Using the Ada Server

Uploading and viewing files

  1. You must be logged in to the UNCW domain to access Ada and its URLs. If you are off campus, you need a VPN connection. See uncw.edu/ITSD/help/VPN.htm for details.
  2. You need to have an FTP client (WinSCP is in the labs, Filezilla Client is preferred if you're downloading for either Mac or Windows) to do the following steps.
  3. If you're off campus, start a VPN connection if you haven't done so already.
  4. Open your FTP client (WinSCP is in the campus labs)
  5. Login using host name ada.cis.uncw.edu, your UNCW username, password and Port 22.
  6. If there is a security question about the host key being unknown, answer Yes and add the key to the cache.
  7. The left half of the screen is your local computer and drives, the right half is your personal web server space.
  8. If there isn’t a folder called public_html on the right side, right click and create a new directory called public_html and set the permissions or properties to 755 and check the box "recurse into subdirectories" (if necessary.)
  9. Navigate to the folder corresponding to your username in the right pane.
  10. Right-click on your folder, and select File Attributes or File Permissions
  11. Set it to 711 if necessary
  13. Edit your web files as usual, saving to OneDrive or your preferred location. If you are using Horizon, you must save your files to OneDrive.
  14. When you are ready to test, locate the local web files and folders in the left pane. Drag and drop them into your public_html folder in the right pane.
  15. Test by opening a browser and entering your personal URL followed by the name of the file you are testing (including the extension):
    http://ada.cis.uncw.edu/~abc1234/filename.xxx (substituting your userid).
    If a message pops up about a potential security risk, click the Advanced button, and accept the risk. (This happens because Ada uses a self-signed certificate.)
    If the file is in a folder, you must include the folder name before the filename:
    http://ada.cis.uncw.edu/~abc1234/folder/somepage.xxx
  16. To make corrections, edit in the application as you usually do (don’t edit straight from the server.) Then save the file, re-upload it to the server, and then refresh the browser.
  17. As you make changes, don't continually upload the entire website. Just upload the file(s) that were changed.

Problems?

  1. Check permissions on your home directory on Ada:
  2. Check permissions on your files and folders inside public_html. File permissions should be 644, and folder permissons should be 755
  3. Make sure the URL is correct with the tilde character, your username, and any folder names you uploaded.
  4. Make sure the files you uploaded are inside the public_html folder.