Links won't work on internet

[Coldicote]

I've been creating websites for years using MS Publisher and uploading with Terrapin FTP. Now, for some reason, when I upload only the opening (home) pages appear on the internet and any links to other pages tell me the page 'cannot be found'. They all seem to work perfectly well when I view them on my PC in 'website preview'. On the FTP site they appear to upload normally and all the files can be seen there.

I've tried everything I can think of, including uploading to other ISP web servers, but the same happens with all of them. I'm wondering if it might be something to do with Terrapin FTP and am waiting for a reply from them.

Has anyone else had this kind of experience please and found how to overcome it?

[fo3nix]

Could be, but if you haven't changed anything I don't see why it would be your FTP client.

I've never used Publisher for websites, but if everything works fine locally (looking at the site on your hard drive), then you could always try using FileZilla (assuming you're on windows):

If I ever use Windows for FTP stuff I use FileZilla; it's about the best there is and is totally free. Worth a try with that.
http://filezilla.sourceforge.net/

Otherwise, your host could have changed some settings? But since you mentioned that you've tried other servers, sounds unlikely.

Is there anything you've changed that you think may have caused it, since you last uploaded successfully?

[Coldicote]

Very many thanks fo3nix - I'll try FileZilla. Like all things new it will take a bit of time to get used to it. My PC recently went in for an MOT as it was getting very slow and everything was re-installed, including my original Terrapin CD. I've since downloaded an update for Terrapin but still no luck.

[OBonio]

The most common cause for this problem that I've come across is that the links are not relative but absolute and they probably point to something on your C drive (eg, target='_blank' href="c://mysite/home.html"). Obviously this won't work when you upload to a web server for security reasons but will appear to work locally on your PC.

There is probably a setting in Publisher to do with generating relative or absolute links. You need it to be relative!

What's the URL of the site? Just to check my theory ;o)

[Coldicote]

OBonio,
Thank you for your interest. Not sure that I understand what you have put in brackets but I'll have a look in Publisher and see what I can find about absolute and relative links. The problem now seems to arise with anything new or updated that I upload. My particular concern is a website I try to maintain for a Neighbourhood Watch organisation. The opening page (only) may be seen at http://lewesnwa.org.uk/

[OBonio]

Crumbs, that's some higgledy code being spat out by Publisher! Anyway, I can't see where the problem is. I'm able to click on the links no problem!

[OBonio]

Hmm... but they're all 404 error pages...

Is the index_files directory being uploaded ok?

[OBonio]

Right, I see the problem now. The links is asking for Page291.htm, but the actual file is page291.htm. See the capital P? This may work on a windows PC in 'website preview' because it is probably case insensitive. With that ISP there, it looks to be a *nix based system which IS case sensitive.

[OBonio]

To illustrate, this link works :

http://lewesnwa.org.uk/index_files/page291.htm

and this one doesn't :

http://lewesnwa.org.uk/index_files/Page291.htm

[Coldicote]

Thanks a lot for all these helpful pointers. The link with a small p opens the second page (Editorial) which will link to the opening page, but not to any other. The link with the large P,as you say, doesn't work at all. I've obviously got a lot of work to do, but it seems a bit odd that I've updated and re-uploaded the site many times without any problem. As you will have seen it has a navigation bar, which adds pages automatically and I've never actually typed in 'Page' or 'page'. I'll be forever hopeful!

[OBonio]

I've downloaded Terrapin FTP. Are you using the Web Publishing Wizard to upload the site?

[Coldicote]

Yes I am using the Publishing Wizard and have done so for several years. I am waiting for a reply from Terrapin ftp. I see on the internet there are many items about 'HTTP 404 - File not found', so I guess I'm not alone.

My pc was getting very slow and recently went away for an MOT. When it came back I made a silly mistake and tested System Restore to see if it worked. It did, but also it undid some of the newly configured re-installation, which I thought I had since put right!

Do you know a reliable system and registry check I could run? I tried a 'free check' offered by a programme called RegistrySmart. It told me it had found 180 problems (63 of them in registry), repaired one, leaving 179. Then it asked me to register and pay $39.95 but I didn't proceed as I wasn't sure what I was dealing with and might have been jumping out of the frying pan into the fire. Thanks for your interest.

[Coldicote]

Most grateful to all who have tried to help. In the end I tracked the problem down to a rather old Terrapin FTP CD that I had used and reinstalled over about 8 or 9 years. I downloaded a trial version of Tpin and found it worked so bought a new CD and all is well.