Solution:
To publish a web site in your personal space on the Central File Server, you should use your public_html folder. For information on web publishing at Princeton, see www.princeton.edu/webpublishing for an overview.

• Dreamweaver Instructions for Mac users
• Secure FTP (file transfer protocol) for Mac users
• Drag and Drop method (not recommended)
  

Drag and Drop method
The following information is for documentation purposes only. It not recommended that Mac users drag and drop files to their public_html folder unless they are aware of the caveats identified below.

Mac OS X and Linux users need to be aware that the public_html folder shown within their H: drive is not the correct folder in which to place htm and html files. It is a residual folder not to be used. See the Troubleshooting section below for why this has occurred.

For Mac and Linux users, a second public_html folder resides in a separate directory structure, and is the correct folder that should be mounted and accessed for the placement of web files. This correct public_html folder also needs to be mounted separately from your H: drive.

In other words, you cannot drill down to the correct public_html directory within your H: drive. You must mount the other one -- the correct one -- separately using a different path.

To access your public_html directory:

• Within the Finder, select the Go pull-down menu and choose Connect to Server...
• In the Address: field, type smb://yourNetID@files.princeton.edu/home/public_html/yourNetID
• Click the Connect button.

When you are requested to provide authentication information, enter the following:

• Workgroup/Domain: PRINCETON
• Username: YourNetID
• Password: your password

This creates a folder on the desktop labeled HOME. Double-clicking on this folder will cause your system to hang -- so do not!

Proceed with the next step.

• With the window still open, click on the folder icon at the top of the window, and drag the icon to the desktop (or another location) while holding the Apple and Option keys. This will create an alias to the folder (see graphic below).
• In the future, use this alias to your public_html folder to access your web pages.
  

Linux users can change their mount to:

• mount -t smbfs -o username=your_user_id \
  //files/HOME/PUBLIC_HTML/your_user_id /mnt/h

For more information, see the PrincetonUnixFAQ Wiki regarding this topic.

Troubleshooting
As previously announced, on August 15, 2006, the public_html directories for all OIT netIDs were relocated on the Central File Server to a separate directory structure. In technical terms, Distributed File System (DFS) links were put in place within each user's home directory (H: drive) on the Files server. Windows users can follow the DFS link to their public_html folder in this newly created directory structure, but OS X users cannot. Since August 15, the following issues have been identified:

Missing html files on already created sites - When I mount my personal file space using smb://netID@smbserve.princeton.edu/netID I see nothing under the public_html directory - my html files are missing.

No results in browser when publishing new sites - I keep putting files into my public_html directory in my H: drive but nothing will show on the Web

System hangs (spinning cursor) after mapping the public_html folder - I mapped my public_html folder but now the system hangs when trying to access it a second or third time.

Use the instructions on Secure FTP if you experience any of these issues.

Additional Known Issues With Mounting the Central File Server
It has been reported that Mac OS X 10.4.8 Intel computers will hang (you'll see a spinning cursor that won't go away) when:

• switching to column view in your public_html folder
• trying to eject HOME, the Finder seems to give up and never ejects
• dragging files from the public_html folder, the window will randomly close, or the Finder will "give up." A reboot is then required
• opening HOME disk icon can sometimes show a blank window - sometimes causes the Finder to hang.