FTP - Upload 15 KBS - Download 60 KBS
HTTP - Upload 121 KBS - Download 679 KBS

HTTP tests averaged from tests at Bandwidth Speed Tests

If you are having problems uploading a lot of files via client FTP and WebFTP is too slow, try using PHPZIP. Upload all the files in a directory using Lycos' WebFTP. Then download PowerZip (45 days evaluation). Archive your files to tar/gz format. Upload the file using WebFTP. Then use phpzip to unzip the files!

PhpZip can be downloaded from http://www.hotscripts.com/Detailed/9771.html or http://www.phpconcept.net/phpzip/index.en.php or http://sourceforge.net/project/shownotes.php?release_id=129376

PowerZip can be downloaded from http://www.trident-software.com/ or http://www.tucows.com/system/preview/194271.html or http://download.com.com/3000-2250-10174414.html

It is not a good idea to upload files with spaces in their names as what happens is that the spaces are transformed to being %20. This may create problems for you later on.

When using Web based FTP programs, or using someone as a third party to upload files for you, be wary of giving out your FTP password. Giving someone else your password is a breach of Lycos UK's terms and conditions.

Once uploaded, a file should become immediately available, even before the FTP client is closed. Sometimes however, the cached isn't refreshed and you need to click on the browser's refresh button to display it. Sometimes even this isn't enough. The Lycos UK servers were based in Paris, France but in March 2003 were transferred to Stockholm, Sweden, this shouldn't itself create a problem, but what happens is that some ISPs, for example BT (British Telecom), cache web pages and these are only updated daily.

Some people have reported that WebFTP does not work properly if ad-blocking or pop-up blocking software is being used on their computers. The same problem has been found with some firewall programs.

WebFTP does not allow the uploading of complete folders. Neither does it allow uploads of files larger than 200kb. Client FTP programs allow uploads of any size, but there seems to be a "choke" in place and for for files over 1Mb there is a dramatic decrease in speed.

On 25th November 2003 Lycos sent me an email confirming what they said on 8th August 2002. The email said that "The truth is we are blocking most of the Asia-Pacific ISPs due to the massive abuse coming from that part of the world. It is a huge shame that some innocent users suffer from it, but there is nothing we can do about it. The scale of the abuse is far too high, and we had to take this measure."

In February 2004 a new problem came to light. CHMOD allows you to change file and folder permissions on the web servers. It seems that if the root directory of your web space is CHMOD'd then you can actually self-destruct the FTP connection to your entire site. I can't reproduce this problem as the FTP software that I use (SmartFTP) won't let me CHMOD the root directory, but it seems that some people have managed it. So far, the only solution we've managed to come up with is to create a new a account on Lycos and delete the old one. The reason for this is that because you can no longer use FTP you can't CHMOD the permissions back to what they were.

Hot Linking :-

To prevent people hot-linking to your images you can edit your .htaccess file so that the Tripod logo displays instead of your image. Use a plain text editor, such as Notepad, and add this to the .htaccess file in the root of your webspace. You may have to save .htaccess as htaccess.txt to your computer, upload it and then change it's name to .htaccess on the server.

You can add or remove the various file types from the line RewriteRule \.(gif|jpg|mid|mp3)$ as you feel fit.

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^
RewriteRule \.(gif|jpg|mid|mp3)$
http://syndication.tripod.lycos.co.uk/resources/img/members/logo_tr.gif [R,L]

Well, the above code should work, but I tried it again in January 2003 and found that it doesn't. There are variations on this code all over the Internet - just search for .htaccess, but I haven't found one to work on Lycos UK. My own feeling on this is that their Apache Rewrite Engine isn't configured properly, or that its been disabled.

Password Protected Directories :-

You may want to create a password protected directory. This is easy to do using .htaccess and .htpasswd. The method is shown the WebMaster pages, but I've included it here, along with some notes of my own.

What you need to do is to create a .htaccess file. Use a plain text editor, such as Notepad, to do this. The lines of text you need are :-

AuthUserFile /data/members/free/tripod/uk/b/r/i/brisray/htdocs/secret/.htpasswd
AuthGroupFile /dev/null
AuthName Secret_Area
AuthType Basic
<Limit GET>
require valid-user
</Limit>

The parts in red you are going to have to change, but more on that in a minute. This file is going to be your .htaccess file, but as most file systems won't let you save a file with this name, save it as htaccess.txt for now.

Now to edit those parts in red above. brisray is my Lycos Tripod username, b /r/ i is the first three letters of my username, this needs to be changed to your username. For example, if your username is myname then the line would look like

AuthUserFile /data/members/free/tripod/uk/m/y/n/myname/htdocs/secret/.htpasswd

secret is the name of the directory that I want password protected. If, for example your username is myname and your password protected directory is called hidden, then the line would be

AuthUserFile /data/members/free/tripod/uk/m/y/n/myname/htdocs/hidden/.htpasswd

Now for Secret_Area . This is the realm that you want to password protect, all it is, is a name you want to give to your password protected area. Suppose, for example you wanted it to be called Hidden_Files, then the line would be

AuthName Hidden_Files

If you want to use spaces in the AuthName variable then enclose it in quotes, such as AuthName "Secret Area" or AuthName "Hidden Files".

Now for valid-user , all this is the list of user ID's allowed to access your password protected files. For one simple ID, for example friends the line would be

require user friends

For a list of ID's the line would be

require user userid1 userid2 userid3 ... (each user must be separated by a space)

For all users named in the .htpasswd file, the line would be

require valid-user

The .htpasswd file is a plain text file containing the user IDs and their encrypted passwords. It looks something like this.

username1:g4xYUgHH4Pg/w
username2:gZvjZq.RqWrsg
username3:gBg6aG93ZAAt.

The next question should be "How do I encrypt the passwords?" And the answer is "Simple!"

You can use the Password Generator or htpw.exe, if you don't have a copy of htpw.exe you can download it. To use htpw.exe :-

Open a MS-DOS session (Start > Programs > MS-DOS Prompt).

Open the directory where this program is located.

Then enter the following command:

htpw -c htpasswd .txt userid1

where htpasswd.txt is the name of the text file to be created and userid1 the username you wish to add.

You will then be asked twice to enter the corresponding password (8 characters maximum)

To add another username, type in the following command:

htpw htpasswd.txt userid2

The username userid2 must then be added to the htpasswd .txt file previously created. Note that if userid2 already exists in the htpasswd.txt file, the program will replace the existing password for this user with the new one that you will indicate.

You've now got two files, one named htaccess.txt and the other named htpasswd.txt. Upload both files to your password protected directory. If you've more than one password protected directory you will need to place versions of both files in these directories. Once you've uploaded them you now need to rename them to .htaccess and .htpasswd

Anyone trying to get to a file in your password protected directory will see this message box

If they mistype their password or User Name or aren't in the .htpasswd file then they will get this message

Authorization Required

Otherwise they'll get to see the file they requested.

You need to remember that the browser will remember this User Name and password as long as it is open. This means that anyone else using the same browser window can also get to these files. It may be worth putting a message to that effect on the webpage they are visiting. Alternatively, you can use a cookie or JavaScript to test for browser inactivity and close the window. Both require the user to have them enabled.

To see .htaccess and .htpasswd in action click here , for the User Name use username for the password use hello.

PHP

Tripod uses a simplified protocol to access your database. To connect to your MySQL database using a PHP script, use the following code:

$db = mysql_connect()

If you need further parameters these will be:

database host: localhost
database access login: your Tripod id
database access password: empty
database name: id_uk_db

There are many PHP files. If you are having problems uploading them all via client FTP and WebFTP is too slow, try using PHPZIP. Upload all the files in a directory using Lycos' WebFTP. Then download PowerZip (45 days evaluation). Archive your files to tar/gz format. Upload the file using WebFTP. Then use phpzip to unzip the files!

PhpZip can be downloaded from http://www.hotscripts.com/Detailed/9771.html or http://www.phpconcept.net/phpzip/index.en.php or http://sourceforge.net/project/shownotes.php?release_id=129376

PowerZip can be downloaded from http://www.trident-software.com/ or http://www.tucows.com/system/preview/194271.html or http://download.com.com/3000-2250-10174414.html

It has also been reported that there is a bug in some implementations of PHP on the Lycos servers in that scripts pointing to files for download don't work properly. So far, I know of no workarounds for this other than to use plain old HTML for these files.

Backing up the PHP database creates problems for some users. Here's a method to do it ...

1) First of all, access Tripod's PHPMyAdmin at http://www.tripod.lycos.co.uk/build/php4u/admin/index.phtml to gain access to your database.

2) Scroll down past the table listings to where it says "View dump (schema) of database"

3) Select all your tables in the box below (select the top one, scroll down, hold shift, and select the bottom one). Then select "Structure and data"

4) Tick "Add 'drop table'", "Complete inserts", "Extended inserts", and "Use backquotes with tables and fields' names" then press the Go button below it.

5) PHPMyAdmin will bring up the schema for your database. Copy everything except the first line (the one that says "Database username_uk_db") to a text file and save it.

6) If you're moving to a new host, set up your phpBB (make sure you use the same table prefix, or else it won't work!) and go to the admin panel. Select Restore Database and tell it to use the text file you saved - it will work exactly like the backup files made by phpBB.

It has been reported that for security measures the following PHP / MySQL functions do not work ...

1) DROP DATABASE and CREATE DATABASE requests are not allowed. You have only one database, so you cannot delete it or create another.

2) Requests associated with processes executed on your database (KILL) are inactivated.

3) Management of access rights (GRANT command) is not activated.

4) Commands within the SHOW family that allow display of information on the databases and tables are limited. Only the SHOW TABLE request is allowed.

Red Measure & Red Sheriff :-

When you upload HTML files Lycos adds around 45 lines of JavaScript and other code to your pages. Part of this code controls the adverts while the part pertaining to Red Measure and Red Sheriff is how Lycos monitor how the page is viewed. Counterexploitation, the anti advert, spam, and spyware organisation don't like Red Sheriff, calling it Server-Side Spyware. Several Lycos users have also reported that the code Lycos adds also either disables or interferes with their own scripts. Personally, I haven't found this behaviour on my own site.

An interesting fact about the code for Red Measure and the ad frame is that they seem to be added on the fly, that is when the pages are called. A file uploaded to Lycos UK and then downloaded does not contain the code for either.

Site Usage :-

There is a problem with the amount of disk space used as reported by Lycos UK on the My Account page. What seems to be happening is that when files are deleted instead of the disk space used being decreased it is being increased. This can create problems for users close to their maximum reported disk space allowance.

Technologies :-

Lycos UK supports PHP and MySQL. They also support for FrontPage Extensions. The FrontPage Extensions option must be activated before they work. This is done from the Goodies page. They do not support CGI or Perl. The support for PHP and MySQL has led to a large number of sites that appear to be mostly forums of one sort or another. Personally, I think they all look the same, but who am I to judge? Lycos Tripod offer their own scripts, but some people have experienced problems with some of these, especially the email forms.

Under Construction :-

Although people have uploaded files to their webspace they still get the Lycos "Under Construction" page displayed. This is because you need a file named index.htm or index.html in the root of your webspace. These file names must be in lower-case. If you're using PHP then the file should be named index.php.