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Office of Information Technology (OIT)

UT Arlington
OIT: Office of Information Technology

helpdesk@uta.edu · · Work Order · 817-272-2208 · System Status

Student Web Publishing FAQs

  1. What is the official UTA policy for web publishing?

  2. When accessing my page I get the error "You are not authorized to view this page" or "Directory listing denied".

  3. When I open my website, all I see is a directory listing.

  4. What is my URL on students.uta.edu?

  5. What kind of support do I get for my student pages?

  6. How do I get my own student web site?

  7. Can I let somebody else put their page under my account?

  8. What is the difference between omega.uta.edu and students.uta.edu?

  9. How do I make or improve my web pages?

  10. Can I use MS FrontPage to publish to my website directly?

  11. What is HTML - Hyper Text Markup Language?

  12. What is the difference between .htm and .html?

  13. What do I name my homepage?

  14. How do I get an account on students.uta.edu?

  15. How much space can I have?

  16. How and where do I put my www and non-www files?

  17. How can I process forms on my page?

  18. Can I use MS FrontPage?

  19. How do I get an account on omega.uta.edu?

  20. What is my URL on omega.uta.edu?

  21. How much space can I have?

  22. How and where do I put my www files?

  23. How can I process forms on my page?

  24. Where can I learn about omega.uta.edu and Unix in general?

  25. How do I use CGI scripts on omega.uta.edu?

  26. Why are my files not transferred properly to the www server?

  27. How to restore www folder on student's J-drive.

  28. I am having trouble logging into the servers with my FTP software.

Question: What is the official UTA policy for web publishing?

Students are responsible for the content on their web pages. 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:

Question: When accessing my page I get the error "You are not authorized to view this page" or "Directory listing denied".

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.

Question: 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.

Question: 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.

Question: 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.

Question: 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.

Question: 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.

Question: 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

Question: How do I make or improve my web pages?

Here are some online tutorials:

Question: 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.

Question: 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

Question: 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.

Question: What do I name my homepage?

The page that visitors see when they open your website must be named index.html.

Question: 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.

Question: How much space can I have?

You are allocated 100 Mb of web space on students.uta.edu.

Question: 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.

Question: How can I process forms on my page?

Using the Active Server Pages, ASP

Question: Can I use MS FrontPage?

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.

Question: 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.

Question: 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.

Question: How much space can I have?

You have 50 Mb of storage space on omega.uta.edu to be shared between your Home and Web folders.

Question: How and where do I put my www files?

Files are uploaded to omega.uta.edu using a program that does Secure File Transfer Protocol, or SFTP. You will need to save your web files in the public_html directory located under your home directory. If you upload a file called ndex.html, it would be viewable over the Internet at http://omega.uta.edu/~NetID/index.html even though the actual file is saved in public_html.

Question: 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.

Question: 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.

Question: 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.

Question: 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

Note: In order to use FTP, you need to first use VPN. Follow this link http://www.uta.edu/oit/cs/software/vpn/index.php to download and install the VPN client.

Question: How to restore www folder on student's J-drive.

  • Windows instructions:
  1. Double-click on My Computer.
  2. Double-click on J-drive icon.
  3. Right-click and choose New > Shortcut
  4. In the Create Shortcut wizard, type the path for the www folder in the Command Line Text window:
    students\first2letters_username\username
    example: \\students\ab\abc1234
  5. Click Next
  6. Enter www for the name of the new shortcut
  7. Click Finish.
  • Mac instructions:
  1. Connect to the J: drive if not already mounted to the Mac. Then open the J: drive folder.
  2. Connect to the STUDENTS server and select STUDENTWEBS. Follow the sub-steps to do this:
    1. Click GO from the Finder menu bar.
    2. Select CONNECT TO SERVER.
    3. Type STUDENTS in the server address text field and click CONNECT.
    4. Enter your NetID and password and click CONNECT.
    5. Select STUDENTWEBS and click OK.
  3. Navigate to your STUDENTSWEBS folder, but do not open it.
  4. Hold down the APPLE and OPTION keys.
  5. Drag and drop your STUDENTWEBS folder to your J: drive folder. This will create a shortcut.
  6. You can rename the shortcut to WWW if you like. Otherwise, it will have the same name as your J: drive folder. The next time you log in, simply double-click the WWW shortcut that you created. It will ask you to authenticate. Once you do that, it will mount the STUDENTWEBS drive to your Mac. You may need to click off of the shortcut, then click (or double-click depending on your view) to show the contents of your STUDENTWEBS folder.

    Question: 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 the Self Service page. 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.

    Note: In order to use FTP, you need to first use VPN. Follow this link http://www.uta.edu/oit/cs/software/vpn/index.php to download and install the VPN client.

Office of Information Technology, Box 19318, Arlington, Texas 76019-0318
Phone 817-272-2208 | Fax 817-272-2063
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