Index.html Problems

I uploaded a whole heap of files one named index.html, i expected my homepage to automatically set itself to the index.html page, but i guess not. It would be a great help if someone could tell me how to change my default page to the index.html page.

Hi,did you put your "index.html" in the correct directory? It must be in the directory "public_html". If it doesn't work, perhaps there is another file "index.htm" or "index.php" in the same directory.GreetingZ

Come to think of it, does the server automatically recognise index.html and use it as the homepage? Do all servers recognise index.html? And how does one go about getting the server to recognise, say, homepage.html as the homepage? thanks in advance

Most servers are set up to automatically display index.html as the directory default and our servers are no different. More and more often I see servers also allowing index.php to be used as the default. If you have an index,html and and index.php, then the server may request clarification via your ftp client. Any time I have both files, the server sends such a request through my ftp client. I then get a pop up window asking which will be used.Additionally, I'm pretty sure that you can override the server settings for this by using the .htaccess file for that directory. The whatever file you want to use would be shown as the default.Make sure that the original file was actually replaced with the new one and that your files are in the correct folder.Hope This Helps. :(vujsa

And how does one go about getting the server to recognise, say, homepage.html as the homepage? thanks in advance

That is simple just rename your homepage.html to index.html unless the default for a server has been highly tweaked all servers look for an index (either htm or html or php) and that is the HOMEPAGE.

 

If you look at a large website structure there will be many folders or directories that offer different content. each directory will have an index.htm or index html, or perhaps index.php which is the first page the server looks for, there has to be some sort of standard and it has been decided that index is just fine for the purpose of letting servers know what to start out with, unless the server is told otherwise to find homepage.htm or whatever it will automatically show you the index.(extension) when going to the page. See below for a bettr explaination:

 

type http:http://forums.xisto.com/ into your address bar and then watch the browser you will notice that the page will come back with the home page, then just for the fun of it add to the address above index.php so it looks like http://forums.xisto.com/index.php then refresh the page, and then refresh the page. It comes back the same as when you typed in just the domain without the index.php because the server found an index and added it and servered it.

 

You can go to any site and leave off the index.(extension) and it will show you the HOME page because it will look for an index. Hope that helps clear your query up.

I'm having the same problem, I think.

The default index.html says "welcome to your hosted site" but I don't want that. So I deleted it and uploaded my own index.html through Web2FTP, but it won't load my index.html...

What's going on?

hm, I can't check myself since my index is index.php, but would having .html or .htm affect it? I assume not but worth trying both in case there is an issue there. Maybe try deleting the index.html, reload the page to see if it crashes you to the parent directory layout or whatnot that happens when there is no index page, and then upload yours and see what happens. At least then you know that the delete is taking effect. Oh troubleshooting, how I love thee lol.

well I can visit my website/index.html, but I want it to load that as default...yes, I will reupload it i guess. thanks*EDIT*Yeah, that worked. Thanks a lot, Jeigh.

Edited June 28, 2006 by austiniskoge (see edit history)

Well, for me index.html worked as I used it the last time quite well, as a matter of fact it is apache's httpd.conf setting called DirectoryIndex, so Xisto server allow us to have our own custom settings for the servers using .htaccess server, if you want to put these settings on all your account, just put the file into /home/username/ or in your main root, the directory before public_html in that file write:

DirectoryIndex index.html index.htm index.php index.asp default.php

or whatever you want, the first one will be searched, then the second and so on.. if the file is not found it will show something, using the command IndexIgnore, you can avoid directory listing like writing it like this in the same file:

IndexIgnore *

you also can use a lot of other options/settings using htaccess, search the forum for htaccess, I have wrote a lot about them on this forum, almost step by step, for me they are very clear, other members wrote a lot too.

God luck.

As far as I know, from my experience with Xisto Web Hosting, I never got that 'Welcome to your Xisto account' page on top of my site. I uploaded my site via frontpage, and here's what I'd like to stress upon-

Any FTP Client can upload to both the ROOT directory and the public_html directory

You have to explicitly see that it uploads to the public_html directory.

Uploading a page to the ROOT directory won't work, because you can't access it anyway.

I'd suggest that you do NOT use the Windows FTP (IIS) Services, because they are unreliable.

If you still have problems, then you should try uploading your 'index.html' file using the File Manager in Cpanel at Xisto - that just has to work!

 

PM me for any doubts if you wish...