Now, for the index page......
OK, first, there are three basic ways to make a website:
1) use some free service like angelfire or tripod where all you need to do is choose colors from a list or enter text in text boxes and it automatically "creates" the site for you
2) use some software like Microsoft FrontPage or Macromedia Dreamweaver that helps you create a site by generating the HTML code for you and also has a built in FTP client for uploading updates
3) learn HTML code or whatever language you'll use and build the whole thing from scratch and use an FTP client to connect
Now, when I started I didn't have any handy software to help me, so I learned basic HTML and found some great sites that give you code for more advanced things. I now have access to some great software, but usually it takes me longer just to figure out how to use the software than to type out the HTML code. Option #1 is not possible b/c the provider doesn't offer that type of interface. If you like option #2, I can get you some software, but I won't be much help explaining how to use it. Option #3 is the most difficult, but once you learn the concept behind web building, it's pretty easy to figure things out.
As for the index page and how it got there....basically, all I do is open Notepad (yes, that otherwise good for nothing "word processor" that comes with Windows, see Start > Programs > Accessories), type out the HTML code, and save the file as htm or html. Then I upload that file.
For example, go to your site
www.dutchbingo.net/alihewson
Right click anywhere on the site and choose View Source or View Page Source. You'll get a window w/ just a little bit of code. When I made you guys the /alihewson directory on my domain and gave you FTP access, I opened Notepad, typed that code, saved it as index.htm and uploaded it into /alihewson. That took maybe 2 minutes. Here's my other site:
www.nadiacomaneci.com Right click on there and View Source. I typed all that code too and it took a few hours for a few days to get it right! So to answer your question, to "view" the index file, you can either download it (using smartFTP, open a Local Browser window with the button that has a folder w/ a magnifiying glass over it, and just drag the file from where you see it in /alihewson onto your hard drive to get a copy), then right click on it and choose Open With.... > Notepad. Or you can do what I described above and go to the site, view the page source, and copy that text into a notepad document.
Is this making any sense so far?