A: Nominally, 150MB Q: What happens if I exceed this limit? Is it a hard limit? A: TBA
Does data in our MySQL databases count towards the 150MB lmit?
A: TBD
How do I upload files?
A: Using command line ftp. See /Member Group Hosting for an example of an ftp session showing the directory structure.
Can I use Internet Explorer FTP function to upload my site?
No.
You can upload files to your space on the MGH server by using a URL of this format:
ftp://adminuserid:password@www.oxon.bcs.org
or you can use something like
ftp://www.oxon.bcs.org
and wait for IE to prompt you for the userid and password.
This will give you FTP access to the /users/adminuserid directory.
You will be able to see the /users/adminuserid/web directory and upload using drag and dropup. However this is not your group's web site. It is your own userid's site which is accessible as (for example) http://www.oxon.bcs.org/adminuserid
You need to navigate to the /web directory but Internet Explorer will not let you navigate to directories above the one you started in.
Are there other GUI tools for ftp upload?
The major browsers, Netscape 7.1, Mozilla and Opera, suffer from the same restriction as IE.
You can access the server using
ftp://adminuserid:password@www.oxon.bcs.org
or (Opera only) ftp://www.oxon.bcs.org and wait for the usried/password prompt.
But neither of them lets you navigate to the directory where you need to put your website as it is above the starting ftp directory
The directory hierarchy is
For GUI access to all the full set of directories, I've tested the following tools on Linux :
the Konqueror browser/filemanager that comes with KDE and SuSE
kbear – which I find suits me best
gftp
xftp
For Windows
I use AceFTP Freeware from http://freeware.aceftp.com/ but no doubt any of the many FTP shareware packages would also work.
How do I password protect directories?
If you are into programming there are ways to do this using, for example, PHP, but that is outside the scope of this item.
Our branch has a password protected area for the committee.
You need to create a file, in the same directory, called .htaccess with contents similar to this:
The valid userids are scrambled passwords are listed in the file called (in this example) .htpasswd.
The good news is that there is a utility called htpasswd which is packaged with Apache to generate and maintain the .htpasswd file.
The bad news is that you have to run the htpasswd command on the system on which the Apache server is running, and we haven't been given direct shell access to the server.
Instead, I've used a useful little (free) Perl Script, htedit, which creates and/or updates the necessary .htaccess and .htpasswd files.
Can I have access to a command shell on the MGH server?
Q: Some hosting providers allows shell access via telnet or (more secure) ssh or rsh. Is this possible with the BCS MGH service? A: No
Is there any way to run Unix commands on the server?
If you want to run Unix commands on the server, although direct shell access has not been provided, you can do it indirectly.
As we have the ability to run scripts in Perl or Php, you can write a script to issue the command you need, and then invoke the script from a browser.
Better than that, there are a couple of utilities which set up an interactive browser session, allowing you to enter commands dynamically and see their results. These tools are:
PhpShell – which, since PHP was upgraded on 14/7/2004, appears to work fine.
PerlWebShell – a Perl port of PhpShell which does work on the MGH server. Unlike PhpShell on which it is based, PerlWebShell does not implement its own password protection, so you should take care to use htedit or some other mechanism to protect it to prevent misuse.
How do I create a MySQL database?
A: You can't do this yourself, but the BCS webmaster, Carl Harris, is very helpful. If you ask him nicely he will do it for you.
Can I add an additional MySQL user?
Q: For security reasons I would like to set up an additional MySQL user with restricted access, such as read only or limited to certain tables.
How do I do this?
A: There is no interface to do this. Again, you could ask Carl.
How do I schedule a cron job?
Q: For performance reasons I would like to schedule a cron job (hourly, or daily) to create a file on the web server, rather than run a database query for every HTTP web page access. How can I do this? A: Carl can do this for you. There is no interface for you to do this yourself.
Can I set up an e-mail autoresponder?
Q: Some hosting providers allow me to set up a process to handle incoming email automatically. Is this possible with the BCS MGH service? A: No
What is the MGH software currency policy?
Q: I'm pleased to see that the level of PHP on the MGH service has been updated.
Is there a policy on keeping software levels reasonably current, and if so, what is it?
A: TBD
How are problem reporting and tracking handled?
A: Via email to Carl Harris. Due the the current small scale of this offering no formal mechanism for reporting or tracking problems has been set up.
British Computer Society.