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Cincinnati Bell Fuse Dial-Up Internet Product Support

In your search for a reliable, dependable Internet Service Provider (ISP), consider all the features Fuse has to offer. When it comes to outstanding customer service, technological know-how and reliability, turn to Cincinnati Bell and Fuse to get connected.



Fuse Dial-Up Internet: Home Page

How do I order this service?

The Fuse Publish File form contains everything you need to get started. The very first step is registering your home page. After you have registered your page, you will be given a template to use as a starting point. This template is an HTML (HyperText Markup Language) document.

For your convenience, Fuse provides Netscape CommunicatorTM all subscribers at no additional charge. Netscape Composer is the HTML editor included with Netscape Communicator. This software package allows you to create and publish your home pages without prior knowledge of HTML. Fuse recommends using Netscape Composer to design your home pages.


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Where are Fuse's online tools to manage my home page?

FUSE HOME PAGE TOOLS
SITE MANAGEMENT
  Home Page Manager  The place to start building your home page.
  Register/Change URL

 Register or change your URL

FILE MANAGEMENT
  Publish Files  Upload files to your home page.

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How much disk space and data transfer are included with my free home page?

Each subscriber home page is allotted 100MB of disk space and 100 MB of monthly data transfer on the Fuse server.
How much is 100 megabytes of storage space on the Fuse server?

One hundred megabytes of storage space is roughly equivalent to the amount of electronic information you can put on one hundred ten floppy disks (each holding 1.40 MB).  The size of a home page varies widely depending on the amount of memory taken up by text, images and other digital media contained in your files.

How much is 100 megabytes of data transfer?

100 megabytes of transfer is comparable to 700 individual “hits” on the average home page (4K in size) every day for a month.  If your home page is highly graphic, it will take fewer “hits” to exhaust your free 100-megabyte limit.   To ease your mind, Fuse has more than 4,000 home pages and fewer than one percent exceed the transfer limit.

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What will my URL look like?

During the home page registration process, you have two options for creating your home page URL:

  1. Your URL can be automatically assigned by Fuse during the home page creation process.       It will look like this:
              http://home.fuse.net/your email ID

    For example, if your email ID is “fusefan@fuse.net”, your home page URL will look like this:
              http://home.fuse.net/fusefan.


  2. Or, you can choose something, besides your email ID, to follow “home.fuse.net”.       For example:
          “http://home.fuse.net/mypage”

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Will Fuse Support help me create my home page?

Fuse Support can only answer specific questions about the Publish File form interface; they cannot help you create your home page.

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How do I publish my Home Page?

To upload your web files (eg. HTML, GIF, JPG) to Fuse servers, you may use the Publish File form, Front Page, or a FTP client of your choice.

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How do I use FTP?

FTP or File Transfer Protocol In order for others to see your site, you need to put your web site files onto your server location. The easiest way is to use a software application known as FTP to upload your files from your computer to your Web server. FTP is simply a method of transferring files from one computer to another.

To manage the files on your Web site, you can use any FTP client you wish. We recommend the WS-FTP Limited Edition, a Windows application that features a handy drag-and-drop interface. The WS-FTP LE download is available from the Tucows site.

WS-FTP LE has received a Five Cows rating from the staff at Tucows and comes complete with documentation. Please note that Fuse cannot offer technical support on any of the applications from Tucows.

Finally, if you choose to use the built-in Windows FTP application that came with your computer *instead of* downloading one from Tucows, use the instructions below:

  1. Open a DOS or Command window
  2. At the prompt, change the directory to the directory with your web site files, i.e., cd c:mysite (this is an example only, replace mysite with your directory)
  3. At the prompt, type: ftp home.fuse.net
  4. When prompted, enter your User Name and Password
  5. Once you are logged in, you will need to select the directory to upload your website's files. You can do this by typing.
  6. To upload a file onto the server, type: put filename.
When you use the generic Windows FTP application, remember that there are two modes to use for transferring files: ASCII mode (used for html and text files) and Binary mode (used for image files). By default, the Windows ftp will move files in ASCII (Text) mode.

To successfully upload an image file, you must first change to the binary mode. Here is how:
  1. To switch to binary transfer mode, enter the command: binary
  2. To switch to text transfer mode, enter the command: ascii

NOTE: If you upload an image file while in ASCII mode, the file will be corrupted. Likewise, if you upload an html file while in Binary mode, the file will be corrupted. Make sure you are using the proper mode for the type of file you are transferring

This is a sample of what your screen may look like when you log in (your screen may be different)

C:>ftp home.fuse.net
Connected to home.fuse.net
220 Server ready.
User (home.fuse.net:(none)): home.fuse.net
Password:
230 User home.fuse.net/yoursite logged in.
ftp> ascii
200 Type set to A.
ftp> put index.html
ftp> binary
200 Type set to I.
ftp> mput *.gif
ftp> mput *.jpg
ftp> quit
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How do I use Front Page?

At this time Fuse does not support Front Page extensions, however, you may use Front page to upload your files.

After you launch FrontPage, select File then Open Web from the toolbar.
This should bring up an Open Web window.
In the space labeled Folder Name, type in:
http://home.fuse.net/yoursite
Then, click the Open button

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How do I add links and images?

One of the great things about the Internet is the ability to share information (stories, photos, etc.) with friends and family who are far away.  Commonly called "links", hyperlinks allow you to point visitors to other pages on your web site or other resources on the Internet.  Images can enhance the look of a website and provide important information.
  1. How do I add links to my page?

  2. How do I add a background image to my page?

  3. How do I add images to my page?

  How do I add links to my page?

The two most popular types of links people put in their pages are ...
  1. Email links

  2. Links to other pages on the Internet or within their home page directory structure

 
  To create an email link to yourself:

  1. Position your cursor at the link insertion point on your page.

  2. Click Insert | Link.

  3. In the Link Source field, enter the text that describes your link (e.g., “Send comments or suggestions to your email id@fuse.net.”).  This is the text that will appear (in color) as a link on your page.

  4. In the Link To field, enter the following: mailto:your email id @fuse.net

  5. When finished, click Apply | OK. NOTE:  When users click on this text, it will bring up an email composition window that will allow them to send email to you directly.

  To add a link to other pages on the Internet or within your directory structure:

  1. Position your cursor at the link insertion point on your page.

  2. Click Insert | Link.

  3. In the Link Source field, enter the text that describes your link (e.g., “Visit my favorite travel spot!”).   This is the text that will appear (in color) as a link on your page.

  4. In the Link To field, enter the URL for your link: For example, http://www.travel.com might be your favorite travel spot to visit.

  5. When finished, click Apply | OK.


  How do I add a background image to my page?

Images can greatly enhance the look of your page.  From a technical side, images must be in either GIF or JPEG format.  If you have images in another format, such as bitmap, EPS, or TIFF, you will need a graphics package such as PaintShop Pro to convert your images to the proper format.

To insert a background image into your page:
  1. Click the Document | Appearance tab.

  2. Locate the Background Image field at the bottom of the screen.

  3. Enter the path to your image (e.g., c:\background.gif).

  4. Click OK.

  How do I add images to my page?

Images can greatly enhance the look of your page.  From a technical side, images must be in either GIF or JPEG format.  If you have images in another format, such as bitmap, EPS, or TIFF, you will need a graphics package such as PaintShop Pro to convert your images to the proper format.

To insert images into your page:
  1. Click Insert | Image.

  2. In the Image Location field, enter the name of the file or the URL where the image resides.

  3. In the Text alignment and wrapping around images section, select the option that suits your needs.

  4. When finished, click Apply | OK.

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How do I troubleshoot problems with my home page?

Following is a list of frequently issues that may occur when you create your own home page.   Click on the link to find common solutions to these issues.   If you have any comments or pointers you would like to share, please send them to Fuse Technical Support.
  1. During the upload of my page, I receive broken pipe errors.

  2. My page comes up very slowly.

  3. Images in my webpage are not showing up correctly.

   During the upload of my page, I receive broken pipe errors.

In general, by simply disconnecting and reconnecting you can successfully upload your page.  This is often caused by links that have become inactive by idle time-out.  Also, please check your preferences in your HTML editor.

  My page comes up very slowly.

Many of the problems people have with the speed of their pages are directly related to their images.   Check to see what format you are saving your image as.   Many formats, such as .gif, will only allow you to save them in 256 colors.   This ensures that most computers with color monitors will be able to view them.

If you use another file type and it is possible, lower the amount of colors used.  The fewer the colors, the quicker the image will load.  

One of the last things to check is the size of your background image.  Remember that the image you use will automatically be repeated over and over, so it doesn't have to be very big.

  Images in my webpage are not showing up correctly.

In this case, the path to the image source (in html the tag img src) is usually incorrect.  ;If you are using Fuse as your Web page server, you have one parent directory and there should not be paths to any other images in any other directories.  NOTE:  Paths to other directories are possible.  However FUSE does not support them.  So for explanation purposes, we assume that you are not doing this.

For example, the img src tag should always be similar to this:
<img src="imagename">
If you see paths to other local folders or directories, please note that this is incorrect.   All of your image tags should point to the local file.


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