User's Home Pages

If you have an account with the Internet Project, you can have your own World Wide Web home page on the Internet project server!

With your own home page people all over the world can access the information you provide - if you are a professional, you might like to make your CV available across the Web. Perhaps you want to share a few files with the world or just learn about Web publishing. Whatever your reasons, it's pretty simple to do. Before you start though, please read ALL of this document and view the Internet Project World Wide Web Policy. In particular please note the caveats on having NO COMMERCIAL MATERIAL and on APPROPRIATE LABELLING of ADULT MATERIAL. The IPMC reserves the right to remove material and lock access for users who violate the policy.

How to create your own home page

  1. Create a directory in your home directory called "WWW". This can be done from the Limited Access menu, or using ftp.

  2. This is important. If you do not do this step, anyone in the world can alter or delete anything in your WWW directory. This step is NOT optional!

    Change the permissions on your home directory and if necessary on your new WWW directory so that people can access them in read-only mode. We suggest setting only world execute permissions on your home directory, then world read and execute permissions on the WWW directory.

    There are options on the Limited Access menu to set all files in your WWW directory appropriately.

  3. Create some stuff to present. At a minimum, you should place a file called "welcome.html" in the new directory. The simplest way to get started is to grab some existing HTML and modify it.

    There is a heap of useful stuff available on the Web to do with creating HTML files and Web publishing in general. Work through the Writing HTML Tutorial, and then browse the Beginners Guide to HTML as a good starting point - check out the additional references mentioned at the end of the document. Once you are reasonably fluent, the Barebones Guide to HTML is a good reference card. Another good way to learn is to use the "View Source" facility of your browser to look at other people's Web pages and see how they've done things.

    Remember - after editing or adding files, use the Limited Access menu to set the file permissions correctly.

  4. Use the facility provided to add your home page to the list of local home pages. When you do this, you will be asked for a password - do NOT supply the password you use when logging on! The password requested is simply an administrative thing to prevent other people removing your home page from the list.

    You do not have to put your home page on the list. However, it will still be accessible to anyone who knows that you have one and who knows your user ID.

  5. Tell people about it! The URL for your new home page is



    or for AUUG members,



    where "userid" is your own user ID.

Some points to note...

Your Web information is being stored under your home directory, which means it is using up your disk space quota. Don't be too extravagant about the amount of stuff you put up, or you may find yourself out of room!

Remember that anyone on the Internet, world wide, can now access the information in your home page. Be cautious about the nature of the material you publish.

You don't have to create a welcome page. If you don't, people who connect to your home page will see a simple list of the files in your WWW directory and will be able to transfer them.

Please remember that intellectual property rights apply on the Web just like anywhere else - don't steal other peoples' work. For one thing it's not legal, for another it's just plain rude.

More Advanced Features

When you have gained some confidence in creating and accessing static HTML documents in your own user areas, you may like to experiment with some more advanced features:
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webmaster@tip.net.au / 28 Feb 2001