causing events on the server
Summary of File Extensions & Practices
.htm is .html for systems which only allow three-character file extensions.
.shtml is a commonly-used convention for an .html file that includes Server instructions.
.ssi is .shtml for systems which only allow three-character file extensions.
Most servers can be set up to recognize either .htm or .html extensions as html files, but many sites pick one as a convention and stick with it.
Most servers have a default name for each URL, most commonly "index.html," but this is up to the webmaster of each site.
Webmasters who are concerned about server performance commonly use the .shtml extension for an .html file that must be parsed. However, it's not necessary to do so; you can set up most servers to parse all .html files or all files with some other extension that the webmaster picks.
.cgi is often used to indicate a Common Gateway Interface file which will perform server side processing.
.asp is a Microsoft file extension for Active Server Pages. .asp files normally run on an ActiveX server, but some webmasters use them for other HTML files with ActiveX associations. ["ActiveX server"? "ActiveX associations"? That's gibberish. -- ed.]
If the .shtml extension is used, check with your webmaster to see if you can name the default file for your url as "index.shtml" - if not, how does your webmaster want you to indicate that your default file includes Server instructions?
If you want to use a .asp or .cgi file as the default file for your URL, again, you will need to check with your webmaster to see if your server will handle these correctly.