Q. How much will it cost me to create and maintain a Prism Web account?

A. Nothing! Prism is one of the many benefits you receive from your "Technology Fee" and is another example of your "Technology Fee" at work for you.

Q.How do I "publish" my pages to Prism?

A. You may create your web pages in any web development software program you desire. The newer versions of word processing programs (WordPerfect, Microsoft Word and others) allow you to save your text directly in HTML, the programming language of the web.

When you want to publish your pages, use this address:

ftp://prism.troy.edu/

Q. How will my family and friends find my web page?

A. They need to point their Internet browsers to:

http://prism.troy.edu/~your-user-ID

The "~" symbol is the tilde mark and it is located on most keyboards to the left of the numeric "1" key.

Q. What should I name my opening file or web page on the PrismAcademic Web Server?

A. You should call your first page:

index.html

or

index.htm

These are the first two default file names Prism's web server looks for and tries to load.

Q. I recently applied for and received my Web account on Prism. I was surprized to see a "coming soon" page at my Web address before I published my items on Prism. Where did this come from?

A. The "coming soon" page came from the Academic Webmaster. When your new account was created on Pris..m, a file was copied into your web page storage area. The name of this file is the fourth default name that Prism's web server looks for when starting a web address.

Once you publish your pages using one of the file names given above (index.html or index.htm), this "coming soon" page will no longer be seen.

Q. I'm having trouble using Microsoft Frontpage (tm) on Prism Is Prism blocking Frontpage?

A. No. Many people are successfully using Frontpage to create and transfer their Web pages to Prism. There are a few things you should keep in mind when using Frontpage.

• Avoid using the Frontpage "bots." Troy University's Academic and Student Web servers do not support these bots as they tend to be security risks for the servers.
• When publishing your site to Prism:
• Choose file --> publish web
• Under the "specify the location" dialogue box, enter: ftp://prism.troy.edu/%2f
• When promote for your login, you username is the userID name on your Prism account and your password is the password assigned to your account. These were given to your by your professor. Remember that passwords ARE case-sensitive.

Q. I am having trouble using Microsoft Internet Explorer (tm) to FTP my files to Prism. Was something done on the Prism server to stop this for working??

A. No, nothing changed on Prism. On the other hand, Microsoft made some major changes in how this feature operates in Internet Explorer.

To use Microsoft Internet Explorer (version 7) to FTP your files to Prism, type in the following in the address bar:

• ftp://userID:password@prism.troy.edu

Of course, the userID and password are the userID and password for your assigned account on Prism.

Q. I am having trouble getting some of my links to work on my Web page. What could be the problem?

A. There is an endless list of reasons as to why something works or doesn't work on the Web. The two most frequent problems with links are 1) you didn't upload a copy of file (page or graphic) to Prism or 2) you made an error in naming your link in your HTML source code.

The first problem is easy to fix. You need to make sure that you upload all needed files to your Prism account. The second problem is harder to correct.

Prism runs Linux, a strong and robust operating system that many Web servers use. While this is a popular and great platform for a Web server, it comes with a few rules that you may not be familiar with at this time. The one that causes probelms for some people is that case matters on a Linux computer. Linux sees "test" "Test" "TeSt" and "tesT" as four different files. This means that you must type in the name of a link file or a graphics EXACTLY as appears.

Q. I forgot my Prism password. Can the Webmaster tell me what my password is?

A. No. No record is kept of passwords and the Webmaster cannot read that information from the file it is stored in since that file is encrypted. The Webmaster can help in this situation by resetting your password to a new value. (The new password will be sent to your Troy University faculty contact.)

Q. I read Troy University's technology and student World Wide Web policies as required before applying for an account on Prism. Since violation of these policies may result in revocation of my Prism account and other penalties, who is in charge of Prism?

A. Troy University's Chief Technology Officer Mr. Greg Price is in charge of Prism. As a Troy University Web server, Prism is placed under the control of the MIS Department and Prism's administrator reports to the director of MIS.

Senior Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs, Dr. John Schmidt, heads an over-sight committee from Troy University's Student Government Assocation. Thus, your elected SGA representatives are charged with making sure that policies are observed. Any decision by your SGA concerning student Web pages may be appealed to Dr. Schmidt.