There are some important points of which FTPers need to be aware. Windows file system is case insensitive, and allows spaces and long file names. Your Host may not be so flexible. It may truncate long file names, remove spaces (or truncate at the first space), may convert to all lower or all upper case, etc. Some FTP transfers may convert to all caps or all lowercase, depending on Host and FTP application settings.
Email addresses are generally not case sensitive. I've never heard of email being not delivered because of upper/lower case mismatch.
A URL's domain portion (the part between http: and the .com/ or .net/ or whatever the ending is) is not case sensitive; however, everything after that slash is case sensitive. So if someone FTP uploaded file http://earthlink.net/ATC.html and then tried to view http://earthlink.net/ATC.HTML, they'd get the 404 Not Found error, because .html is not the same as .HTML. Everything after .net/ is case sensitive, including extensions. Consider this when creating folder and file names. This means you must be careful when you upload, when you enter URLs into your browser, and when you write links to your files. Also, make sure your Host is not going to change the filename's case after you upload it!
Another problem may arise from using long file names or non-ASCII characters instead of the old DOS standard 8.3 ndash; some systems may not like it. Before you create lots of long file name files with spaces, check how your Host handles them. Use only alpha-numeric characters plus dash (-) and underscore (_), avoiding shifted number keys, spaces and other punctuation. When creating links to files, it helps to use the Copy function rather that trying to transcribe the filenames. Remember, in Windows Explorer or My Computer, if you click a filename, pause, then click it again (not too soon), the name is highlighted. You can use Ctrl-C or Ctrl-Insert to copy the whole filename; then use Ctrl-V or Shift-Insert to paste it (into a link you are creating, for example). Also be sure in Start - Settings - Folders and Options… that the Folder Option - View "Allow all uppercase names " is not checked (here "Allow" means "Force").
One other file naming hint: a browser by default looks first for a file named index.htm or index.html when it is given a URL but no filename.ext. If you name the first file you want visitors to access index.html, you could use the URL without specifying a filename. For example, the SPAUG site is accessed by http://www.pa-spaug.org/ but when a visitor arrives, index.htm loads automatically, setting up the frame structure with the Table of Contents and Main page in their respective frames.
Your file uploader or FTP program may have Options or Preferences you need to set; for example, that allow you to convert extensions (e.g., .txt to .htm for people who code using Notepad or Word and save locally as .txt), or force all upper case, or all lower case when FTPing. Some FTP programs allow (or require) specifying upload as ASCII (for text) or binary (for application files and graphics). Each option usually has a Default setting, which may or may not be the right one for you (this is experience speaking!). The moral is - get to know your FTP program, understand the options, and make sure they are the ones you want. Know what the options will do to your files. Know also how your Host will handle the files you upload.
Security is an issue. These days, be sure to have a full backup of your website, so if it gets hacked, you can quickly restore it. Anyone who wants to be knowledgeable and up-to-date on Windows security issues should read Lock Down Your PC. How can you keep the bad guys out and the good data in? Safeguard your system's perimeter with these 29 beyond-the-basics security steps. By Scott Spanbauer, April 2004 issue of PC World magazine, posted Monday, March 01, 2004. Because of security concerns, some surfers may have graphics, JavaScript, Java and even CSS turned off. That means your have to design your pages to degrade "gracefully" so viewers get the message, if not the medium. You should also comment on the site or pages with JavaScript, Java and CSS that users should add your site to the "Trusted Zone" and allow these services, especially if they are required for proper operation.
Webmasters must continually monitor and maintain their website. Here's an excellent article: Maintaining a Website by Steve Franklin. "Link Rot" is a particular problem - you find an good site, link to it, then the site disappears and your link give the 404 not found error. And yet you're not allowed to copy the webpage to your own ISP because of intellectual property issues. Frequent use of the W3C® Link Checker will alert you to the problem. (You can also use the direct address http://validator.w3.org/checklink?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pa-spaug.org%2Filinks%2Fwww.htm&hide_type=all&depth=&check=Check into a browser window, being sure to put in the URI of the page of interest - the example is for www.pa-spaug.org/ilinks/www.htm) Then you have to decide what to do: remove the link, try to find it, recreate it, or perhaps extract it from the Internet Archive and copy it to your own site.
As managers of a websites' resources, webmasters must determine how much storage is available and how to allocate it. If you are not a personal site webmaster, you may want to publish your rules and guidelines so your contributors and audience will know what to expect. It is frustrating to Bookmark or link to a site, only to find later that the material was removed, moved or changed. SPAUG is currently given ~100 MB space by the SVPAL, which so far has been adequate for almost everything we want to post. Some day we may reach the limits of our resources, and have to decide what to cut. Images and audio generally take up many times more space than text, so greatest size reduction would come from compressing or removing images and audio (MP3) files. Many images can be displayed at full resolution for a while, then compressed, and finally after they become obsolete, removed.
The SPAUG Webmasters have responsibility for conforming to the directives of the Board of Directors and Planning Committee. These groups will mediate questions of priority, content and resource allocation. Lacking direction, the Webmasters use their best judgement of how to allocate resources. Here is SPAUG 's philosophy (proposed by John Buck), barring other directives.
Perhaps the fairest statement we can make regarding images and articles on the website is that --
The webmaster should ensure that removals do not result in broken links. The web pages that link to a removed item must be edited to remove the link and document the removal, and current location (if any).
Open Source Web Design is a site that offers tons of free web design templates that you can take and modify for your own needs.
See the article for reviews and evaluations of each of the tools: Analytics on the Cheap: Six Free Stats Packages for the Startup or Small-Business Owner