*** MAY WANT TO LOOK AT THE IWT VERSION!! PROBABLY ALOT OF YOUR WORK IS ALREADY DONE!! *****

this information was last updated sep 22, 2002


important note - since geocities has changed their policies to not allow you to ftp files into your space, this guide is no longer as accurate as it could be...  however, the general principles stil stand with just about any other web host you use...

NEWER important note - this new version of this guide will include some new information...  the U.S. geocities is not your only option...  when you got a yahoo id, you got an account with EVERY geocities in the world...  and ONLY the U.S. yahoo discontinued ftp access...  so, choose another geocities, such as geocities UK or geocities canada (since they both use an english interface), and use that...
for this guide, i will use UK geocities in all my instructions and examples...


there is also a new bit of very important info at the very end of this guide for DPP users...


also note that if url's change over time, most of the resources mentioned herein can still be found in the dcbg bookmarks...

until a new guide is written, this one will just have to do...  if you come across something that has changed, just ask around the dcbg and you will get the current answer...

----------------------------

--- what is webspace? ---

well, you can store files in it, like webpages, pics, sounds, etc...
every file will get an address...  a url...
then, if you want to show someone the file, you give them to url...

it is like a big file-cabinet...  there are drawers in the cabinet, and in each drawer you can have folders, and put files in them...

since we don't have a hard drive and vmu's are very small, webspace is sort of like the next best thing...


--- preface ---

this will all sound VERY complicated...
and, the first few times you do it, it will be a little alien...
but, as you do it a few times, you will start being able to do it in your sleep and it will serve you for a long time to come...

definitely worth taking the time to learn...

and you probably don't want to wait until you need it to learn to do it, otherwise, it will just be frustrating...

so, DON'T give up until you try it...

the reason this guide will be so long is that i have no idea what the reader already knows, so, i am being thorough...
there is plenty you can scan over if you already have some idea of what you are doing...


--- how do i get webspace? ---

many companies offer "free web-site hosting"...
a place to build a website for free...

a website is just a public collection of files...
you have, of course, been to many of them...

you can look at their webpages, maybe watch their movies or listen to their sound files, look at their pics or whatever...

you can use a free web-site provider to store files...
if you want to build a full-blown website, that is up to you...
this is not a guide for making a website, though...
this is a guide to show you how to store, retrieve and move files...

BUT, if you want to make a site, this is all stuff you will need to know first...
so, you can go through this, then, get info for how to make all your files into a website...

this is also NOT a guide for using geocities...
i will not explain all of what it can do or what all the buttons are and everything else...
this will explain how to deal with files using the dreamcast...
obviously, that will include showing you how to do some things in geocities, but, not an exhaustive guide for using geocities...  geocities has plenty of help screens and it is very easy to get help using the geocities service...

while i am covering what this is not, this guide does not cover all the complications of setting up game saves on your own site...  this is all about handling standard files, especially media files like pics, midi's, wav's, etc....  dealing with game saves is a little bit more complicated, so, i am not going into that here...


now, this is an - IMPORTANT REMINDER -
technically, you are not allowed to use a free web-site provider for just file-storage...

for instance, if you use free web-space for keeping pictures in, they expect you to make a webpage with links to those files...

and on the webpage, they will put ads...

that is the only reason it is free...  it is sort of a trick...  you THINK you are getting a free web-site...  actually, THEY are getting free advertising on your site...

so, you may want to make an effort to make some kind of web-site just to stay out of trouble...
if you break their rules, they can delete your entire account WITH NO WARNING...  you go to your webspace one day, and it is suddenly gone...  (several members of the dcbg can attest to this fact...)

the service is called 'webhosting'...
they are your host, and they make the rules...



--- which webhost do i use? ---

i have used angelfire, geocities, earthlink, tripod, and a couple/few others and i think geocities is the best choice to start out...  and i still use geocities for most of the things i do...
so, this will be for geocities...

this guide will assume that you are already a member of yahoo...  if you are not, then, as you try to do the steps in this guide, it will first sign you up with yahoo...  and you will probably find you cannot do this on dreamcast...  yahoo has changed some things and you will probably need to have a friend create a yahoo id for you or go to a library or internet cafe or other place with public web-access...
or, just use another webhost that allows ftp access...

also, much of this will refer to things that you can only do with dreamkey and dreampassport, but, i will try to include info usable for planetweb users...



--- getting started ---

go to http://uk.geocities.yahoo.com

you will see something like 'sign up for your website', click on that...  it will probably ask you to choose a topic for your site...

then, it will tell you your website address...
if your yahoo id is 'DCSurfer', your address will be
http://uk.geocities.com/DCSurfer

you now have space on the UK geocities computer in which to put your files...

now, ignore what the screen says, and go to...
http://uk.geocities.yahoo.com/filemanager

that is the key address to all of this...
BOOKMARK IT...
you will go there alot...

once you know how to get to that address, you are all set...
you have a place for files...
your "online harddrive"...
unless you start keeping huge mpeg movies in it or something, it will take quite a while to run out of space...


--- your webspace ---

okay, if you go to the filemanager address, you see before you your big, empty file cabinet...

just to get a feel for it, add a couple of drawers to put things in...

they are called 'subdirectories'...
look for the word 'subdirectories' and click on the button that says 'new'...
it will ask for a name for it...

make one called 'pics'...

then, do it again, and make one called 'sounds'...

note, you can delete this stuff when you are done, but, since i don't know what you want to store or do, i will use these two subdirectories for now to explain some things...  so, it will be easier if you just make them and worry about keeping or deleting  them later...

you should now see in your files list
pics
sounds
index.html

you now have two drawers to put stuff in...
now, how do you put stuff in it?

well, first, look at the drawer...

to do this, use your geocities address, plus the subdirectory...
so, again using the example name 'DCSurfer', the address to your pics drawer would be...

http://uk.geocities.com/DCSurfer/pics

when you go there, you will see nothing in it...

well, let's put something in it...


--- uploading files from your vmu to your webspace ---

first, get a pic...
any pic will do...
you could go to the dcbg and get the banner with the group name, if you need a quick one to grab...
http://DreamcastBrowsers.cjb.net

go get a pic from the web and store it on your vmu...

go ahead, i'll wait right here...

got one?

ok...

now, you need to put it in your pics subdirectory...

go here...
http://snow.prohosting.com/droleen/uplo

(note, this url has been subject to change in the past, so, if the link is dead, poke around in the dcbg bookmarks (probably in 'most useful sites for dc users') and/or post to the dcbg and ask where the site currently resides...)

YOU WANT TO BOOKMARK THAT, TOO...

that is the only uploader on the web that you can use for right now...

click the button that is touching the white box...

select the pic file you just got...

then, you will click the other grey button...

now, you should be on a screen where you can see your pic...
you just put your pic on their computer...
now, it will only be there a few minutes, so, you need to move it quickly...

click the button that says 'transloader.com' then click the grey button...

now, you will see your pic again, with five boxes beneath it...

the first box has the url of the pic on the computer you just put it on...
leave that alone...

now, fill in the rest...

- FTP HOST -
this is what you put in...
ftp.uk.geocities.com

you want to remember that...  you will use it alot...

- FTP DIR -
it wants to know where to put it in your webspace...
well, that is what you made the pics subdirectory for...
so, put in 'pics'

- RenameFile -
this is what you want to name the pic...
you could just make it 'testpic'
BUT, you need an extension...  you know, .html, .jpg, .gif, etc...
that top line with the url that i told you to leave alone?
look at the end of the url...  it will say either '.jpg' or '.gif'
put that in this space...  i will assume for now that it is a .jpg...

so, it will be 'testpic.jpg'

- FTP username -
this is your webspace name...  for my examples, i am using 'DCSurfer'

- FTP password -
this is the password you used when you signed up for the webspace account...


so, in summary...
FTP HOST - ftp.uk.geocities.com
FTP DIR - pics
RenameFile - testpic.jpg
FTP username - DCSurfer
FTP password - yourpasswordhere

when you have the info filled out, click the grey button...

you will now see a screen with alot of stuff you don't understand...  if you did everything right, it basically just means 'ok, you did it right'...

so, time to go see...

go to the address i gave you above to your pics subdirectory...

http://uk.geocities.com/DCSurfer/pics

and, hey!  look at that!
there you will see 'testpic.jpg'
if you click on it, you will see the pic...

now, if you want to send someone to see that pic, you just give them the url...

so, it would be...
http://uk.geocities.com/DCSurfer/pics/testpic.jpg

get it?

pretty simple...

now, if you go to your filemanager at
http://uk.geocities.yahoo.com/filemanager
(but, you should have bookmarked it before)
you will see your subdirectories...  pics and sounds...
click on pics and you will be in your pics subdirectory and you will see your pic there...  (you may need to reload)

when you are working in your subdirectory from your filemanager, you can move it to another directory or delete it and that sort of thing...


THIS is how to move files from your vmu to your webspace...
you upload them at the uploader, then 'transload' them to your space...

UPload = from you to somewhere else
eg, from your vmu to the uploader

DOWNload = from somwehere else to you
eg, you can download a midi or wav file or whatever...  (that is the simple answer, not the full story)

TRANSload = from one place to another...
eg, you uploaded that pic to the site, then TRANSloaded it from that site to your site...

now, you will probably do more transloading than anything else, so, here is some info about transloading...


--- transloading files to your webspace ---

time to use that sounds subdirectory...

since you probably don't have a sound file you could just go grab, here is one...
(don't click on it yet)
http://home.earthlink.net/~insidiousplots/media/midi/theway.mid

ok, you need the url...
yeah, i know you can see the url, but, you won't always...

here is the trick to getting it...

start loading the file by clicking on it...
but, DON'T let it finish loading...  stop it...  then, the url of the file will be in your url bar...

unlock your browser commands by holding A and pressing start ten times...
(if you don't know about this trick, go read the dk/dp commands faq...  there is some very cool stuff you can do...)

put your pointer over the url bar and press Y+A...  (on dreamkey, it will be X+A)
the jump box will pop up with the url in it...  copy it...


now, go to
http://Transloader.com

you will see three boxes with buttons...

ignore the middle one, it is for webtv'ers...

the top box has a button that says 'Proceed to step 2'...

(though, i prefer the one that says 'Step 2 (HTTP_AUTH)' because it seems to work faster and more reliably...)

paste the url of the file into either box and hit the button...

you should now be on a very familiar screen...
just enter the info from above, naming it whatever you want...  'testsound.mid' sounds good...

and, in the FTP DIR, put 'sounds' so it will put it straight into your sounds directory...

and, remember to look for the file extension...
with sound files, it will be .mid, .wav, .au, .aiff, .mp3, etc...

so, after you do that, you can go to
http://uk.geocities.com/DCSurfer/sounds
and see it there...

and, you can access the file directly at your address for it...
which, following my examples, would be...

http://uk.geocities.com/DCSurfer/sounds/testsound.mid


http://uk.geocities.com is the computer or the host

/DCSurfer (your username) is the name of your space on it that host...  your directory on their computer...

/sounds is a subdirectory you made for storing sound files...

and testsound.mid is the name of the file...

--------------------


with all that, you can pretty much do all the basic stuff...
you can keep those directories and files or get rid of them...

yes, you WILL have questions on how to do some things...  and on how to do more than the basic stuff i laid out...

you can store files to vmu, upload them, transload them into your own webspace...

you can get the urls of files you find on the web and transload them, especially for things that you can't store to vmu...

make directories, subdirectories, sub-subdirectories...  make it complicated, make it simple...

you can use the html editor at the geocities filemanager to create webpages, or transload webpages to your webspace and change them or use parts of the page in your own page...

you can use your webspace account for alot...


---- Special Note For DreamPassport Premier Users ----

ok, so, you have done this a couple of times and you have your browser set to save cookies to your VMU, yet, when you go to transloader.com, it does not remember your info...  very annoying...

well, here is how to fix that...

go to the main page...
http://Transloader.com

now, make sure the box for the url is EMPTY and hit the button...
then, enter your ftp info and click the "fishes" to save the info to vmu...

now, whenever you come to the site, it WILL have your info already typed in or you...