North Dakota State University

Requesting and Using the Temporary Web Server Accounts:

The Computer Science department offers student accounts and space on a special web server for class projects. The server is called "comweb" and the accounts and space are temporary in that sometime after each semester ends, the accounts and data stored might be cleared from the server. These accounts are used for class projects that require the creation of a web page or site and are usually related to the Web Major and Minor from Communication.

To Request "comweb" Accounts:

1. Go to your Blackboard course's Grade Center and choose the "Work Offline" button on the right, and then "Download"
2. For "Select Data to Download" choose the "User information only" option.
3. For "Delimiter type" choose "Comma"
4. Submit and save the created file somewhere you can find it easily.
5. Email robert.j.foertsch.1@ndsu.edu and attach the downloaded file, asking for comweb student accounts. He will create them and let you know when they're ready.

How to Use "comweb" Accounts:

1. Logins and Passwords:
   With comweb, the login's are not the usual firstname.lastname type. Comweb uses the students' UID instead, which is a 8-character (or less) version of their name without the period in the middle. An example would be "nlillebe" instead of "nancy.lilleberg"
   
   How do you find the students' "other" login's?
   Blackboard also uses these shorter login's as the student ID's in Blackboard, so if you get into your Blackboard course and go to Control Panel > List/Modify Users > List All, you will see the shorter ID's listed on the screen as the Blackboard "usernames."
   
   Students can look up their own Blackboard logins by logging into Blackboard and choosing the "Files" tab. Their shorter id will be displayed at the top of the screen.
   
   What is the password for the comweb accounts?
   Use the same password that you use for NDSU Email, Blackboard or for logging into cluster machines.
   
   
2. How do you connect to comweb and transfer files to and from it?
   Please visit this audio/video tutorial for step by step instructions.
   (http://comweb.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu/~nlillebe/winscpinstructions.swf)
   
   
3. What does the URL look like for a site on comweb?
   comweb.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu/~loginid/foldername/filename
   Where "userid" becomes the student's login, "foldername" becomes the name of the folder in the site, if used, and "filename" becomes the name of the file.
   Examples would be:
   comweb.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu/~nlillebe/portfolio/ (this assumes the filename is index)
   comweb.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu/~bedsaul/myfile.html (this assumes that no folder was used, and the name of the file is "myfile.html")
   
   
4. How can an instructor view the students' work?
   The instructor must rely on the students giving him/her valid URL's to view their work.
   
   
5. Questions? Please contact Nancy Lilleberg (1-7140 or nancy.lilleberg@ndsu.edu)