Home Pages on OAK

The primary differences between publishing web pages from the two primary centrally operated web servers (OAK and the Front Door server, www.ohiou.edu) are the name of the subdirectory and the details of the file transfer process.

On www.ohiou.edu, web files must be in a subdirectory called "WWW", while on OAK they must be in a subdirectory called "public_html". The web server software will refuse to publish any of your files that are located in other subdirectories, so that the privacy of your E-mail, for example, is not compromised.

People whose primary personal home page is on another server should go through the process outlined here, creating their public_html directory and a simple home page named index.html that contains a link to their primary home page.

 
Creating Pages
Transferring Pages
Using Pages
Finding Pages
Secure Pages
academic technology
media productions
pagemasters' home

General Information

Please see the information that is online starting at http://technology.ohio.edu/support/webpages/


Creating Your public_html Directory

The first process, normally done one time only, is to create your public_html subdirectory on OAK. There are two methods: login to OAK through telnet and use the menu shell, or use the newer automated procedures.

Automated Procedure

Go to http://technology.ohio.edu/myaccount/ and follow the link named, "Enable/Disable your Web Site." You will be asked for your OAK login ID and password; after that, follow the on-screen directions. There will be links to help information as you proceed.


Menu Shell Procedure

  1. Login to OAK (by secure telnet, using SSH) for a regular interactive session.

  2. From the Main Menu, choose

    6. Change Your Personal Information

  3. Then choose

    3. Manage Personal WWW directory

  4. Then choose

    2. Create a Personal WWW directory

  5. Finally, logout.


Transferring Files

From a personal computer with ethernet or dialnet (PPP) connection, the easier ways to transfer your web files to OAK include:


Using Your Web Files

Your web files will have URLs like

http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~piccard/index.html

where your own login ID is between the tilde ("~") and the following slash.


Keyword Search Access to Your Web Pages

Provided that you choose the standard name (index.html) for your OAK home page, it will be listed as a data item in your entry in the on-line X.500 eDirectory, and will therefore automatically be included in the list of personal Web pages linked from the OAK home page. The on-line directory and the personal pages links are usually updated at least twice a month.

Once this has happened, AltaVista and the other internet search engines will be able to find your pages. It may be a while before any particular search engine comes "crawling" through the OAK pages again, but eventually they will see your pages, and your page will be easy for others to find. Your pages will also be indexed in the Ohio University Web Index (accessible from the Front Door), the next time that index is re-built. The OAK index is usually rebuilt at least once a quarter.


Restricting Access to Your Web Pages

OAK provides a method for you to restrict access to your Web pages, permitting only those people who are authorized users of OAK to see your pages (in other words, anyone who is a student or employee of Ohio University).

You can use the automated procedure to manage your restricted Web pages: go to http://technology.ohio.edu/myaccount/ and follow the link named, "Enable/Disable your Web Site." You will be asked for your OAK login ID and password; after that, follow the on-screen directions. There will be links to help information as you proceed.

In order to restrict access to your Web pages, you must:

  1. Create a folder in your personal directory, next to (not inside of) your public_html directory, named public_shtml. This can be done through your FTP software or the automated procedure linked above.

  2. Place the files whose access you wish to restrict in that folder, using your normal uploading procedures.

  3. Link to those pages with urls such as:

    https://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~piccard/index.html

    The "s" before the colon is required in order for the secure server to be used. Anyone who attempts to see such a page will be challenged for their OAK login ID and password. Anyone who has an OAK login ID and password will be able to see those pages.

Additional information about more advanced techniques, by which you can restrict access to particular individuals who have an OAK login ID and password, is available on-line at http://technology.ohio.edu/support/webpages/webpagebasics.html#access.


Ohio University Front Door |Webauthors Welcome| Academic Technology


Dick Piccard revised this file (http://www.ohiou.edu/pagemasters/oak/index.html) on January 19, 2006.

All comments, criticisms, and suggestions for modification gratefully accepted by E-Mail to webteam@ohio.edu.