Information Technology Services - Computing, Networking and Storage
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Publishing Personal Web Pages

USC provides students 50 MB of network drive space to create personal web pages on the USC web server. This page provides setup information for creating a personal web page as well as information on uploading content to the USC web server.

To transfer files between your computer and the USC server, you must use a secure file transfer protocol (SFTP) client such as FileZilla (for Windows users) or Fetch (for Mac users) to transfer files from your computer to the server. UNIX users can use command line SFTP. For detailed information on using secure file transfer protocol, see Secure File Transfer (SFTP and SCP) Overview. To download a free copy of an SFTP client, go to the USC Software Downloads page.

Policy

Students are responsible for creating the content of their personal web pages. Students can use HTML code or a web authoring tool such as Adobe Dreamweaver to create their pages. Since personal web pages on the USC web server are published to the Internet, anyone with access to the Internet can view these pages. Students are responsible for ensuring that the content of their pages is appropriate and conforms to the university's computing policies.

The university reserves the right to cease publication of any documents that violate the law, contractual agreements, or the university's computing policies. Violations of the law may be reported to the appropriate authorities; violations of the university's policy and standards will be handled through the appropriate university office.

Requirements

In order to publish personal web pages at USC you must have:

  • A Student Computing Facility (SCF) account from ITS

    • Accounts are set up automatically for all registered students.

  • A version of PuTTy installed on your computer (if you are a Windows user)

    • PuTTy is available on all computers in the ITS public computing labs. To download a version to your computer, go to the Software Downloads Page.

  • Proper configuration of your public_html directory

    • Your HTML files must be located in a subdirectory named public_html on your computer. The public_html folder and all of its contents must be world-readable and executable. See File and Directory Permissions for more information on UNIX commands.

  • Proper configuration of your index.html file

    • The primary page in your public_html directory must be named index.html and must be world-readable and executable.

    Note: You can prepare your public_html directory and index.html file before you activate your account, or you can register first and let the registration program prepare them for you.

To activate your USC web account:

  1. Connect to aludra.usc.edu:
    • PC users
      1. From the Start menu, select All Programs and then Internet Tools.
      2. Click SSH to Host to start PuTTy.
      3. In the Host Name field, type aludra.usc.edu.
      4. Click Open. A UNIX window opens.
    • Mac users
      1. From Applications, select Utilities and then click Terminal to open a terminal window.
      2. Type ssh aludra.usc.edu at the command prompt.
  2. Type your username at the Login As prompt and then press Enter.
  3. Type your password at the Password prompt and then press Enter.

    Note: The cursor does not move when you type.

  4. At the UNIX prompt, type requestwww and then press Enter.
  5. A summary of university policies related to publication of web pages displays. You will be asked to verify that you have read, understand, and agree to abide by these policies. If you do not agree, the program will terminate. If you agree, the program will display a series of setup questions.
  6. Answer the setup questions. You must use your keyboard to answer the questions; your mouse will not work in the UNIX window.
  7. The program displays a summary of your responses. Verify the information.
  8. Submit your request for publication.
  9. Once complete, your personal website will be be published at http://www-scf.usc.edu/~username.

You can begin transferring your personal web pages to the USC web server. See Secure File Transfer (SFTP and SCP) Overview documentation for instructions.

Getting Help

If you have questions, please contact the ITS Customer Support Center at 213-740-5555 or send an email to consult@usc.edu.



Last updated: Monday, February 04, 2008, 12:08PM PST