This handout assumes you have already activated your NetID at http://neo.tamu.edu.  If you have not set up your NetID, please go to an Open Access Lab Help Desk and ask for assistance.

Every user with an OAL account has 300 megabytes (MB) of space allocated to them to store information and for hosting a Web page. All the information on your H: drive and U: drive draws from your 300 MB of allocated space, since H: and U: are just different names for what is really the same drive. 

1. From an Open Access Lab computer, log in and go to:

Start > Programs > Communications > Internet Explorer or the browser of your choice.

2. Once the browser loads, go to http://oalinfo.tamu.edu.
3. Click Account Services (Figure 1).



Figure 1. Accessing Account Services

4. Enter your NetID and Password, and click Log In.
5. Click Setup My Web Page.
6. Click Enable.
7. This creates a folder called public_html on your U: drive, which you can view by going to Start > My Computer > U: (Figure 2).



Figure 2. Creating the public_html folder

8. Anything you put into your U:\public_html folder becomes viewable and accessible from the Internet by going to your Internet address. Your Internet Web address will be http://people.tamu.edu/~NetID /.

Note: Your Net ID is your universal username for most OAL systems. This is the ID you use to log in to Neo and the computers in the Open Access Labs.

Creating a Basic Home Page

1. Open any HTML editor such as Dreamweaver or FrontPage.  To do this in an Open Access Lab, go to Start > All Programs > Applications > Web Editing, followed by the program of your choice.
2. Create a new file with any information you wish on the page, then save the file as index.html. Save the file in your U:\public_html folder. Once you create and save this file, it loads automatically when someone visits your Web page.

Note: This file must be named index.html or it does not load when people visit your Web page.

3. If your Web page has any graphics, then simply put the graphic in the U:\public_html folder, and it becomes accessible on the Web as well. To use the graphic in your Web page, you must provide a link to it. The link to the graphic is simply your web page address plus the name of the file. For example: http://people.tamu.edu/~NetID/picture.jpg/ 

If you try to visit your Web site and a page appears saying ERROR: 403 FORBIDDEN, do the following: 

1. From an Open Access Lab computer, log in, and go to:

Start > Programs > Internet Explorer or the browser of your choice.

2. Once the browser loads, go to http://oalinfo.tamu.edu.  
3. Click Account Services.
4. Enter your NetID and Password, and click Log In.
5. Click Setup My Web Page.
6. Click Enable. This resets the permissions on your U:\public_html folder and allows your Web page to be viewed.
7. Click Refresh in your browser, and your home page should load normally.

To upload your files from off campus, use Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) or Secure Copy Protocol (SCP). WinSCP is a free SFTP client that you can download from http://winscp.net and  install on your computer.

To access your Web space at http://people.tamu.edu using WinSCP, follow these steps:  

1. Open WinSCP and type people.tamu.edu for the Host Name, your NetID for the User Name, and your password in the Password box (Figure 3).
2. Click the SFTP button. Click Login, and re-enter your password if prompted.



Figure 3. Logging in using WinSCP

You can now transfer files from your local drive to the Web server. The left panel of WinSCP contains the files located on your computer. The right panel contains your directories on the Web server. See Figure 4.

3. Open the public_html folder in the right panel; this is where you will be transferring your files.
4. Browse to the location of your files in the left panel and click Copy at the bottom of the window. Repeat this process until you have transferred all the files you want to move.

Does CIS provide any help with writing HTML code? Yes! CIS has a seven-part series of documents designed to help users with writing HTML code, which can be accessed by going to http://techdocs.tamu.edu/ and finding the Web Page Creation handouts.

Does CIS provide any training on using HTML editor programs? Yes! CIS has a helpful handout on how to use FrontPage 2000 at: http://techdocs.tamu.edu/. CIS has also set up a series of short courses on how to create a Web page. The schedule of courses can be viewed here at http://cis.tamu.edu/shortcourses/.