My immediate thought is that it might just be a browser cache issue.

welcome to WebmasterWorld [webmasterworld.com], mudworm!

have you looked at the response headers for clues?
firefox with the livehttpheaders [livehttpheaders.mozdev.org] add-on is an excellent tool for doing this.

Thanks. I will look into the add-on. Can't be browser cache, because I thought the same in the beginning. Clear the cache. Used a different browser. Same thing.

Any idea, where else (other than the root directory) could http be picking up an index.htm? Oh, I even renamed the one in the root directory and the http page looked just the same.

i can't see how a request with that protocol specification could possibly get to your web server.
ftp is not a web protocol so it may depend on your browser behavior when it sees a request for the file transfer protocol.

I guess I should make it clear that his hosting service only provides two ways to access his files: browser based file manager or ftp. Either way, the index.htm seems newly updated by Blogger ftp publishing -- it does include the newest posts. However, the content is not reflected in http://example.com/index.htm when viewed from the browser. Even after renaming index.htm completely, I still see the same http://example.com/index.htm . So, the real question is where in the world does this http://example.com/index.htm exist? If somewhere else, how does it happen so it's not picking up the index.htm from the root directory?

This could still be a caching issue -- with a server-side cache or a network cache.

A simple trick is to change the URL by adding a bogus query string; Caches only match on exact URLs, so the unique query string makes it look like a never-before-seen request that must be requested direct from your server. For example, try requesting http://example.com/index.htm?send-me-a-new-page!
and see if you get the newly-updated page.

If so, it's a caching issue somewhere. And if not, then maybe your host does something really, really weird with file storage and updates... (?)

Jim

Okay, I guess the host "does something really, really weird with file storage and updates... ". I tried http://example.com/index.htm?send-me-a-new-page and I got the same old page. What's that really, really weird thing? This is totally baffling me.

Wordpress template? Check permalinks. Specificaly check for recent mods to the template including .htaccess changes as well as hard coded canonical fixes. I'm not saying this is what's going on but if you're truly baffled they are other things to check.

Godaddy hosting for example DOES allow you to change .htaccess settings (ie:permalinks) but for whatever reason the changes aren't always applied immediately, it can take up to 2 hours to see the changes.

This is one of those times having a link to your site would help a lot.

Nope. Not Wordpress. The main thing is, at the hosting site (root directory), there is not even an index.htm any more, but http://example.com/index.htm is still showing. There is no .htaccess there either.

A webmasters' discussion forum does not allow posting web links. *sigh* How can this be productive. Does anyone have a better discussion forum to recommend for webmasters? I know you can't post link. How about a keyword so I can google it?

if you posted the link to your site or (a temporary url of) a screenshot, your discussion would become fairly useless as soon as you fixed the problem.
on the other hand, if you can figure out how to describe the problem such that it can be solved in a discussion, that discussion will be found by the next webmaster searching for clues to solve a similar problem.

in exchange for the free resource, you help future members.
it's called "paying it forward".