FTP Publish with iWeb '09

Sounds like an easy task, right? Think again.

Before we had all the fancy bells and whistles in iWeb '09, publishing a site via FTP in '08 was a fairly complicated process. Publish to folder > connect to FTP > upload folder to FTP. *phew*

While the new process in '09 sounds simple, the technicals are extreme difficult. Simply put in your FTP information (server, username, password), and you're good to go. However, if you're using a Windows-based FTP server, you'll need to use a workaround. For my home business, I use the free FTP space my internet provider gives me. I figured it would be cheaper than having to pay for hosting. But come to find out, I kept getting errored in iWeb '09 about it. So upon further web inspection, it seems as though everyone who's using a Windows-based server is having the same issue. So unless you're uplading to a Linux box or XServe, this article is for you.

1. First things first: If you're like me and you're using your internet provider's space, call your ISP and see if they can let you connect to a Linux box instead of their Windoze nonsense (because, let's face it, Windows is a horrible server platform). Usually they'll deny your request (those dirty rotten...) and it's on to the next step.

2. Open iWeb '09 > on the left sidebar pane click on the title of your site > choose to Publish to a Folder > Publish > Use an FTP software like Cyberduck or Fetch  to connect to the server > look for a folder entitled (usually) public_html on the server. Now this part is somewhat tricky. Go to where you published the folder, and look for a file called Index.html. Upload everything in the folder with Index.html to your public_html folder on the server. At this point, it's usually safe to visit your site.

3. Get a domain. While .com, .net, etc... domains can sometimes be pricey, there are plenty of free ones. www.co.cc and www.freedomain.co.nr

are both easy and free ways to have a memorable webpage URL. Have fun and good luck!