Web Page FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for Cameron University's web pages. 

CONTENTS: 



Uploading Web Pages

How to Transfer Peronsal Web Page Files to Web Server? 

If you are creating personal web pages for the www.cameron.edu server use File Transfer Protocol (FTP) to transfer the files. If your web page creation application currently has FTP capabiliity use the following information to transfer files to Cameron University's www.cameron.edu web server.

Hostname: www.cameron.edu
Login: Enter your login name. Login name is same as the first part of your email address.

Example: Email address is jsmith@cameron.edu
use jsmith as the login name.

Files will need to be stored in the directory /home/jsmith/public_html. Your main web page must have the file name index.html . To access your main web page use the tilde followed by your login name.

                    http://www.cameron.edu/~jsmith

If your application does not have FTP capability download the program FileZilla to transfer your files. (Download the FileZilla Client and not the Server.)

Follow these steps to use FileZilla:

  • 1. Run FileZilla.
  • 2. At top of page enter www.cameron.edu in Host field.
  • 3. In Username enter your login name (Eg. jsmith).
  • 4. Enter your email password or web server password in the Password field.
  • 5. Press Enter key after entering password to connect to the server.
  • 6. Two windows will appear. Your local PC is on the left and the web server is on the right.
  • 7. In the right panel (web server) double click on public_html folder.
  • 8. In the left panel (your PC) locate your new web pages.
  • 9. Using your mouse move over the file to transfer and press and hold the left mouse button. Drag the file over to the right panel and release the mouse button. The file should now appear in the list of public_html folder.
  • 10. Continue to transfer files. You can drag files between the PC and web server.
  • 11. Exit FileZilla by clicking on the X in the top right corner.


Faculty Web Page Template

Is there an easy way to create a web page? 

For faculty web pages yes there is. Go to Create a Web Page:

                http://www.cameron.edu/its/createwww/

On the first page fill out the basic info for the text that will appear on the page. Select one of the default images to appear on the page if desired. Click on submit button.

The next page pulls up a built in editor for additional on the fly changes to the web page. One caveat if uploading images the builtin editor stores all images in a common area. So anyone using this method would also see images from other users.

Upload the page to the web server. If the default index.html is used your existing web page would be overwritten. Change the file name to something else so as not to wipe out your existing default home page.

An example of the page created can be seen at: http://www.cameron.edu/~gregd


  To modify a page using the free program called Kompozer (formerly NVU).

  Click here for more information on Kompozer.


Adding Web Page Security

How do I add a password access to a page? 

Cameron is currently using the Apache web server.  Apache follows the NCSA web server in the way that it password protects web pages. 

Step 1. 
Create a file named .htaccess in the directory where web page .html file exists. 

NOTE:  All other web pages in this same directory will use the .htaccess file. 
             The best thing to do is have the page that is to be protected in a directory all by itself. 


   The  .htaccess contains the following: 

AuthUserFile /other/www/docs/its/course/.htpasswd 
AuthGroupFile /dev/null
AuthName Class_1003 
AuthType Basic 

<Limit GET> 
require user class1003 
</Limit> 


AuthUserFile is the location of the password file. Must use the full Unix system path.
The Unix command pwd will display the full path.  
AuthGroupFile is always set to /dev/null if only one user name will be used.
AuthName this is a descriptive field and will displayed when the user tries to access the web page.
AuthType is always set to Basic.
The require user is the user login name that the user must type to access the page.

Step 2:

To create the password file login to the web server and change to the directory that contains the file to be passworded.  In our example this directory is /other/www/docs/admin/computer_services/course, your  directory name will be different. 

                    login:  compserv 
                    password:  xxxxxxxx 
                    $  cd /other/www/docs/its/course 

If the directory doesn't exist yet for your password protected web page create it. 
                    $  cd /other/www/docs/its 
                    $  mkdir  course 
                    $  cd  course 

Otherwise type: 

                    $ htpasswd -c /other/www/docs/its/course/.htpasswd class1003 

or a shorter version to create the password file:

If you have already changed your directory to the directory that will contain the password file type:

                    $ htpasswd -c .htpasswd class1003 

The -c stands for create the password file.  Followed by the name and location to store the .htpasswd file (this name must match the one used in the .htaccess file).  Followed by the user name to add to this password file (the user name must match the one used in the .htaccess file).

Once a user trys to access any pages in the  /other/www/docs/its/course  directory they will be prompted for a user name and password.

When accessing the URL http://www.cameron.edu/its/course the authorization page will appear:



Adding Web Page Security

How do I have different user login names to the same web page? 

This is almost the same as adding just one user login/password to a page.  But it requires and additional group file.

Step 1. 
Create a file named .htaccess in the directory will web page .html file exists. 

NOTE:  All other web pages in this same directory will use the .htaccess file. 
             The best thing to do is have the page that is to be protected in a directory  
             all by itself. 


   The  .htaccess contains the following: 

AuthUserFile /other/www/docs/its/course/.htpasswd 
AuthGroupFile /other/www/docs/its/course/.htgroup
AuthName Class_1003 
AuthType Basic 

<Limit GET> 
require group class1003
</Limit> 


AuthUserFile is the location of the password file. 
AuthGroupFile is the location of the group file.
AuthName this is a descriptive field and will displayed when the user tries to access the web page.
AuthType is always set to Basic.
The require group is the group name that is used in the .htgroup file.
 
The  .htgroup contains the following: 

class1003: user1 user2 user3


Starts with the group name used in the .htaccess followed by all the login names that can access the pages in the directory.

Step 2:

To create the password file login to the web server and change to the directory that contains the file to be passworded.  In our example this directory is /other/www/docs/its/course, your  directory name will be different. 

                    login:  compserv 
                    password:  xxxxxxxx 
                    $  cd /other/www/docs/its/course 

If the directory doesn't exist yet for your password protected web page create it. 
                    $  cd /other/www/docs/its 
                    $  mkdir  course 
                    $  cd  course 

Otherwise type the following: 

                    $ htpasswd -c /other/www/docs/its/course/.htpasswd user1

The -c stands for create the password file for the first time.  Followed by the name and location to store the .htpasswd file (this name must match the one used in the .htaccess file).  Followed by the user name to add to this password file (the user name must match the one used in the .htaccess file).

Now the other two user accounts need to be added:

                    $ htpasswd  /other/www/docs/its/course/.htpasswd user2
                    $ htpasswd   /other/www/docs/its/course/.htpasswd user3

Once a user trys to access any pages in the  /other/www/its/course  directory they will be prompted for a user name and password.

When accessing the URL http://www.cameron.edu/its/course the authorization page will appear: