Participant Accounts on WIT\CUIP Server

Vocabulary

• hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP): The protocol for moving hypertext files across the Internet. Requires a HTTP client program (typically a web browser) on one end, and an HTTP server program on the other end. HTTP is the most important protocol used in the World Wide Web (WWW).

• file transfer protocol (FTP): -- A very common method of moving files between two Internet sites. FTP is a special way to login to another Internet site for the purposes of retrieving and/or sending files. There are many Internet sites that have established publicly accessible repositories of material that can be obtained using FTP, by logging in using the account name anonymous, thus these sites are called anonymous ftp servers. FTP is built into Dreamweaver, but not into Composer.

• unix: A computer operating system. Unix is designed to be used by many people at the same time (it is multi-user) and has TCP/IP built-in. It is the most common operating system for servers on the Internet. Linux is a form of Unix.

• operating system: the basic software running on a computer, underneath things like word processors and spreadsheets

• server: A computer, or a software package, that provides a specific kind of service to client software running on other computers. The term can refer to a particular piece of software, such as a WWW server, or to the machine on which the software is running; thus "Our server is running a web server, and ftp server, and an email server". A single server machine could have several different server software packages running on it, thus providing many different servers to clients on the network.

WIT\CUIP Web and Email Server

Some of the work you will be doing this summer involves using the WIT web and email server. All WIT participants should have an account on the server--which means having a login (also called username and userid), and the password that goes with it. Information specific to your account has been provided to you in a printed handout.

There are some technical details discussed here that you may not at present completely follow, if you are not familiar with the process of publishing web pages through a server. Rest assured, you will understand all of this quite well, before the conclusion of WIT this summer. In the meantime, you can use the vocabulary listing above,use the occasional embedded explanations below, ask your mentor for help, or just wait and deal with the information as you need to make use of it.

Server Name and IP address

For most purposes the server can be referred to as WebInstituteForTeachers.org (which you could more easily type as webinstituteforteachers.org). For the email address that comes with your WIT account, the server name is cuip.net. These are actually the same computer, located at IP address 128.135.76.15. (Other names, which may show up in email headers, are cuip.uchicago.edu and walrus.uchicago.edu. The only thing you need to do with these names is not be disturbed when they show up.) There are some minor differences in how the web server will behave depending on what host name you contact it by, so we recommend that you try to consistently use cuip.net for email and WebInstituteForTeachers.org (or webinstituteforteachers.org) for all other purposes.

The server name is one of the few things mentioned here which is case-insensitive, that is, you can type uppercase (capital) letters or lowercase letters (or a mixture) on an arbitrary basis or for your own convenience. Almost everything else is case-sensitive, and you should use uppercase and lowercase letters exactly the way the item was shown here or was given to you.

Home Directory and Home WWW Directory

As a participant in WIT, you have a home folder (or home directory) on the WebInstituteForTeachers.org server. This directory is given the same name as your username combined with some other parts of a filepath. (So substitute your own username for the word username below.)

The path to your home folder is

/home2/username/

Not everything in your home folder is published to the Web. Only files and subfolders placed under a designated folder are shared out on the web. In WIT's web server setup, the subfolder that will be visible on the web is the subfolder named "www" directly inside your main home folder. This is your home www folder and it is located at the filepath

/home2/username/www/

Again, your own username should be substituted for the "username" placeholder in that path.

This subdirectory is your "public WWW directory." Anything you place in the www directory can be seen by anyone on the web who uses the following URL (or web browsing address):

http://WebInstituteForTeachers.org/~username

• replace "username" with your actual username

• the "http://" is filled-in automatically by most browsers

• the "www" that is part of the filepath does not appear in the URL (web address)

• The funny character before "username" is called a "tilde." It is (usually) on the upper left of your keyboard. This character is also used as the "approximate" symbol in math.

• Open up a new window in Netscape Navigator and look at that address now. You will see an "index," or list of the files in your www directory.

• Once you create your own personal home page (in Introduction to Netscape Composer module), this list of the files will be replaced with your personal home page.

Your uploading area for web pages

As mentioned above, your home www folder is /home2/username/www/. That's the most formal and complete way of writing the path to that folder. Software tools which you configure with your username will generally allow a shorter way of referring to your home www folder, such as just www, or ~/www/, or ~username/www/ . Consult your mentor, and the module and instructions for the tool in question, for the best way to enter your home www folder location.

For more details applying to AceFTP in particular, including screenshot images for setting up and connecting via FTP, please see the AceFTP Setup pages within the WIT 2002 Files And Folders online module or corresponding printed handout for Files and Folders.

Your password

Your password has been (or will be) given to you either by your WIT mentor or embedded in a printed document. Passwords are always case-sensitive. Your same username and password apply to all of the following uses:

• Uploading files via Dreamweaver or FTP
• Connecting to a command-line shell via telnet, SSH, or MacSSH
• Reading mail through the IMHO webmail interface
• Collecting and reading mail through a POP3 client

If you change the password for one of these contexts, it will also be changed for the others.

But the username and password are not the same as the following ones:

• Username and password for viewing certain WIT or WebDocent pages
• The (low-security) password sent in conjunction with your WIT2002-L mailing list subscription
• Your username or password for any other ISP, email service, forum, etc. to which you belong

Managing your password, and password background considerations

• If your password was provided to you embedded in a "Server Information" document (with material similar to this page), your password is given in the "Your Password" section of that document, and also in the box at the bottom of page 2. Please try to remember it, and if it will help you, please clip out that box from page 2 and save it as a wallet card.
• For your privacy and security, it would be a good idea to change your password before too long. This will also help with the convenience of having a password you have chosen and so can probably remember more readily. Instructions for changing a password are given in both the Using Email and File Management handouts and corresponding online modules, at http://webinstituteforteachers.org/2002/modules/email/index.htm#chpass and http://webinstituteforteachers.org/2002/modules/files/telnet/password.htm.
• Despite precautions, it may happen that your password was entered incorrectly originally, or that you have forgotten it and don't have a written memo of it, or for some other reason it is apparently being rejected by the server. If this happens to you, go to your mentors for assistance.
• After checking for possible classic problems like Caps Lock (it happens to all of us from time to time!), and reviewing the setup of the software that is giving you trouble, your mentors will help you directly check the password itself apart from other factors by trying a telnet connection. And finally they can replace your password with a new one. This replacement can be done without making use of your old password, but only by the mentors and CUIP system admins. (To change your password yourself, as described in the above linked pages, you will need to know your old password.)

Your email address, and forwarding

As part of your WIT server account, you have the email address username@cuip.net (substituting your own username for the "username" placeholder), which you may access directly or may have forwarded. That @cuip.net address is being entered in the WIT2002-L mailing list.

If you provided an email address with your WIT 2002 application, your email at the @cuip.net address has been set up to forward all mail to that other address. If we did not get an address for you with your application, your @cuip.net mail is not being forwarded elsewhere.

If you would like to set up, cancel, or change your forwarding, during the 2002 WIT sessions please inform your mentor. After the conclusion of WIT, you can send change-of-address instructions to Postmaster@cuip.net. You also can manage forwarding yourself, through the IMHO webmail client described below. In the IMHO web interface, once you are logged in, click on Preferences. The last editable text box on that page will show your current forwarding setup. Edit it to taste, and according to the instructions printed there, then press Save.

If your mail is not being forwarded, be sure to collect and read the mail at your cuip.net address. There are two recommended ways of doing this, through web-based email or through a POP/IMAP/SMTP client.

Web-based email

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POP3 email

The entry for SMTP Server or Outgoing Mail Server is a bit more complex. At home use the server designated by your Internet Service Provider. At a University of Chicago lab, use cuip.net. And at a CPS school lab, use rtc4.region4.cps.k12.il.us.

Please direct any remaining questions to your WIT mentor.