Creating Your Personal Web Pages
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Anyone with a CaTS CAMPUS account can create a personal web page and have it accessed from both on and off campus. Simply follow the steps below, and soon you'll have your own personal web space. Anyone using WSU resources to store and/or serve web files must adhere to the WSU Web Policy posted at http://www.wright.edu/wrightway/2001.html.

1.0 CaTS CAMPUS Account
Get your CaTS CAMPUS account from the Help Desk in 025 Library Annex. Your account gives you access to e-mail, allows you to surf the web, and provides you with a personal directory.

www Subdirectory - A www subdirectory is generated within all CaTS CAMPUS accounts. You will store your web files in the www directory, so they are viewable by others. 

2.0 Create Your Home Page
A home page is the entry point to a web site. It serves as an introduction to the site and, often, as a table of contents. You can create your home page with any number of web development tools, including an Automated Personal Page Service which creates a basic home page for you. 

Whether you use the automated service, Web page creation software, or you write your own HTML code, use index. html or index.htm as the filename for your main Web page.

Using any other name for your home page will prevent you from using the default URL (in the form of http://www.wright.edu/~email_name).  You will also not be indexed by the WSU search engine.  Storing your web pages in any directory other then www will prevent them from being seen on the Internet.

3.0 Post Your Home Page to the Web *
Transfer your web files to the www subdirectory of your CaTS CAMPUS account.

  1. Open an SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol) session to unixapps1.wright.edu.
  2. Change the remote directory to your www subdirectory.
  3. Transfer your home page files (and any associated image files) to this subdirectory. Use ASCII mode to transfer text-only files (like HTML) and binary mode to transfer any other files (like images).
  4. Close the SFTP session.

* Note: The day after you place your index or main web page in the www directory, your URL (web address) will appear as a hyperlink in the university's online directory services, accessible through the web directory (http://www.wright.edu/aboutwsu/directory.html) and WSU's address book within Netscape (in the expanded view). 

4.0 View Your Web Pages on the WWW
Now that you have created your home page and posted it on the World Wide Web, you can view it at your unique URL (Universal Resource Locator). Your URL is in the form of:
http://www.wright.edu/~email_name

For example, if your e-mail address is smith.1@wright.edu, your e-mail name is smith.1 and your URL would be http://www.wright.edu/~smith.1

Note that this address is case sensitive, so /~Smith.1 will not work.

To view your pages:

  1. Open Netscape Navigator or another web browser.
  2. In the Location (or Address) field, type your URL.
  3. Press Enter. Your home page should load and be viewable. If it is not, refer to section 5.0, Troubleshooting Your Web Site, for help.

5.0 Troubleshooting Your Web Site
If you find that your web pages are not loading or appearing the way you planned, maybe one of the following will help:

  • If your pages aren't showing up, the permissions for your www subdirectory or its files may not be set correctly. Log onto your CAMPUS account and then type the chweb command. This command will run a script that changes the permission on the www directory and the files within it.
  • Do you have an active Internet connection? You may be offline. If you are on the campus network, this shouldn't be a problem. If you are connecting from off campus, you may have lost your connection to your Internet Service Provider.
  • Did you enter the correct web address into the location bar? Remember, your URL is case sensitive.
  • Did you put your web files in the www subdirectory?
  • If your images are not appearing, did you transfer them in binary mode? Try resending them.
  • Is your HTML correct? Did you use closing tags where they are needed? Are there quotes or brackets missing from any of the code?

6.0 HTML Help
HTML (Hypertext Mark-Up Language) and web publishing are widely supported by the WSU and Internet communities.

7.0 Technical Support
If you are experiencing difficulties that are not resolved with the measures in section 5.0, you can contact the Help Desk by calling 775-4827, by sending e-mail to helpdesk@wright.edu, or by visiting 025 Library Annex.