Student Web Publishing FAQs
General Questions
How do I get my own student web site?
What is the difference between omega.uta.edu and students.uta.edu?
How do I make or improve my web pages?
HTML - Hyper Text Markup Language
What is the difference between .htm and .html?
Setting Up students.uta.edu
How do I get an account on students.uta.edu?
What is my URL on students.uta.edu?
How and where do I put my www and non-www files?
How can I process forms on my page?
Setting Up omega.uta.edu
How do I get an account on omega.uta.edu?
What is my URL on omega.uta.edu?
How and where do I put my www files?
How can I process forms on my page?
Where can I learn about omega.uta.edu and Unix in general?
How do I use CGI scripts on omega.uta.edu?
Additional Troubleshooting Tips
Why are my files not transferred properly to the www server?
I am having trouble logging into the servers with my FTP software
When I open my website, all I see is a directory listing
Policy and Support
What is the official UTA policy for web publishing?
What kind of support do I get for my student pages?
Can I let somebody else put their page under my account?
Policy and Support
What is the official UTA policy for web publishing?
Students are
responsible for their pages. The pages are not monitored by the University and
are in complete control of the student. While a student page certainly should be
given the right of free speech, it should also show consideration for others in
the community. State law prohibits the use of state-funded equipment in schools
for economic gain of the students, faculty or staff. Please read the official
rules:
Web publishing policy
Internet Privacy policy
UT System policy on copying copyrighted material
What kind of support do I get for my student pages?
Help Desk does not
directly assist students in making their student pages. This FAQ was created so
students could help themselves.
Can I let somebody else put their page under my account?
No. That would mean that you share your NetID and NetID password with them, which would be a violation of UTA computer usage policies.
General Questions
How do I get my own student web site?
You, as a student, have an option of having two different web sites on two different web servers. Web space on students.uta.edu is setup for you automatically whenever your NetID is activated. Web space on omega.uta.edu is setup only when you request an Omega account, which can be done online.
What is the difference between omega.uta.edu and students.uta.edu?
-
omega.uta.edu is a Linux/GNU server and supports PHP
-
students.uta.edu in an NT server and supports ASP
How do I make or improve my web pages?
Here are some online tutorials:
-
www.htmlgoodies.com - Basic and advanced HTML
-
www.webach.com/barebones/ - Basic HTML
-
www.wired.com - WWW Design and JavaScript
Can I use MS FrontPage to publish to my website directly?
No. There are is no FrontPage support on either of the student web servers. You can, however, create your pages using FrontPage, save them locally on your machine and then transfer the files to the server using FTP.
What is HTML - Hyper Text Markup Language?
HTML
(Hypertext Markup Language) is the set of "markup" symbols or codes inserted in
a file intended for display on a World Wide Web browser. The markup tells the
Web browser how to display a Web page's words and images for the user.
HTML standards are officially proposed by the WWW Consortium
What is the difference between .htm and .html?
There is no difference. Both indicate that the file is an HTML file. It makes sense to end an html file with .html extension, but since some operating systems could not operate on files with 4 letters in the suffix, they had to use just .htm suffix.
The page that visitors see when they open your website must be named index.html.
Setting Up students.uta.edu
How do I get an account on students.uta.edu?
Your web space on students.uta.edu is setup automatically whenever your NetID account is created. You can access it on campus by going to your J-drive and opening the WWW folder. You will need to use FTP to access it from off-campus.
What is my URL on students.uta.edu?
Your URL would be http://students.uta.edu/ab/abc1234, where abc1234 is your NetID. In order for this link to work properly, you will need to name your main page index.html.
You are allocated 100 Mb of web space on students.uta.edu
How and where do I put my www and non-www files?
You will need to save your web files to WWW folder, located under your J-drive if you are on campus. If you are off-campus, you will need to use FTP software to move the files from your local hard drive to the web folder. Moving files to the web folder automatically publishes your website on the web.
How can I process forms on my page?
Using the Active Server Pages, ASP
Not directly. There is no FrontPage support on any of the student web servers, so you cannot edit pages directly. If you are on campus and you are using FrontPage (or any other web publishing software) you can save your files directly to the www folder under your J-drive. If you are off campus you will need to save the files on your computer and then move them to your web folder using FTP.
Setting Up omega.uta.edu
How do I get an account on omega.uta.edu?
You can fill out the account request form online or come by the Help Desk on the first floor of the Library with a photo ID.
What is my URL on omega.uta.edu?
If your main page is named index.html, your URL will be http://omega.uta.edu/~abc1234, where abc1234 is your NetID.
You have 50 Mb of storage space on omega.uta.edu to be shared between your Home and Web folders.
How and where do I put my www files?
Files are uploaded to omega.uta.edu using a program that does File Transfer Protocol, or FTP. You will need to save your web files in the public_html directory located under your home directory. If you upload a file called index.html, it would be viewable over the Internet at http://omega.uta.edu/~NetID/index.html or http://omega.uta.edu/~NetID/ even though the actual file is saved in public_html.
How can I process forms on my page?
You can process
forms using the Common Gateway Interface, CGI. In order for your script to
work, the script file needs to be saved in the cgi-bin directory.
Where can I learn about omega.uta.edu and Unix in general?
You can get more
info about Omega server at http://omega.uta.edu
and review some information about Unix/Linux OS at our
Unix/Linux Guide page.
How do I use CGI scripts on omega.uta.edu?
Create a folder named cgi-bin in your public_html directory, and place your CGI scripts in the newly created cgi-bin folder. If you are using the Perl scripting language, the path to Perl is: /usr/local/bin/perl.
Additional Troubleshooting Tips
Why are my files not transferred properly to the www server?
The transfer mode in your FTP program was not set properly. Follow this chart:| File | Mode |
| .html, .htm, .txt | ASCII or TEXT |
| .gif, .jpg, .bmp, .doc, .wpd, .xls | BINARY |
I am having trouble logging into the servers with my FTP software
Make sure your password is not expired or at the default format. You can check your password status by logging on the computers on campus or by accessing your email at http://owa.uta.edu. If your password has expired and needs to be changed you will be prompted to do so. NetID passwords expire every 6 months. In addition, some FTP software may require you to put uta\ in front of your NetID.
Make sure you have one index.html file on your website. This is the file (or website) that visitors will see when they pull up your website address.
When I open my website, all I see is a directory listing.
Make sure you have one index.html file on your website. This is the file (or website) that visitors will see when they pull up your website address.