I'm about to point my domain to my newly setup server. Before I do so, I'd like make sure the following anomalies will clear up after the change over:

DON'T WORK...
http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/
http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/subdir

DO WORK...
http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/index.html
http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/subdir/

Are the above normal while using IP address to call up the main site? I hope I won't have to use http://www.myname.com/index.html to call up the main site after I point the domain name to my new server.

No that's not normal or desired. Dang-a-lang - I should know the answer to this off the top of my head - lucky I am not a web host :stickout - but basically, there is something you will need to fiddle with in your httpd.conf (assuming you are using apache) to achieve the desired result.

The first one must be problem with DirectoryIndex. Make sure you have something like 'DirectoryIndex index.html' in your httpd.conf.

I don't know about the second one, what's the error message? Is there anything in log files? Does it work on other directory?

I found it in httpd.conf...

DirectoryIndex index.html index.htm index.shtml index.cgi index.php index.php3 index.php4 index.pl

So looks like my settings are correct. Maybe it just won't work with IP address. I hope it will work after I point my domain.

It should work with just the IP....if i type Ip.ip.ip.ip/ it will show the index.html...

Could it be the way I uploaded the files for my main site? The files are at /var/www/html/ (Ensim). Should I create a name-based account for my main site instead?

That's strange. Are you sure you are using the correct httpd.conf? Are there .htaccess files lying around with related directives?

When I type in xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx at the browser, it brings up the Webppliance (Ensim) login page.

When I type in xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/index.html, it brings up my main site.

Should I have NOT uploaded my main site to /var/www/html? Should I create a name-based account for my main site instead?

The only line in .htaccess is Options +ExecCGI

It looks like ensim stores its administration CGIs in /var/www/html. I'm not familiar with ensim, but if that's the case the answer to your question is yes, you should not store your files in /var/www/html.

Thanks for all your help.