Theoretical Physics Web Service

Theoretical Physics retains a web service for its members. This services hosts personal sites for members, as well as sites for conferences, projects and collaborations. They may be requested if no other services provided centrally by Physics are suitable.

A list of the various central web services may be found here. Some specific services are

  1. Departmental Profiles
  2. Research Group Pages

Accessing the Theoretical Physics web service

The Theoretical Physics Apple desktop systems were able to access via the URL smb://physics.ox.ac.uk/dfs/web/thphys
This is no longer possible, and instead sftp or ssh via the jump proxy bastion.physics.ox.ac.uk need to be used.

If you now wish to access the web directory from an Apple system do the following:

  1. Edit the file ~/.ssh/config (create the directory and the file if they don't exist)
  2. Add the lines (with each _ replaced by a space)
    Host thphyswebnfs
    ____User yourusername
  3. Start the application Cyberduck
  4. In the server address field type the following: thphyswebnfs
  5. In the path enter /web
  6. You will then be asked to enter your username and password twice.

To accessing the web directory from Linux use

ssh -J yourusername@bastion.physics.ox.ac.uk yourusername@thphyswebnfs
or
sftp -J yourusername@bastion.physics.ox.ac.uk yourusername@thphyswebnfs

If you set up ~/.ssh/config as above, you may be able to go to your file manager and use

ctrl+L > sftp://thphyswebnfs/web

The personal web sites offered on the Theory server are stored at:

/web/people/FirstnameLastname

Frequently asked questions

How do I write HTML?

Take a look at some tutorials.

I want write access to a particular file/directory

Except in the case of personal directories, by which write-permission is granted by username, write-permission to other directories (those belonging to conferences, seminars, research groups, etc.) are granted by membership of particular groups, to which write-access has been conferred. It's important for other members of the group to make files group readable if more than one person is to edit them.

Essentially, you should contact support with your request.

I want a web presence on the Theory system

Personal home pages are not created unless there is a particular use caes, to avoid duplication of existing services, and the administrative and security overhead that generates. However, they can be added very quickly when needed. Please contact support.

I want to host a conference/project site

We can accommodate all these kinds of requests, please contact us with details. We can generally help with simple active pages for, e.g. conference registration, but we do not have time to debug or secure more complex active pages. We will also burden you personally with the responsibility of maintaining the security of anything more complex than simple email or conference registration scripts. Please consider whether you have the time to devote to this, and speak to us before starting to develop complex active pages that you intend to host here. Sites will be shut down and removed from the web if unmaintained.

I want my own project.physics.ox.ac.uk or project.ox.ac.uk URL

Both of these are possible. We will grant a request for the former on just about anything to do with the Physics department. The authority to use the latter is granted by OUCS, whose criterion is only slightly more onerous: your project must usually be intra-departmental in some way. Please contact us for details.

In general, it is not possible to host non-ox.ac.uk domains on the Oxford network (please see here (older version) for reasons why).

I want to password protect something or restrict access to ox.ac.uk/physics.ox.ac.uk

This is certainly possible, with varying levels of security. Please contact
support.

Advanced configuration of the web service

We are capable of implementing any number of redirects, and other advanced server configuration, in the central configuration file. If you are leaving Oxford, or otherwise want a redirect or similar to be configured, please contact us directly.

Categories: Theory | Web