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When a domain name is entered into a browser, the server hosting the site looks for particular file names to display as the home page. This is known as the "default document". The default document just makes things a little bit easier - without it, instead of people being able to view your site just by entering the domain name, they would need to have the full address; e.g. example.com/index.htm

Our servers are configured to look for any of the following file names:

• index.html
• index.htm
• index.shtml
• index.php
• index.php4
• index.php3
•  index.cgi

If you name your home page anything else except for the above, a "404 - File not found" error message will be generated. Any of the above will be recognised as the default page for any directory within your site, including the top level directory. For example, a request for example.com/directory/ will search for any of the file names above to present as the default document.

PLEASE NOTE: File naming is case-sensitive on our servers (and many others), so Index.html is not the same thing as index.html. As a general guideline, always use lowercase letters when naming your website files - it's a good habit to get into and one that can save you grief in the years ahead. For example, if you host your website on a service whereby file-name case doesn't matter, then at a later date you move to a service where it does, it could cost you a lot of time in updating your web site.