problems started. While I've worked with Dreamweaver quite a bit, I'm brand new to the ftp side of things, so everything I do is completely off-the-cuff.The most current issue(s): After finally wading through a tangle of problems and managing to connect to the server with Dreamweaver, I uploaded the site. The upload was successful. However, when I checked it out online, the old one was still in place. So I let it sit for an hour or so, thinking maybe it had to have some time to switch over, then when nothing changed I tried it again. Same thing. I finally realized I had never removed the old site from the server, so I did that immediately, deleted it from my computer, and cleared Dreamweaver's cache before trying again. Once more, the new site seemed to upload; however, the most I managed to achieve was a blank, white page where my home page is supposed to be, entitled "Index of /", with a series of little links below it leading to the various pages of my website and the images folder. All of the links work, and I can get right to the home page, as well as the rest of the site with a simple click... but for some reason index.html DOES NOT SHOW UP AS THE HOMEPAGE ASSOCIATED WITH MY DOMAIN NAME. This tells me (maybe?) that something in the filepath is not right, but I have no idea where to start looking for a solution. That was this morning.After turning everything off and just letting it be for a couple of hours, I decided to try again. Now another issue has surfaced. Before I just couldn't get anything to change. Now I am not allowed to do anything with the site because of "permissions issues" and error messages. The strange thing is, every single time I'm quoted a different problem. First the public_html folder couldn't be accessed because: "An FTP error occurred - The folder may not exist, or there could be a permission problem." Once I clicked OK, it went through the gyrations of uploading the index to the server, but still nothing changed online (even after several minutes). Next thing to bite the dust was an image from index.html, which couldn't be uploaded for the same reason. Then the index.html itself couldn't be uploaded (in both of the latter cases, however, there was no problem with accessing the public_html folder... weird?)So I am finally giving up and hopping on a forum to maybe get some help before I rip my hair out. :-)Question 1: What was I doing wrong to cause this site to show up as a bunch of little links on a blank "index" page? I know it has to be something I'm either clicking or filling out wrong.Question 2: How can I make this permissions problem go away? It's a recent development, as of today, and I have no idea what caused it to start. Again, I assume I had something to do with it.OK, so maybe that wasn't so brief after all. Either way, I would really love to hear from anyone who can maybe help me out with this. Anyone who responds, remember you're talking to someone who knows NOTHING about the inner workings of web design!!! Thanks a mil for your help!

[rvalkass 5]

Question 1: What was I doing wrong to cause this site to show up as a bunch of little links on a blank "index" page? I know it has to be something I'm either clicking or filling out wrong.

 

I assume the page you got looked something like this (just an example): http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/

 

That's called a directory listing, and is what the server shows when it can't find a default page in a directory. When someone types a web address into their browser that is just a directory ( such as http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ ) as opposed to a specific file ( http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ ) then the web server starts looking for default files. As you rightly say, these default files are usually called index.html, index.htm, index.php, index.asp, index.shtml or home.html, etc. The exact list of options you've got to name that default page are defined by the server, but index.html is a very safe bet (any server admin would be mad to not have it as one of the options), especially if it has been working for you before. The directory listing appearing means that the server can't find a file with one of its "default" names, which means that Dreamweaver didn't upload a file with a default name (index.html). That's unlikely to be something you clicked or filled out wrong.

 

Question 2: How can I make this permissions problem go away? It's a recent development, as of today, and I have no idea what caused it to start. Again, I assume I had something to do with it.

 

The permissions problem is one I have run into a few times, and has usually been caused if a file has been only partially uploaded (ie. you cancelled the FTP upload part way through, or your Internet connection was cut or something) which sends the server into a bit of confusion. So far the only way I have found to solve the problem is to delete the files using cPanel and upload them again.

 

What I would recommend you do is download a separate FTP application (Dreamweaver can be a right pain in the backside) and upload everything from scratch. WinSCP is a good free choice. Use that to delete all your files from your web hosting account, then upload the latest copies from your computer. Of course, make sure you have a copy on your computer before deleting everything