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Academic Computing and Networking Services

Colorado State University

Web Hosting Services Provided by ACNS

Academic Computing and Networking Services (ACNS) offers a variety of Web services. The services are differentiated by the capabilities each provides.

  • Unix-based Web Servers (static HTML/client-side scripting): ACNS provides yuma accounts for departments to post static Web pages to the www.colostate.edu Web server, while similar capability is provided to students on the lamar servers. Limited virtual hosting is provided for departments and colleges.
    Dynamic capability with the Unix-based Web Servers (server-side scripting): yuma/lamar support Perl or C "cgi-bin" capabilities and very limited database connectivity (i.e. accessing DBM files such as ODBM, NDBM, SDBM, GDBM, and BSD-DB via the Perl AnyDBM_File library).
  • Windows-based Dynamic Web Servers (advanced server-side scripting, robust database functionality): ACNS offers Dynamic Web Server accounts for departments and colleges to build dynamic, database-driven web sites using the Microsoft .NET Framework. More details are listed below.

Receiving Web Services

Web services are available to students, staff, faculty, colleges, departments, and organizations affiliated with Colorado State University.

Students, staff and faculty: may create a web site using their account on lamar. Visit the Creating a WWW Home Page Self-Help Guide for more information.

Colleges, departments and organizations: are set up with a special account for Web services. ACNS provides the accounts, storage space and Web services but does not provide end user support for authoring Web pages.

To request an account, please complete the WWW Provider Account Request Form.

For information related to web site development on UNIX (yuma, lamar): please direct your questions to the Computing Help Desk.

For information related to web site development on the Windows-based Dynamic Web Servers: please direct your questions to Joe Volesky, ACNS, at 970-491-3752 or send email to Joe.Volesky@colostate.edu.

Windows-based Dynamic Web Server Information:

Background

The Windows-based dynamic Web servers are provided in a dual-server configuration: both a development and production system are available. The two servers are configured identically such that the production environment is duplicated in the development environment. These servers run the Microsoft Windows Server Operating System with Internet Information Services, and support only Microsoft .NET Framework technologies.

We require that departments develop and test all code on the development server before posting content to the production server. ACNS reserves the right to shut down a web site that is noticeably impacting the performance of the Web server and other sites on that server until the problem can be resolved.

Database Support

ACNS offers database connectivity in conjunction with the Dynamic Web Servers via Microsoft Access and Microsoft SQL Server databases. Microsoft Access should be adequate for handling most database needs; SQL Server is available for those web sites with more demanding database requirements.

Getting started / miscellaneous information

  • Dynamic Web services are available to colleges, departments, and organizations. If an interested department already has a CWIS account on yuma, an account of the same name will be created on the dynamic Web servers. If an interested department does not already have a CWIS account, one may be obtained by completing the WWW Provider Account Request Form. Interested parties can contact Joe.Volesky@colostate.edu for more information.

    Dynamic Web services are not offered to students or for faculty/staff personal web sites.

  • Getting Started: ACNS will create an account, provide storage space, and help with the setup for database connectivity
  • Access to CWIS account content directories: on the servers is available via Windows Networking shared drives, or by FTP.
  • Virtual site hosting: is available on an as-needed basis. (Virtual Hosting means that while the name of our production server might be abc.colostate.edu, we could host a "virtual" web site named "yourdepartmentname.colostate.edu" if desired.)
  • Client authoring software: If needed, end users must purchase their own client authoring software (Dreamweaver, Microsoft Visual Studio, etc.). Additionally, end users must know how to create and manage their own databases and write the dynamic Web code to interact with the database.
  • Fees/Quotas: At this time there is no charge for use of the Dynamic Web Servers. While we are not placing strict quotas on disk space, we will monitor disk usage and from time to time will make determinations about disproportionate disk usage and make suitable arrangements with the department involved.