The Hills Server and FTP

In order for CCSF students to publish (FTP) their Web Pages onto the Hills server, it is very important to understand a few basic things. Every registered student in CNIT 132 and CNIT 133 will be automatically given an account on the Hills Server.

1. Getting Started:

  1. Obtain your hills login (same as your userid).

    You can find out what your hills userid is by checking Web4 (WebSTARS).

    To do so, log into Web4

    Then choose Personal Information, then Google Student email.

    Initial passwords continue to be birthdates in the format mmmddyy (for example: 1/14/10, which is jan1410 in mmmddyy format).

    Students who had accounts last semester have those same accounts this semester; we have not changed the passwords or disturbed the contents.

    If you still cannot find your hills userid then email me.

    Notes:

    1. Your hills login is NOT the same as your Insight login.
    2. For currently registered students, your hills login will NOT be available until the first day of the semester.
    3. If you are adding into a class, it normally takes 24-48 hours for your hills login to be created from the time that you actually added the class.


  2. Connecting to the Internet.



  3. Accessing your hills account:


  4. NOTE: If at any time you have trouble with your hills login or password, you will need to either send me an email or see a tech person in the CCSF computer lab. The computer lab (ICL-1) is located on the 3rd floor of Batmale Hall. There are other computer labs on the CCSF campus as well. Here are the hours of operation for all computer labs at CCSF.

2. Create public_html directory:

All of your web files must reside in a directory called public_html. This will be a directory that you must create.

  1. Connect to your hills account.
  2. At the $ prompt, create the public_html directory and give it unix execute permission as follows:

    mkdir public_html
    chmod og+x public_html

    (Note: mkdir stands for make directory and chmod og+x gives your directory execute permission and stands for change mode for others and groups to allow execute permission)

3. Publishing your Webpages (FTP):

  1. Upload your webpage to your public_html directory on the hills server. If you are uploading your homepage, it is called index.html. Windows users should use the Secure File Transfer Client, which comes bundled with the SSH Secure Shell Client. Here is a Tutorial on using Secure File Transfer. A nice feature of Secure File Transfer is that transferred files are, by default, automatically given unix permissions on the hills server.

    A good Windows program that can be used for FTP that I have found useful and easy to use is WinSCP. It's open source and free.

    Note that with the above FTP programs, you would still need a telnet type program to change your hills password. If you are a new hills user, this password must be changed immediately. In addition, your hills password must be changed every three months.

    Mac users can use fetch or Mac SSH for FTP. Mac users with OS X can download and use a freeware program called Fugu.


  2. Using your FTP program, upload index.html to your public_html directory.

4. View your homepage in your browser:

    Launch your browser and view your homepage

    The URL of your homepage will be:

    http://hills.ccsf.edu/~LOGIN

    where LOGIN is your hills login. (for example: mbeard1)

    http://hills.ccsf.edu/~mbeard1

    If the proper unix permissions have NOT been given, then viewing your homepage in a browser will display the following messages:

    Forbidden

    You don't have permission to access /~LOGIN/index.html on this server.

    (NOTE: This is the most common error for students when they first try to publish their homepage onto the Hills server. It is especially common for students who have NOT taken CNIT 131. This can be a very frustrating problem for students and will usually cause them to fall behind in the class.)

5. Unix Permissions:

6. Final Reminder: