How to host files on your AFS space

[bkeyes]

It's come to my attention that people don't have space to host files for competitions, but I have good news! All CMU students are given space as part of their AFS account!

This works great for things that won't be downloaded by tons of people and files that aren't enormous. If you have a huge file and/or you expect a lot of traffic, you'll have to look into some other hosting method. Just do a quick Google search and you'll find some suitable free hosts. Chances are that all have some downside, but any of them should be good enough for a one-time hosting deal.

So, provided your file is a good fit, here's how to host it on your AFS space:

1. Make sure you have an AndrewID
2. Get an FTP client, like FileZilla
3. In your FTP client, connect to "unix.andrew.cmu.edu", using your AndrewID as the username. If you have the choice, specify SFTP or tell it to use port 22. Chances are it will do this automatically, but if you can't connect for some reason, check that setting first.
4. Once you have access to your home directory, find the "www" directory
5. Put any files you want to host into this directory
6. Disconnect from the server and close your FTP client
7. Go to https://www.andrew.cmu.edu/server/publish.html and select the "Personal Web Pages" option and then enter your AndrewID in the text box. Click the "Publish" button.
8. If everything worked, you (and everyone else) can access your file at http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/<yourAndrewID>/<filename.ext>, where <yourAndrewID> is replaced with your AndrewID and <filename.ext> is the name of the file you uploaded, including the extension.
   
   Alternately, you can point people to http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/<yourAndrewID>/, where they will get an index listing all the files in the "www" directory. If you're feeling ambitious, you can make an HTML page (named index.html), which will display here instead of the default listing.

So those are the basics of hosting things on your AFS space. If you have any questions, feel free to ask in this thread.

We're also considering setting something up on the GCS server for members to host contest entries, etc. For now, we'll most likely be copying entries from whatever service you use to the GCS server for more permanent storage. Send me a PM if you'd like to make sure your entry is hosted before you delete from your host.