The World Wide Web is a vast collection of interconnected documents, images, video files, and audio files on computers all over the world. Web pages are accessed through Web browsers such as "Internet Explorer," "Mozilla," "Safari," "Firefox," and "Opera" which are available at Student Computing Labs and can be obtained for your own computer (each browser not available for all platforms).

Penn State Portal

The Penn State Portal provides its users with a personal "one stop shopping" view of University and Internet resources. Portal users can customize their very own, self-service Web environments by adding and removing channels, or built-in content "containers" (such as news, career planning and services, weather, Web cameras, student services, the PASS Explorer file transfer tool, The Daily Collegian, event calendars, and much more). Subject-specific content can be contained and organized in one, convenient location via the Portal's Tab feature, and users may choose to change the color themes, welcome message, and the Portal's "refresh" rate, among many other features.

To access the Penn State Portal visit https://portal.psu.edu/ and authenticate with your Penn State Access Account userid and password.

Visit http://www.psu.edu/portalproject/ for additional information and documentation. For assistance, send e-mail to helpdesk@psu.edu.

Connecting to the Web

ITS provides Web browser software such as Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Safari, Firefox and Opera on the computers in the Student Computing labs. To access the Web in these labs, first log in with your Penn State Access Account userid and password. Next, launch an available browser from the above list (whichever you prefer). To navigate the Web, click on hyperlinked text or images. Text links are usually underlined and in a different color from the rest of the text. When you position your cursor over a hyperlinked area, the cursor typically changes to a hand. A free Internet software collection containing software for browsing the Web can be downloaded from the ITS InternetSoftware Distribution Web site at https://downloads.its.psu.edu/.

ITS Web Space

ITS offers Web space upon request to all Penn State students, faculty, staff, colleges, departments, and officially recognized student organizations. Web space is subject to the ITS policies "Penn State Access Account Qualifications" and "Web Services." You must have an active Penn State Access Account before you can apply for ITS Web space. You must also establish personal Web space on the ITS server before applying for any of the other specialized Web services offered by ITS.

Personal Web Space

Individuals can request Web space by completing an online form at https://www.work.psu.edu/webspace/. Please allow three business days for processing. You will be notified by e-mail when your personal Web space has been created.

Students automatically receive filespace once a Penn State Access Account is granted. Personalized settings and data for services such as Penn State WebMail and the Penn State Portal are stored in one’s filespace; however, personal Web space is not automatically granted.

Protected personal web space

For many years, Information Technology Services (ITS) has offered the Penn State community the option to apply for Personal Web space via an online quiz at https://www.work.psu.edu/webspace/. Once granted, a www folder is created in one’s Penn State Access Account Storage Space (PASS). The www folder is publicly accessible by the entire Web, unless some extra steps are taken to restrict access.

Now, ITS offers users an enhanced option to protect/restrict specific Web content by using Protected Personal Web space. Protected Personal Web space provides a means by which users can restrict access to specific files stored in their respective Penn State Access Account (PASS) folders. Those who have www (Personal Web space) folders in PASS are automatically provided with an additional folder labeled www_protected within their respective PASS folders. A step-by-step Web-based wizard allows users to easily specify who should have access to specific files within his/her www_protected directory. Access may be restricted to Penn State Access Account userid, Friends of Penn State Accounts, and/or Access Account groups or roles. At this time, user access to www_protected content is read-only. Future enhancements include a "drop box" feature, so that users can read and/or write to protected spaces. More information, step-by-step instructions, and access to the protected.personal wizard are found at https://protected.personal.psu.edu/. Additional information is also found in the Personal Web FAQ at http://www.personal.psu.edu/.

Penn State Web Access

Penn State WebAccess is the University's Single Sign-On (SSO) solution for Web-based services that require authentication with a userid and password. The WebAccess system, which uses the University of Michigan's Cosign technology (a development effort funded by the National Science Foundation’s National Middleware Initiative-Enterprise and Desktop Technologies program), provides an environment in which users authenticate/login once with their respective Access Account userids and passwords to a central server in order to access multiple services protected with WebAccess without needing to re-authenticate. For example, a user may authenticate via Penn State WebAccess (https://webaccess.psu.edu/) and then access services per the listing at https://webaccess.psu.edu/services/ without needing to authenticate again to those services.

To learn more about WebAccess and how it works, visit: https://webaccess.psu.edu/help.html.

Academic Services and Emerging Technologies (ASET) maintains a proxy Web server located at proxy.aset.psu.edu. The purpose of a proxy server is to act as an intermediary between a user’s Web client (FireFox, Opera, etc.) and other Web servers. All requests coming from a user's Web client go to proxy.aset.psu.edu and then proxy.aset.psu.edu makes the request for the page. While this seems like an extra step, the proxy server stores or "caches" large images and text pages locally. When the next person goes to retrieve the same page, the proxy server provides the information after checking to see if that information is current. Proper use of a proxy server can decrease Internet traffic and provide for faster Web page download.

You may specify the HTTP Proxy information via the Web browsers' preferences (typically found under advanced preferences), as proxy.aset.psu.edu, and the corresponding port information as 8080. If you wish, you may specify this information for the FTP proxy information, as applicable.

If you need step-by-step assistance, please contact the ITS Help Desk staff at helpdesk@psu.edu.

Web Support for Faculty

Faculty can request any of the following services for course development and instruction:

• The Course Online Account (COLA) provides Web space to faculty for course development and presentation. COLAs are semester-based, but can be continuously renewed from semester to semester. The supervising faculty member and any persons authorized to use the COLA must have a Penn State Access Account and personal ITS Web space. See http://aset.its.psu.edu/accounts/cola.html for more information and an application form.


• A New Global Environment for Learning (ANGEL) is a software application that enables instructors to manage existing learning resources online such as course materials, communication, and quizzing. See http://cms.psu.edu/ for more information.

Faculty are invited to take advantage of support provided by Teaching and Learning with Technology (http://tlt.its.psu.edu/). This unit helps faculty enhance teaching and learning with technology.

Student Organizations

Penn State student organizations can apply for Web space on the Student Organizations Server at http://www.clubs.psu.edu/info/start.html

Colleges, Departments, Official Units

Colleges, departments, or other official units can purchase Web space through an ITS charge account (formerly a P-account). Current rates are listed at http://aset.its.psu.edu/accounts/cost.html. Additional information and an application form are available at http://aset.its.psu.edu/accounts/dept.html. Departmental Web space is located at http://www.psu.edu/dept/.

Penn State Web Application Engine Server

The Penn State Web Application Engines service provides a suite of dynamic content application engines including PHP, and may include ASP and JSP in the near future. Those who have Personal, Departmental, and/or Course Web space, or Web space on the Student Organizations Server can use these engines to incorporate dynamic content into Web sites. For more information please visit: https://php.scripts.psu.edu/.

Steps to Publishing on the Web

Penn State Search Engine

Penn State's search engine, http://search.psu.edu/, uses the Google Search Appliance GB-5005. The license agreement with Google currently allows for 2,000,000 documents to be indexed. Web sites that are owned and operated by Penn State or developed on behalf of Penn State may be indexed with the Penn State search engine. For more information, please see the documentation for both search engine users and Web site administrators/Web content providers at http://aset.its.psu.edu/googledocs/.

Learning More

The best way to learn about the Web is to launch a Web browser and start exploring. This guide (available on the Web at http://css.its.psu.edu/internet/) points to additional resources such as the following:

Web space options:	http://css.its.psu.edu/internet/weboptions.html
Web FAQ:	http://www.personal.psu.edu/faq/cacweb.html
Seminars, workshops, guides, tutorials:	http://its.psu.edu/training/
eLion System:	http://elion.psu.edu/
Penn State Portal:	https://portal.psu.edu/

Getting Help

• If you have questions, first check the ITS Web FAQ at http://www.personal.psu.edu/faq/cacweb.html. If you cannot find the answer you seek in the FAQ, send e-mail to helpdesk@psu.edu.

This page is part of Your Guide to Information Technology @ Penn State.