Welcome to the
CORSA Server Chapter Space!

CORSA now offers 100MB of space to all CORSA Chapters in good standing. While you can get space from several free services, there are a few advantages to using the space here:

Human tech support. While staffed by volunteers, you can reach an actual human if you have problems, mail us at web-help@corvair.org.
The site is owned by the chapter. If the developer of your web site can't work on it anymore, your chapter can ask that the site be assigned to someone else.
No irritating ads or other spam.
If you want more space for a neat project, we can likely accomodate you, just ask.
Dedicated line to the server, which gives more consistent (and usually faster) page loads than the generic free servers.

Getting an account.

To get your space, simply have your webmaster send a note to web-help@corvair.org. with your chapter name, webmaster's name, and preferred login name. We will assign your chapter a URL that looks like http://www.corvair.org/chapters/chapter000/ and notify you of your password.

IMPORTANT: Please don't share your account information with anyone else. If you would like to have another member have access to the server, drop us a note.

Chapter e-mail addresses

We also offer fixed account addresses for chapters. You can have your chapter address point to up to three individual addresses, for example cce@corvair.org could go to the President, Newsletter Editor, and Treasurer. Now you can hand out an e-mail address and when the officers change one notification is all you have to make. As above, send a note to web-help@corvair.org to get yours.

Creating HTML

If you're not already comfortable with creating your code from scratch, you can do a couple different things. One, you can buy a commercial HTML editor such as FrontPage or InDesign. I recently found the CoffeeCup HTML Editor that looks promising.

Two, you can create your files in a text editor like Notepad++ or BBEdit. For a basic tutorial on HTML coding, see:

HTML Code Tutorial. They have a nice cheat sheet too.

A Simple Guide to HTML. I found another good guide and cheat sheet here too.

Andy Brown offered the following thoughts on building a chapter site:

Common things that most clubs have include:

Club Name and CORSA Chapter Number
A little bit about the club (like when it was started, etc.)
Club meeting place, time, address (link the address to a map site so people can get directions)
Regularly attended events by members (like weekly/monthly cruise-ins)
Club officers
Club logo
A few pictures from recent club events (people like to see themselves) :-)

If you'd like to have someone build a site for you, Andy can build one like that for $50. He's also been kind enough to let us put an example site here for you to use as a template if you like.

Uploading files.

At this time, we do not offer web based support for uploading files, or other support for web editors, however if your editor (e.g. FrontPage) supports server uploads you can use it to load your files on the server. You'll need to create your web site on your machine. Then, either use the upload capabilities built-in to your editor or use a separate program to upload the files. You must use SFTP rather than FTP to protect your password. When using FileZilla, be sure to fill in port 22 in the connection box.

For a nice GUI SFTP client that works on both Windows and Mac OSX, try:

FileZilla

Windows users also like WinSCP. You can get that from WinSCP.net.

To upload files, the server is www.corvair.org, you should have received your username and password in an e-mail from us. When you log in, you'll be in the main directory for your web files. Don't forget to set up an index.html file, this is the default page for your site.

File names are case sensitive. You can use any convention you like for names, but we suggest you pick one - lowercase, UPPERCASE, or StudlyCaps - to avoid problems.

Operating System.

The server runs the Fedora version of Linux, which is much like Unix. We will set up your account so that you can use ssh to log in to make changes directly on the server, but please bear in mind that it does not behave like a typical desktop machine, so things may not work the way you expect. For those of you not familiar with Unix but who want to do this type of editing, here is a web site to help you get started with the vi editor:

vi Tutorial from gnulamp.com

Link your chapter.

Once you have a working site, go to the CORSA Member Center and update the URL for your chapter.

Custom Domain Names

You may wish to set up your own domain name for your chapter, since a URL like http://www.OurChapter.org is a lot easier to remember than http://www.corvair.org/chapters/chapter999. With the packages currently offered by several companies it's easy to set up your own domain to forward to your website hosted here. CORSA members have had good luck with registration from Yahoo!, Hostway, and Simple Host, the steps below are for Yahoo! but in general will apply to either of the other two services.

Go to the Yahoo! Small Business Domains page and follow the directions to set up the domain of your choice. Give yourself or someone in your club as the contact person. They'll send you a couple of confirmation e-mails.
Once you have the domain registered, go back to the Domain Control Panel and select the "Forward Your Domain" link.
Fill in your web address on the CORSA server as the "To:" URL for your new domain.
The URL will change in the browser when you enter your new URL, this is normal.

Chapters Online

Below is a list of chapters (in no particular order) that have been given space on the CORSA site:

If you need help with your account, we can be reached at web-help@corvair.org.

Return to the CORSA home page.

Revised:

Sep 22, 2017

Welcome to the CORSA Server Chapter Space!