Setting Up Your Free Web Space

Option 1 - Design Your Own

There are a number of options available for designing your own web pages, from manually creating pages in raw HTML code to using editing software of your choice. Please note that Modem Madness does not provide any support for creating web pages either in HTML or using an editor. There are several websites that provide tutorials on creating pages in HTML, one of the most helpful being Webmonkey.

Option 2 - Contracting Out

If you desire a professional looking website but don't know HTML well enough to tackle the project on your own, you can have someone else do the work for you. There are several different companies, even locally, that are able to design the website that's right for you. Unfortunately at this time Modem Madness does not have a web designer as a part of our team, however if you contact us we may be able to point you toward another local business that can take care of your website needs.

Now that you've created web pages, you need a place to put them on the Internet. Modem Madness provides this space to our customers, but it needs to be setup for each customer before it can be used. Please fill in the short form below and click the Submit button to send in a request for your free web directory. Your directory will be created within 1 or 2 business days, and you'll receive an email from us to let you know that the process is complete. Please note that if the incorrect username is entered in the form, we can not complete your request.

To upload your website files to our server you will need to use an FTP program. FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol and is a very common means for sending files to different servers across the Internet. Any program that supports FTP will work. We recommend a very simple and free program called WS_FTP, which can be downloaded by clicking here. Be sure to make a note of where you save the file so you'll be able to find it to complete the installation. Its best if you simply save the file to your Desktop.

Browse to the folder where you saved the downloaded file, and double-click on it to begin the installation. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation.

When you run WS_FTP for the first time, you'll need to enter the settings for uploading to Modem Madness. A window will appear when you first run the program similar to the one shown below. Click on the New button to clear all of the fields and enter new data as shown in the image below. When you're done, click the Apply button to save the settings in WS_FTP. If you're using another FTP program, use the same settings and enter them into the appropriate fields of your program. Click on OK to connect to your website.

You will then see the main WS_FTP program window which should look similar to the image below. The "Local System" side shows the files and folders saved on your computer. The "Remote Site" side shows the files and folders in your web directory. Your website will be located in the "web" folder in the right side; double-click on this folder to open it. You will also need to browse to where your saved your files on your computer in the left side.

Once you've opened the correct folders on both sides, your WS_FTP window should look similar to the image below. To upload a file from your computer to the server (Local System to Remote Site) highlight the file(s) on the left that you want to upload and click on the arrow that points to the right. You should then see a status bar to show the progress of transfering the file(s) over to the server. When finished, the Remote Site view will refresh and your files should be listed on the right. Use this process to transfer any files used on your website, including images and even entire subfolders.