• How do I find out/change the password for my www account?
• Who should I contact if I have problems--and who is 'arachnid' anyway?
• I need to create some public pages for Goshen College. What do I have to do to get access to the directory I'm supposed to publish in?
• Can anyone in the world see things in my home directory?
• Do I have to get approval before publishing pages?
• How do I restrict access to some pages?
• Can I run CGI scripts?

   

For those few who may have webserver accounts but no e-mail account, here are directions for changing your webserver password.

First, login with telnet to the webserver using your current userid and password

Many people have the 'EWAN' telnet application installed on their desktops. Mac people have 'NCSA telnet'. Windows95 comes with a telnet that you can start by choosing Run from the Start menu, then typing 'telnet www.goshen.edu' in the box.

Second, once you've logged in, use the Unix (Linux) 'passwd' command to change your password. Be aware that Linux is fairly picky about your password--dictionary words, words that are too short, or that have too few characters are rarely accepted. Remember your password, and remember that Unix is case-sensitive!

Finally, exit Unix by typing 'exit' or 'logout' at the command prompt.

If you've forgotten your password, or you can't seem to get in--the first thing to check is that you're using the right case--Unix is case-sensitive! Your userid should be lower case, and your password can be mixed case. If you still can't get in, send mail to arachnid@goshen.edu to get your password set to something new.

E-mailing to arachnid is better than e-mailing Paul or Gwen alone--they are then both aware of requests, and who knows, one might go on vacation (it happens!) but someone will always be reading arachnid e-mail.

Neither Gwen nor Paul is working full-time on the web. For immediate problems you can also call the Computing Services help desk, or e-mail computing@goshen.edu.

To be able to write (publish) departmental pages, however, you must be on the right access list. Send e-mail to arachnid to be added. Include a short description of the publishing project, to decide whether an existing folder, or a new one would be more appropriate, and names and userid's of any other folks involved in the project. Students needing access should have a GC faculty or staff member write arachnid requesting access.

Material in your personal mypages directory is live--that is anyone in the world who knows the URL to your pages would be able to see it. But...would it occur to someone out of the blue to try browsing to something like www.goshen.edu/~clementesf/favorite_mushrooms.html? This is called 'security through obscurity'.

GC maintains only a voluntary directory of home pages (more about that later). There is no path of links that someone can take from the GC home page to your personal pages. Search engines, which crawl from one web page to another, following trails of links, would also be unaware of your pages.

You are free to e-mail a friend in, say, Macedonia with your URL, and she could then browse to your page. If your Macedonian friend makes a link to your page from her page, and her page is known to the rest of the internet, then the floodgates have opened, and you should assume the rest of the internet 'knows' about your pages.

GC does have a voluntary directory of home pages, for those who like to publish in public. Putting the URL of your personal pages on the home page registration form will also let the rest of the internet know about you--there will be a path of links that could be followed from GC's home page.

You should assume that anything in the deptpages area is already known to the internet.

Profs publishing course materials for an on-campus audience don't need any approval.

For GC organizations wishing to publish pages, particularly ones that will be prominently available to an off-campus audience close to the GC home page, approval will likely be necessary. Contact arachnid early on in your publishing project, and read the GCWeb publishers' manual cover-to-cover!

Usually what happens is that you are allocated a new folder, or access to an existing one. You notify arachnid when your publishing project is nearly in final shape for a review before your material is 'linked' to the rest of the GC website.

Once an organization has passed this initial review, approval is not necessary before making further changes, updates, or even adding to the site. If you significantly change the content focus, or appearance, however, do contact arachnid once more to check if the changes should be reviewed.

Creating a file named .htaccess with this content in it will do the job:

   <Limit GET POST>
     order deny,allow
     deny from all
     allow from goshen.edu
   </Limit>

As available, an account on a server other than www can occasionally be arranged.