HTML on Falcon? No Problem!


There are several steps to making a web page at JMU. If you follow them as they are presented below you will find just how easy it is to do.

  1. Get a falcon account. To do this go to the HelpDesk located in the lower lever of the Frye Building and fill out a falcon account request form. This will get you a username on the computer named falcon, which is where you'll store your web page. (It'll take at least 24 hours for your new account to be activated.) Don't forget the password!!

  2. Make a WWW directory. To do this log on to your account using QVTnet available in all campus computer labs. (Run this by going to the Start menu, then to the Internet96 sub-folder, then choose QVTnet) Once you are logged on (falcon.jmu.edu) type the following exactly as you see it in lower and upper case where shown and then hit the return key after each line (commands in black):
    mkdir WWW

  3. Set file permisions for WWW. This means you have to tell the computer to allow other people to see what is in your WWW directory where your page is located
    chmod o+rx ~/WWW

  4. Add files to your directory. Such as your index.html file. This is the file that your home page will be named. For instructions on making this check out the Html-Guide.
    There are several different ways to make your index.html file. You can use a web page editor such as Netscape Editor (which comes with ver 3.0 Gold or later, and is in all the computer labs on campus) or Hotdog. You can use the Notepad in windows to type out the code. In any event when you have finished making your page you will need to upload it to your falcon account. To do this use the Ws_ftp32 choice on the Start menu in the Internet96 sub-menu avaliable in all lab computers.

  5. Change permisions on new files. Whenever you add a file to your web page you must tell the computer to let other people see your page.
    chmod o+rx ~/WWW/filename>


You've now set up your very first web page. Now you might want people to be able to find it so you must give the address of the page to them. It would be as follows:
falcon.jmu.edu/~username/filename
Where filename would be any file you put in the WWW directory, and username would be your falcon username (eg. falcon.jmu.edu/~jarvislb will take you to my homepage) If you just send them to falcon.jmu.edu/~username> the computer will go straight to the file named index.html in your WWW directory.

Follow this link-> Basic Unix commands to learn more about Unix commands to help you in making your pages.

Netscape Users...

If you are having trouble getting your animated gifs, .wav files, etc. to behave after moving them to your account and removing protection, make sure you CLEAR YOUR CACHE! To do this, go to the Options menu in Netscape and select Network Preferences. From here select the Cache tab and clear both Memory and Disk Cache. Now you can reload your page and the errors and protections will be gone from memory.


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