Brand new to Osc - Problems with images displaying at all

[brucek]

Hello,
I am brand new to OSc but excited about learning.
I read the online documentation both Oscdox guide as well as what there is of the wiki docs.
My problem is that regardless whether I am doing something as simple as adding images to my products, or even changing the header.php oscommerce.gif to a simple gif for testing purposes, the images do not display at all.( just the red x in the upper left corner).
I verified permissions on directories and files, I verified that the jpg or gif being used is good,( referenced it from a simple web page ). I made changes to the image configuration parameters per the documentation ( blank height or width etc ). Oddly when I edit the sample products to point to another gif I get the same results ....even when I change it back to its original configuration.
I even duplicated the image/product-folder/image.gif directory structure under admin and catalog root. ( side note: I'm still not clear on what the documentation is refering to when it refers to loading the image in admin....does this mean all images must reside in admin as well as root?)
Anayway, am I missing something ?......this isn't exactly where I thought I was going to be challenged.
Thank You for any help you can give me!

[brucek]

Too all that took the time read my post,
Regarding the jpg images for my products I have discovered my error. As with most new user issues it was operator error....although I read the documentation I didn't quite grasp the need to actually "upload" via browsing my local image files. I was just simply pointing to the site directory where my images were. Still don't understand why you can't just point to the directory...... but much to learn.
But I still can't get the gif or jpeg to display after replacing the oscommerce.gif file with one of mine.
Could use some help.
Thanks....
By the way kudo's to the forum. I have discovered much info just browsing through the old forum archive as well as current posts! Finally a forum that is a usefull tool!

[michael_s]

Make sure the image is uploaded in Binary format. If all you did was overwrite oscommerce.gif file with your own gif with the same name, if it is uploaded as a Binary file it should just load up.

If not, it will show up broken.