Getting Started

  1. Login as if you were checking email at your leland.stanford.edu address. (If you normally use an alternate method for checking email, this may be unfamiliar. On a PC, do START--> Programs --> Samson for windows --> telnet to Cardinal. On a Mac, fire up MacSamson. Enter cardinal for the host.)

  2. Instead of checking email, type
    mkdir WWW

    This will create your web directory. All documents must be placed in this directory in order to be visible to the outside world.

  3. If you want your web page to be private, read the privacy section of this page before setting your permissions. You'll need to check with a TA to get the class username and password in order to do this. Otherwise, keep going . . .

  4. Type
    fs setacl WWW system:anyuser read

    Type this exactly as it appears; no space on either side of the colon. This makes your WWW directory readable by anyone. See http://www.stanford.edu/leland.howto.leland.shtml if you want more information about these permissions.

  5. That's it!! To see if you've created the directory and set the permissions correctly, go to http://www.stanford.edu/~yourname. If all is well, you'll get an index. If not, you'll get a message saying that yourname has a Leland account but no homepage.

All of the files in your home directory (where you check email, etc) are stored on a set of computers in Sweet Hall. These computers are collectively referred to in common parlance as "the server." When you logon to check email, you are connecting to the server and pulling files from there onto the computer you are working on at the time. The email program you use typically handles this part of the job in the background.

The web text files, images, etc. that you will put on your web page will all be stored on the server under your leland username. Now you need to know a bit about creating these text files, moving them around between the server and the computer you happen to be working on, and adding images to spice up your page. Luckily, those are the next three items on the menu to the left!