EGR Homepage Setup

How to Set Up a Home Page on your Engineering Account

  1. Create a sub-directory in your home directory called web by typing: mkdir ~/web, from the Unix command prompt. All of the original material you want to offer to the Web must be stored in this directory.
  2. Create a file called index.html in the ~/web directory. This is your personal "home page" from which all other information in your personal pages will be referenced. You can create this file using any text or HTML editor on the system.
  3. Set the access permissions on ~/web and ~/web/index.html so that anyone can read them. This can be done from a UNIX command prompt by typing: chmod -R a+rX ~/web
    Whenever you add information to your Web pages, you may need to type this command again.
  4. Set the access permissions on your home directory so that anyone on the system get to ~/web by typing: chmod 711 ~/

To access your web page, you will need to start a web browser, like Mozilla Firefox. Start mozilla by typing mozilla at the UNIX prompt, or by clicking on the Mozilla Firefox icon located in Start Menu => Programs => Mozilla Firefox for PCs. Under the "File" menu, select "Open Location...." When the dialog box comes up type in:

			http://www.egr.msu.edu/~username

Where username is your login name. If you get error messages about your page, fix them and try reloading your page.

Our index of personal pages is rebuilt every night, so once you create your ~/web directory your name should automatically be added to the index. Once you have been added to the index, you, or others, can get to your home page by following the links from the College of Engineering home page. If you have followed the steps outlined above, but your page does not get added to the index within 24 hours, please send electronic mail to webmaster@egr.msu.edu.


These instructions are meant for those students, faculty and staff with accounts on MSU College of Engineering Unix systems. The procedures for creating a personal home page at another site may be very different.