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My personal homepage isn't working, what can I do?

If you have got some personal web pages in a public_html directory but it doesnt seem to work.

You need to make sure that the permissions on the public_html directory are set up correctly, as well as the permissions on the files in that directory to make your pages world readable.

You will need to have logged in to the Unix environment. You can use the program PuTTY to do this. Staff should connect to the host mimosa and students to primrose. This will log you into your home directory.

First, make sure you have the correct directory name. The web server looks for a directory called public_html in your home directory. To check type at the command prompt > type:

ls

This will give you a listing of your files and directories. If you dont see public_html directory there you should make one and ensure your web files are in it, to create type:

mkdir ~/public_html

Now type the command websetup which sets permissions for you, so that they allow your web pages to be viewable.

websetup

This will reset permissions on your personal web pages.

You can run the websetup command again if any new web pages are not visible.

You can now exit the unix system and be able to view any web pages in your public_html directory via a browser.