Whats new : Tera-byte Dot Com Inc. has officially opened up their new affiliate site 4WebSpace.com. Make sure you check it out!   Free giveaway: Spaceports is now giving away a free web hosting package (with no ads) every month!!! If you are a registered spaceports user you are automatically entered into the random drawing. If you’re not a registered user, head over to the sign-up page now to get started!   Featured Site: D'sinz Interactive privacy policy advertise with Spaceports legal		Spaceports Frequently Asked Questions What is Spaceports? What are the rules? How do I get a free site? How do I unsubscribe/delete my site? How do I set up my web pages? How do I upload my web pages? I get a "425 Can't build data connection: Permission denied." whenever I try and login. What do I do? How do I change my password? I don't have a public_html directory! Where do I get index.html? Where can I find help with HTML? When I type in my url (eg. http://www.spaceports.com/~mynamehere/) it just says "Error: no directory index" ... It keeps saying access denied when I try and FTP to my site. What's wrong? How do I add a counter to my page? Does Spaceports support FrontPage? I know people have clicked on my banner, but why isn't it showing up in my stats?!! I've lost the ad code. Where can I get it again? Can I use cfml (Cold fusion) scripts or ASP (Active server pages) on my spaceports site? Can I use PHP scripts on spaceports? Can I use CGI scripts or SSI (server side includes) on spaceports? Why don't you support mySQL, PHP and CGI on the main servers? What is the path to perl? What is the path to sendmail? Movies, Episodes, Clips, MP3s, WAVs, sound files: Can I post Episodes, Movies, or clips? Can I post MP3s, WAVs, and other sound files? Where do I fax the copyright authorization to? I made these clips from (tv, video, cd, etc), do I still need to get authorization? These are just tapes of my birthday! What do I need to do? I'm an artist/actor (or have permission of the artist/actor), how do I go about getting my files authorized? Can't we just e-mail this in? The recording isn't in print anymore! I have a disclaimer though! What about the 24 hour rule? But I don't make anything off of it! It's just publicity for the artist/actor! ROMZ, Programs: Can I post ROMZ? What about programs? I have a disclaimer on my site, they can't download them unless they already own them. What about the 24 hour law? It's legal to make backups of them though! But most people don't have the hardware to make backups! My program was never available in the US/Canada But the program isn't in print anymore! What about abandonware? It isn't copyrighted anymore! Ads: Ad Removal - What's going on? What if I don't have a credit card? What will happen to the clicks currently in my account? I placed a cheque request awhile back, will it go through? Where do I have to put the banner? Do you have any CTR (click through ratio) requirements to display the banner? What other rules are there? MySQL: What is it? How do I get a MySQL database? I can't login to the database! What do I do? How much space can my database take up? Why can't I connect to my database at <some other server>? What host do I connect to? Why can't I connect to my spaceports account from any server other than CGI-BIN? What is my username, password, and database? I've already got an existing database. How do I import it? Could you import my database for me? CGI-BIN: Can I get my space upgraded? What are the limits on space and files? Where do I put my scripts? I get a "425 Can't build data connection: Permission denied." whenever I try and login. What do I do? Can I get a shell/telnet access? I keep getting 404 or 500 errors when I try and load my page. How do I set permissions on the files? How do I link to CGI-BIN? Why do I get 404 errors when I go directly to my CGI-BIN page? What is the path to my home directory? Why can't I use CGI scripts on my normal "planet" server account? What's the deal with these free domains? Can you host my existing domain? What are the bandwidth limits? What the heck is a 'planet' server? Every time I try and login to the member section (config.spaceports.com) it just keeps reloading the page! I received an error message after I tried to access my page after it up loaded. It said that I need to up load the index.html page. I looked in the file and it shows that there is one there. what do I need to do? Can I switch servers? Can I have multiple accounts? Why won't URL cloaking work? Is it possible to make it work? Help! I still have questions. Where else can I look for help? 1. What is Spaceports? Spaceports is a free web hosting service. The sites on Spaceports contain the personal web pages from people all over the world and cover a wide variety of topics. 2. What are the rules? Click here to read the Spaceports policies. 3. How do I get a free site? First off, you need to read the policies for Spaceports. If you believe you can abide by the policies set out by the management of Spaceports.com, pay a visit to our rental office and fill out the form. 3 (a). How do I unsubscribe/delete my site? Go here to unsubscribe from Spaceports and remove your website. 4. How do I set up my web pages? All you have to do is upload your files to your public_html directory on the appropriate server and your web site will be up and running. Spaceports.com is accessible by FTP only. You can use the command line FTP program included in some operating systems (like most Unix and Windows variants) or one of the graphical programs. I have included step by step instructions for the software I use and will gladly add instructions for other programs if someone is willing to send the information and screen shots to webmaster@spaceports.com. We would like to offer support on all FTP programs, but it's just not feasible. We currently have instructions for: CuteFTP 2.6 WS_FTP Netscape 4 All the specific information that you will need to log on, such as the server name, user name, password, etc. are included in the original e-mail that Spaceports.com sends out upon registration. If you have forgotten your password, click here. Make sure you upload your files into the public_html directory! Yes, you can make sub-directories in the public_html directory. I get a "425 Can't build data connection: Permission denied." whenever I try and login. What do I do? Spaceports is firewalled. You'll need to connect to it in 'passive' mode. Most major FTP clients allow this. You will need to read the help files that came with your FTP client to determine how to set this. 5. How do I change my password? You can't change your password, however you can receive a new one by clicking here. 6. I don't have a public_html directory! All you need to do is FTP to your account and create a directory named "public_html" Make sure it is all in lowercase and its permissions are set to 755. 7. Where do I get index.html? You don't. :) index.html (note that it is all lowercase) is just simply the name of the HTML file that is your main webpage that is shown when you go to http://whatever.spaceports.com/~username. You'll need to create it with an HTML editor like Frontpage, notepad, vi, pico, or whatever editor you prefer. Then upload that file (using an FTP client) into the public_html account on the server. 8. Where can I find help with HTML? Here are some other resources that I find useful: Webmonkey is an excellent resource, covering everything from basic HTML through to animation, CGI, and database use. The World Wide Web Consortium is the body responsible for approving HTML standards. The W3C site has a complete reference for every HTML specification, details on upcoming specifications, and tools for checking your HTML code. Read their guides and learn how to make a web site The Right Way. photo.net is a personal favorite. Philip Greenspun's book Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing is available in good bookstores and on Phil's web site. Read his material when you want to create a web site that actually works, instead of just showing off the latest whiz-bang gizmos. The NCSA HTML Resources page is one of the classic starting points for web beginners. Like the W3C, the NCSA has been around forever (by Web standards, anyway) and serves as something of a definitive reference.   9. When I type in my url (eg. http://www.spaceports.com/~mynamehere/) it just says "Error: no directory index" ... This error occurs when the web server is unable to find a file named "index.html" in your public_html directory. index.html is the main page of your site. Keep in mind that the name is case sensitive (ie: apple is NOT the same as ApPlE). 10. It keeps saying access denied when I try and FTP to my site. There are two reasons that this usually occurs. The first one is that you typed in either your username or password incorrectly. Please ensure you are using the correct username and password. Remember that Unix is case sensitive. The second possibility is that we may be doing maintenance on the site. If this is the case, all will be fine again within a couple of hours. 11. How do I add a counter to my page? Spaceports does not host counters, but you are more than welcome to use a 3rd party counter such as http://www.fastcounter.com or TheCounter.com. 12. Does Spaceports support FrontPage? At this time, Spaceports does not have FrontPage Extensions. You can still use FrontPage to design your site and upload your pages but you will not be able to use some of FrontPage's nifty features such as the counter (mainly the features that use webbots). You will also upload in a different way than you are probably used to. You will need to make the site on your personal computer and then publish the site to Spaceports. Check FrontPage's help files for more information. When publishing, make sure you send your files to the public_html sub-directory. 14. I know people have clicked on my banner, but why isn't it showing up in stats?!! Our stats for our reimbursements come to us once a month. You will see a change in statistics when the stats are updated next and depending on when you apply that could be within days. :) 15. I've lost the ad code. Where can I get it again? Go to www.spaceports.com/code/ for the code. 16. Can I use cfml (Cold fusion) scripts or ASP (active server pages) on my spaceports site? No. If you are trying to use cfml scripts or ASP they will not work on our servers. The best plan would be to convert those files to html. 17. Can I use PHP scripts on spaceports? Yes. PHP is supported on the CGI-BIN server only. The 'planet' servers (like ganymede, cirrus, mars, jupiter, etc) do not run PHP scripts. PHP is run in safe mode. 18. Can I use CGI scripts or SSI (server side includes) on spaceports? We now offer users their own CGI-BIN. Go to the members page at config.spaceports.com and request a CGI-BIN account. The mailform CGI scripts have been disabled due to abuse. SSI and CGI are supported on the CGI-BIN server only. The 'planet' servers (like ganymede, cirrus, mars, jupiter, etc) do not run CGI scripts or process SSI (server side includes). 19. Why don't you support mySQL, PHP and CGI on the main servers? The security concerns with CGI scripts are much greater than normal HTML. Also, more importantly, CGI scripts can overwhelm servers because, by their very nature, they use up many more resources. This way, if scripts go wild, they affect only the CGI-BIN server -- and not the other servers with 35, 000 users. 20. What is the path to perl? What is the path to sendmail? If you have an account on cgi-bin.spaceports.com, perl can be found at /usr/bin/perl Due to abuse, sendmail, and all other methods of sending email have been disabled (permanently). Can I post Episodes, Movies, or clips? To upload any episodes, movies, or movie clips you will need to fax us the authorization from the copyright holders. Simply because you've recorded, ripped, or captures these films from other forms of media (like VCR tapes, or Cable) doesn't give you any rights over these files. Any accounts with unauthorized files can be removed without warning of any kind. If you can't get us the authorization, you can't post the material, period. We do make exceptions for those clips, movies, etc that have been released to the public domain. HOWEVER, you will still need to provide us with proper documentation to establish that the clips, movies, episodes & etc are actually in the public domain. No upgrades are given until we have authorization for any copyrighted material you may have. Can I post MP3s, WAVs, and other sound files? To upload any type of sound file you will need to fax us the authorization from the copyright holders. Simply because you've recorded, ripped, or captures these sounds from other forms of media (like CDs, DVDs, radio & etc) doesn't give you any rights over these files. Any accounts with unauthorized files can be removed without warning of any kind. If you can't get us the authorization, you can't post the material, period. We do make exceptions for those sounds, songs, and etc that have been released to the public domain. HOWEVER, you will still need to provide us with proper documentation to establish that the sounds & etc are actually in the public domain. No upgrades are given until we have authorization for any copyrighted material you may have. Where do I fax the copyright authorization to? +1 (202) 318-5932 Remember to include your website (ie: http://www.spaceports.com/~username), your name, and any files that are authorized. I made these clips from (tv, video, cd, etc), do I still need to get authorization? Yes. Anything from those sources is copyrighted. You will need to fax us the authorization of the original copyright holder. These are just tapes of my birthday! What do I need to do? Then you own the copyrights, and can fax us your own permission to post the files on your website. I know it sounds strange, but the law requires we do this. I'm an artist/actor (or have permission of the artist/actor), how do I go about getting my files authorized? You'll need to fax us your permission to post your own files on your website. Can't we just e-mail this in? No. Law requires you snail mail or fax us the authorization. The recording isn't in print anymore! While this may be true, copyrights last anywhere from 50 to 70 years. 75+ in europe. Unless the music is truly out of copyright (IE: older than 75 years), you'll still need to fax us the authorization of the copyright holders. I have a disclaimer though! What about the 24 hour rule? We don't pay any attention to disclaimers. You either have permission or you don't. Also, there IS NO 24 HOUR RULE! That's a myth, and holds no water. Again, you have proper authorization or you don't. All of the copyright agencies have noted that there is no such thing as a 24 hour rule, so it's just as illegal to download/post it for 5 minutes as it is to download/post it for 30 years. But I don't make anything off of it! It's just publicity for the artist/actor! Profit motive has nothing to do with it. It is illegal to post their work unless you've got express written permission to do so. If the file isn't in the public domain, you MUST get the copyright holders permission. If it is, you'll still need to notify us by fax that the files ARE in the public domain. Some artists like publicity, some don't, but posting copyright works without authorization will get your account removed about as quickly as anything can here. Can I post ROMZ? Not without express written consent of the copyright holders. Which you'll need to have faxed in to us. What about programs? Not without express written consent of the copyright holders. Which you'll need to have faxed in to us. We make an exception for shareware and freeware. Abandonware and any others MUST have the copyright holders consent though. I have a disclaimer on my site, they can't download them unless they already own them. We don't pay any attention to disclaimers. You either have permission or you don't. Also, there IS NO 24 HOUR RULE! That's a myth, and holds no water. Again, you have proper authorization or you don't. All of the copyright agencies have noted that there is no such thing as a 24 hour rule, so it's just as illegal to download/post it for 5 minutes as it is to download/post it for 30 years. What about the 24 hour law? THERE IS NO 24 HOUR LAW! That's a myth, and holds no water. Again, you have proper authorization or you don't. All of the copyright agencies have noted that there is no such thing as a 24 hour rule, so it's just as illegal to download/post it for 5 minutes as it is to download/post it for 30 years. It's legal to make backups of them though! For PERSONAL use only. The second you put them on a website you become a distributor. The law DOESN'T give you the right to do that. Unless you've faxed in the copyright holders permission, you are not allowed to post it. But most people don't have the hardware to make backups! Regardless it is still ILLEGAL for you to post the files. Unless you've got WRITTEN consent, you may NOT post the files. Hardware requirements do not come into play here My program was never available in the US/Canada Under international law/treaties it is still copyrighted. You STILL have to get the proper authorization and fax it in. But the program/rom isn't in print anymore! That's great, but unless it's older than 75 years, depending on location, then you'll STILL have to get the copyright holders permission to distribute it and fax it in. What about abandonware? It isn't copyrighted anymore! Unless the copyright holder has SPECIFICALLY released the copyrights into the public domain then it *is* still copyrighted, and the copyrights are STILL held by *someone*. You'll have to find that special someone and get their permission to post the game/app/rom. Ad Removal To have all forced advertising removed from your website (Just 19.95US per year!) all you need to do is login to the member section, and click the button. You'll then be taken to a secure site where you can pay with any major credit card. Once the charge goes though, we remove all forced advertising from your site for one year. What if I don't have a credit card? We do not accept checks. If you don't have a credit card and want to have the ads removed find a friend or parent with a credit card, and arrange for them to pay. What will happen to the clicks currently in my account? Clicks still in your account will be saved. You will be able to use your credit for things such as Ad Removal (and future offerings) I placed a cheque request awhile back, will it go through? No. All pending cheque requests will be removed. Where do I have to put the banner? The banner must be 'above the fold' (ie: visible without scrolling) in 640x480 resolution. Do you have any CTR (click through ratio) requirements to display the banner? We do not currently have CTR requirements. What other rules are there? All normal rules apply. The site must be 100% in compliance with our TOS. 99% isn't good enough. ;) The site MUST be primarily in English. The site MUST exist! (If it has been remove, you're out of luck). The ad banner (www.spaceports.com/code) must be on your CGI-BIN pages when we review them. The pages on your main (or planet) account do not need to have the code added to them: The banner is already inserted into those pages. You also must have an index.html page. If we go to http://server.spaceports.com/~username, we should not get "No Directory Index". If any of the conditions are not met, then all clicks earned up to that point are forfeited. What is it? MySQL is a database system. Rather than go into lots of details about what it is (and isn't) here, go ahead and check out its website. How do I get a MySQL database? To get a MySQL database you need to have a CGI-BIN account. (You can sign up for a CGI-BIN accoutn by logging into the members section.) Then all you need to do is login to the members section (config) with your CGI-BIN information, click the mySQL button, and it'll create the database for you. I can't login to the database! What do I do? Check your login information! The database name is the same as your CGI-BIN username. Your CGI-BIN username is also your mySQL username, and your password is the same as your CGI-BIN password. (easy to remember, isn't it?) How much space can my database take up? Your database is included in your 10MB, 1000 file limit on CGI-BIN. Why can't I connect to my database at <some other server>? CGI-BIN is firewalled and doesn't allow outgoing connections. What host do I connect to? localhost Why can't I connect to my spaceports account from any server other than CGI-BIN? The CGI-BIN server is firewalled, and doesn't allow any incoming connections to anything other than the webserver or FTP. MySQL only allows access to localhost. What is my username, password, and database? Your username is the same as your CGI-BIN username. Your password is the same as your CGI-BIN password. Your database name is the same as your CGI-BIN username. I've already got an existing database. How do I import it? You'll have to do a dump of your current database, upload the dump, and write a script to run to import the data into your new database. Could you import my database for me? No. We do not do any database imports at all. Can I get my space upgraded? No. Unlike the 'planet' accounts, there are no upgrades done on CGI-BIN. You are given a 10MB, 1000 file limit (whichever comes first), and that's that. :) What are the limits on space and files? 1000 file limit. 10MB limit on space. Where do I put my scripts? In the public_html directory, just like where you put regular HTML on your normal 'planet' account. I get a "425 Can't build data connection: Permission denied." whenever I try and login. What do I do? Spaceports is firewalled. You'll need to connect to it in 'passive' mode. Most major FTP clients allow this. You will need to read the help files that came with your FTP client to determine how to set this. Can I get a shell/telnet access? No. We don't give shells or telnet access for any reason. I keep getting 404 or 500 errors when I try and load my page. That indicates a problem with your script. Check permissions and file syntax. Syntax errors are the most common reason for 500 errors. How do I set permissions on the files? Major FTP clients will allow you to set file permissions. How do i link to CGI-BIN/Why do I get 404 errors when I go directly to my CGI-BIN page? CGI-BIN does not allow direct linking from outside of spaceports. If you want to have your main page on the CGI-BIN server you'll have to direct people to your main planet account, then have that page redirect them to your CGI-BIN account. What is the path to my home directory? Either /home/username/public_html/, /home2/username/public_html/, or /home3/username/public_html/ Why can't I use CGI scripts on my normal "planet" server account? We only allow CGI/SSI scripts on the CGI-BIN server for many reasons. One reason is security, there is an inherent security risk in allowing them to be run. The second reason is also an easy one, they use a LOT of resources. Right now, if a CGI script goes wild, it only affects the CGI-BIN server. It doesn't affect the 35,000 sites on the main servers. What's the deal with these free domains? Once you get 500 clicks in your reimbursements account, you can use 150 of those clicks to get a domain through Redirection.net. Redirection.net redirects your domain to your spaceports page. Can you host my existing domain? Not directly. You have to use a redirection service such as www.redirection.net What are the bandwidth limits? Accounts with the Ad Removal Service have limits of 500MB/day, up to 5GB per month. All other accounts: 100MB/day, up to 1GB per month. What the heck is a 'planet' server? A 'planet' server is a 'main' server. They got that name (which we often use) because the first servers were all named after planets.. mars, jupiter, saturn, pluto, mercury, etc. Of course, we ran out of planets long ago, but we still refer to all of the main servers as 'planet' servers. Now you know :) Every time I try and login to the member section (config.spaceports.com) it just keeps reloading the page! You must have cookies enabled to login to config. Some browsers don't handle cookies properly from config (some builds of both Netscape and IE), so if you still can't get in try with a different browser. We've noticed this problem with a number of sites, not just ours, so we're aware of this. However, since our site is protocol complient, we can't 'fix' it since there isn't anything wrong with it. Luckily, just about every version of the major browsers work, but be aware of the previous just incase enabling cookies isn't helping. I received an error message after I tried to access my page after it up loaded. It said that I need to up load the index.html page. I looked in the file and it shows that there is one there. what do I need to do? Make sure that index.html is in all lower case letters and is in the public_html folder. Can I switch servers? Not really, no.. Once a server fills up it is 'closed' and accounts are never again added to it. We only add accounts to one server at a time. If you want to move to a new server the only way you can do this is to delete your current account, and sign up for a new one. Can I have multiple accounts? No. If we find a person with multiple accounts we remove all of the persons accounts. Why won't URL cloaking work?? URL cloaking will not work because of the forced ad. NOTE: URL cloaking WILL work if you have the forced ads removed. Help! I still have questions. Where else can I look for help? WebWysardry at Spaceports has an unofficial guide to Spaceports which covers many common questions. forum.spaceports.com is a user forum where you can post your questions and interact with other users.