Webhosting at DICT (for a lab, research group, congress etc...)
For staff, DICT offers, next to the possibility to host a personal website on webhost, also the possibility to host a website for
entities like labs, research groups, congresses etc...
For a faculty department website we recommend the UGent portal site.
What's offered?
On webhost, we offer a networkdrive, also known as a share, you can
mount on your own computer and use.
So, next to your c:-drive and possible D:-drive, you have than, for instance a W:-drive for your website.
Your webpages, created on your own computer, can be simply set on-line by copying your html-files to that networkdrive.
The networkdrive can be mounted and used by several users - appointed by the contact person.
So, the website files can be edited by each given user.
The available space on this networkdrive is 5 GB.
With the networkdrive, also a shortened URL is given.
This has the form chosenname.ugent.be (with an alias www.chosenname.ugent.be)
In this, the 'chosenname' is the name of your faculty department, lab, research group or congress.
This shortened URL has to comply with a few requirements.
Every webshare has its own SSL certificate. Webshares are only served on https://. Request for http:// are transferred to https://.
What's the information we need?
You mention the desired shortened URL ((www.)chosenname.ugent.be).
The requirements and restrictions this URL has to comply with:
The URL always ends with .ugent.be
Only 1 shortened URL can be obtained with a network drive.
Only characters, figures and the "-" sign are accepted, but the
chosenname always starts with a character.
The chosenname has 25 characters maximum.
The shortened URL can not already exist. You can check this by surfing to the desired name.
The shortened URL has to be clear and must reflect the content.
The shortened URL must be different from your login- or user name
So, choose a short name. The URL has to be easy to type, without too much chance on typing-errors, also by those having a different native
language. In URLs, words usually are stuck to one another (typed without a space). The use of the "-" sign has to be avoided.
Mind to choose a name clear and specific enough. The URL can be used with upper- and lower case, at choice.
You mention a short description of the webshare.
Also, mention, when using an abbreviation, the meaning of the shortening.
Who has to get access to the networkdrive or share? In other words, who gets permission to edit the website?
Only staff and 3rd cycle students can be listed as maintainers.
How to apply?
To apply for this networkshare and matching shortened URL,
a webform can be used.
Logging in with login name and central password is required.
How to use?
After verification of the data, the webspace is, when all data is correct, created.
The applicant receives an e-mail from the helpdesk with the next info.
The sharename is assigned by DICT and is a unique name that has to be used when mounting the networkdrive.
Shortened URL: www.chosenname.ugent.be (also without www.)
Sharename: \\files.ugent.be\<login name>\www\shares\<chosenname>
Admitted users:
loginname and name of the admitted user(s).
Mount the networkdrive on your own computer, e.g. as W:-drive (W for website).
This can be done by each of the appointed users. More info on mounting.
Create your website (html-files) and copy it to the networkdrive (e.g. the W:-drive) The file index.html is the startpage and is displayed
when entering the shortened URL in your webbrowser. At the creation of the webspace, a temporar index.html was created by us.
Test the shortened URL and when all is OK, the new URL can be made public.
Extras and remarks
It is possible to migrate an 'own webserver' to 'webhosting by DICT' with preservation of the current URL
in the form http://name.ugent.be (so, without www.)
If at the moment, the website of the faculty department, lab... is placed under your own account, than, it is
simple to transfer it to the requested networkdrive. On your own computer, mount both your personal
networkdrive (e.g. H:-drive) and the new networkdrive for the website of the website of the faculty department, lab,... (e.g. W:-drive).
On your own computer, you can drag the files from one networkdrive to the other to move your website.
If, in addition, you desire the old page to switch automatically to the new one, than you can place a redirect-page
as start- and only page on your old website. This page has to be named index.html and you have to give it the following content, in which
obviously the correct new address has to be mentioned.
<html>
<head>
<title>redirect</title>
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="3;URL=http://www.thename.ugent.be/">
</head>
<body>
<h3>Our website is moved</h3>
Within a few seconds you'll be redirected to our new site.
Please, edit your bookmarks to the new address.
<a href="http://www.thename.ugent.be/">http://www.thename.ugent.be/</a>.
</body>
</html>
The use of scripting is possible.
These languages (and extensions) are supported :
Don't use any scripts of which you don't fully
understand the function. We will not be able to help you with any
scripts if you don't understand them yourself.
The webserver doesn't support :
Active Server Pages (ASP)
Python
executable cgi-scripts : For safety reasons only the scripting languages mentioned above are supported. Executable scripts are not allowed.
We would like to warn you for (statistics) tools which generate ads, which is not according the rules of proper use!
Webserver logs are available in the /logs folder of your webshare. (only available on the SMB share, not on the website)
Error logs are available in logs/error_log_443.log
Access logs are available in logs/access_log_443.log
For security reasons, the /tmp folder is not accessible, because multiple websites are hosted on the same webserver.
If you need a temporary folder for the application in your webshare, you can use /srv/vhosts/‹vhost›/htdocs/tmp ‹vhost› is the url of your webshare (without the 'www.' prefix). For webshare 'mysite.ugent.be' the path to temporary folder equals /srv/vhosts/mysite.ugent.be/htdocs/tmp/
No shell access is available to access the files of your webshare.
As a workaround, you can set up a Linux virtual machine (Vmware, vagrant, virtualbox) and mount your webshare.
In the VM, you can install and use the shell commands you require.
To mount a webshare you need to add it to the /etc/fstab file (tested on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and Ubuntu 19.04) :
instructions on how to do this can be found here.
By default, webshares are publicly available, from within the UGent network as well as from the internet.
You can limit access to (parts of) your website :
Login via CAS (Centrale Authenticatie Service) : your website is only available after a successful login with a UGent account.
Access can be limited to specific accounts, or to a group of people. More information is available on CAS (Centrale Authenticatie Service): for developers.
Limit access based on the IP-address of a visitor : by default, your website is accessible from anywhere on the internet.
By enabling access rules in the .htaccess file, you can limit access to only allow visitors from the UGent network (including VPN).
In the WWW-folder of your webshare, an .htaccess file is available, containing a few examples that can be enabled.
Pro-tip : You can set a .htaccess file per directory of your website. Your website can be publicly available, and limit access to a subfolder of your site, by putting a .htaccess in that folder.