"They are no more help than that, suggesting I somehow convert it to FTP - though I have been told elsewhere that the hosts should deal with the format."
It sounds like they are confusing HTML (the
file format, which will not change) with HTTP (
Hyper
Text
Transfer
Protocol), which is how the files were transferred. FTP is not a file format, or a directory layout, it just does what it says on the tin:
File
Transfer
Protocol. So, when they say "convert to FTP", I think all they mean is change your method of accessing the web server.
It's been a while since I used FrontPage, but can't FrontPage use FTP as a file transfer method? There are Microsoft documents that imply that it can, e.g.
this (see the "Unextended Web Server" section). You specify ftp:// ... instead of http:// in the FrontPage network settings. That document is assuming you work with an offline copy of the website ("web"), and Publish changes when ready - the most common way of working.
If you get a FTP program for your operating system, you can check out how things look. After you log in, you should get a directory listing, with the actual website in a subdirectory e.g. "/www_home" or something. The example in that Microsoft document is
ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/myweb , but you'd need to replace the "myweb" with the actual subdirectory where the files are. It must be where
index.htm or
index.html (the home page) is.
When you say "the hosts should deal with the format", by "format" can I assume you mean "the files and the way they're laid out"? Then that's correct too. If you are able to set up FTP transfer as above, you don't need to stop using FrontPage or change the way you work. (You could if you wanted to, though - you'd still be working with HTML files either way.)
PS: It may be that they no longer have the FrontPage Extensions on the web servers - which I think you ought to check with them. If you've paid for that service, and they've just taken it away without warning, they don't deserve your business, IMHO. There are many FrontPage hosters who'd be happy to host your site. Your website might not use any of the advanced features, but it's still convenient when you use FrontPage to create the website - those Extensions are normally the part that allows the HTML transfers that FrontPage uses by default.