How to Put a Mail-Back Form on Your Home Page

The best reward of maintaining a web site is getting e-mail from friends and strangers who stop by and like what you've done. So why not make it easy for them to mail you? Put a mail-back form on your page!

Installing the mail-back form is as simple as using the random number generator. Just follow these steps:

1. Move into the directory with the page you want to add a mail-back form to.
2. Copy the mail-back cgi program into your directory using this command:

   	  cp /user/mpg/public_html/cgi-bin/mailsub.cgi .
           

   Make sure you include the final period and separate it from the word 'cgi' by a space!
3. Make sure the permissions on the file are set properly so that the WWW server can run it. Type:

   	  chmod 755 mailsub.cgi
           

4. Edit the file mailsub.cgi with your favorite text editor. Replace the e-mail address mpg@engr.latech.edu with your own e-mail address, and replace the home page http://www.latech.edu/~mpg/ with your own home page.
5. Edit the file where you want people to be able to mail you from. Add the line:

   <a href="http://aurora.engr.latech.edu:80/~mpg/mailback.cgi">
     Mail me!
   </a>
   	

   Be sure to change /~mpg/mailback.cgi to the place where your copy of the program is, but you _need_ to leave the aurora.engr.latech.edu:80 part as-is.

Now, people can send you mail without leaving their browser!

To see how simple it is, try this out:

Back to Making Your Home Page Cooler