Web Service

Overview

This is an educational service for users who want to use the UDrive to test or host web pages -- html, asp (Active Server Pages) and aspx (ASP .Net).  Files can be edited directly without the tedium of "FTPing" files to and from a server, and some software tools that that build web sites are easier to use with direct access to the file system used by the web server.   Note that the official PSU service for personal web pages is www.personal.psu.edu.

To begin using the service go to the Web Enroll page.

How It Works

The enrollment process creates a www folder in your home folder, creates a default index.html file, and sets permissions so that the web server can read the files from your www folder.

As an example, assume your userid is xyz123. If you have already mapped the U-drive. Use Windows Explorer to browse to u:\x\y\xyz123\www (on a lab machine, v:\www, or use the Network Home or Home icon on the desktop) and edit the index.html file located there. 

When a web browser goes to http://my.win.psu.edu/xyz123, an "ISAPI Filter" on an IIS (Microsoft Internet Information Server) web server redirects requests to the appropriate user folder on the UDrive.  Currently, the web server is on a different machine than the file server; this doesn't seem to affect speed.

To Turn It Off

To stop serving up your web pages you can rename or erase your www folder or remove all permissions for the special user ConManWeb.  To turn it back on, go back to the Web Enroll and the proper permissions will be reset.

Notes

• Default documents for your root folder (i.e., someone goes to http://my.win.psu.edu/xyz123, and doesn't specify a page), are index.html, index.htm, Default.htm, and Default.asp.
• Directory browsing is off.  If someone navigates to a folder without specifying a file, and there is no default document (of one of the ones listed above), files in that folder are not listed.
• Server-side Include (SSI) is on for these file types: .html, .shtm, .shtml, .stm.  It is not on for .htm files.
• Active Server Pages (ASP) file types are .asp, .cer, .cdx, and .asa.
• If your browser gives a message saying that you are not authorized to view the page, you might have a permissions problem.  Go here to get instructions on how to fix it.

Future Development

Depending on demand and requests, we may add features in the future, for example:

1. Add counter functionality.
2. Add tips and examples.
3. Enhance default index.html.
4. Index of people's "home" pages.

But probably not.  Please send comments and suggestions about the udrive via this page.