Travis Knabe's Blog <img src=http://www.wou.edu/~knabet/images/knabet.jpg">

Hello, Everyone--

This week's FAQ covers the recent change in the way public_html folders are accessed.

* Why the change?

Because there was a problem with the way we were doing it before. Specifically, if you had a file in your H: drive, but outside your public_html folder, and then moved it into the public_html folder, it would not show up on the web. When we found the problem, we decided the quickest and most effective solution would be to place the public_html files on a separate drive. For Windows users, this is the P: drive, and will be mapped automatically just like your H: drive. Mac users will need to map it themselves, as described below.

* OK, I'm a Mac user. What do I need to do differently?

Two things. First of all, instead of connecting to "smb://cougar/username$" in the Go menu - Connect to Server window, connect to "smb://cougar/mydocuments". Just type that exactly as-is; no need to substitute in a username, or type in a dollar sign at the end. You'll still need to log in with your username and password, of course. The other difference is that to get to your public_html drive, connect to "smb://cougar/public_html". Note that we are working on a way to make these connections automatic, but it will probably not happen for a few months.

* I still see the public_html folder in my H: drive; why shouldn't I use that?

Well, you still can, but only for now; it is going to become invisible soon. I recommend getting used to working with the P: drive instead.

* I use FTP to connect to my H: drive and public_html. Will that be different now?

Yes, but not much. As a side-effect of the change, you will no longer be automatically connected to your home directory when you log in via FTP. You can change to it by going to home: or to your public_html drive by going to public_html: (as ever, don't forget the colon at the end!) If you want to automatically connect to either of these when you log in, you can set up either of them as the "default remote folder" in fileZilla's site manager. Note that the fileZilla and Fugu instructions at http;//www.wou.edu/sshclient have been updated to reflect this change, so if you don't understand something in this paragraph you can look there.

* Wow, this is a short FAQ!

That's not a question!

* OK, fine. Why is this FAQ so short?

That's better. It's short because I've been swamped lately; that's also why there was no FAQ last week. I'm on vacation next week, so there won't be one then, either. Hopefully things will be back to normal by the time I return. While I'm gone, please call the Service Request Desk at 88925 with questions; I will not be checking my voice mail. I will check my work email a few times, but urgent problems should be directed to the Service Request Desk at ucshlpdesk@wou.edu. They will forward them to the appropriate technician.

I know I promised in my blog to do an FAQ on Sophos Antivirus and how to set it up at home, but Joe Crowe has kindly agreed to do a tutorial about that fairly soon on his blog, at "http://www.wou.edu/~crowej". As always, feel free to direct questions, comments, and suggestions about the FAQ's to faq@wou.edu.