sfarmilo Posted January 31, 2014 Posted January 31, 2014 Hello, Has anyone come across anywhere that you can host student websites preferably for free? The IT Teacher in charge wants the students to be able to create a link from their blogs to their websites that they have created, but obviously the websites need to be hosted somewhere first...
Grey-gear Posted January 31, 2014 Posted January 31, 2014 Found this site that has a list of what the acticale says is free hosting websites. Top 10 Free Web Hosting sites May be a start but best to research them if I was you. Hope this helps. 1
Devontechie Posted January 31, 2014 Posted January 31, 2014 Hello, Has anyone come across anywhere that you can host student websites preferably for free? The IT Teacher in charge wants the students to be able to create a link from their blogs to their websites that they have created, but obviously the websites need to be hosted somewhere first... Do they need to be available outside of the school?
sfarmilo Posted January 31, 2014 Author Posted January 31, 2014 Do they need to be available outside of the school? Yes, they have to update their blogs as part of their homework so would also need to be able to open their websites from home.
danbuntu Posted January 31, 2014 Posted January 31, 2014 We have a linux server set up with EHCP for this purpose. Each student is give a username and password, ftp and mysql DB that maps to http://students.domain/studentname
cpjitservices Posted January 31, 2014 Posted January 31, 2014 I have seen it all hosted in house, students can access it form anywhere they like if you host it yourself you also have full control.
glennda Posted January 31, 2014 Posted January 31, 2014 I setup the following: Ubuntu Server joined to domain FTP Installed Apache etc installed. When a student logged in Via ftp they where given /home/domain/username/ as a directory Apache was configured with /home/domain/ as the root directory so all a student had to do was go to domain.com/Username/ and that was there website
sfarmilo Posted January 31, 2014 Author Posted January 31, 2014 I don't think in house hosting is really an option, have spoken to the network manager before and he doesn't really want to go down that route...
glennda Posted January 31, 2014 Posted January 31, 2014 I don't think in house hosting is really an option, have spoken to the network manager before and he doesn't really want to go down that route... I don't see why not - its not as if a webserver takes much looking after or space. I would say an externally hosted system would take longer to configure than an internal one
IKWeb Posted February 1, 2014 Posted February 1, 2014 I don't think in house hosting is really an option, have spoken to the network manager before and he doesn't really want to go down that route... You may find the Network Manager doesn't have the full knowledge to get this kind of system up and running hence he doesn't want to go down that route? I have to say from my past doing this in house is the way to go, you have more control, and you have to remember that student privacy is something to think about here, and where the content the kids are posting is been stored.
dhicks Posted February 2, 2014 Posted February 2, 2014 Ubuntu Server joined to domain FTP Installed Apache etc installed. I've done much tha same, but on a Debian machine joined to the domain via Samba (see this thread: http://www.edugeek.net/forums/nix/48032-configuring-samba.html). Pupils (and staff) can acccess a file share on that server via the file browser on Windows (mount the share as a drive, if you like) and use whatever GUI tool they like to edit web pages, or if they want they can log in to the server via SSH and edit stuff on there. If you have your own local server you can add whatever services you like - Python instead of PHP for CGI scripts, or add a Tomcat server or similar for Java servlets, or whatever you want.
sfarmilo Posted February 3, 2014 Author Posted February 3, 2014 I think I will discuss again with the Network Manager and see if I can convince him to have an in house server. I think that would be the better route to go, it's just the cost and hassle of configuring it that I think is his issue with it.
SHimmer45 Posted February 3, 2014 Posted February 3, 2014 the box doesnt really need to be that powerful as its unlikely to have alot of connections all at once. for example the school website is hosted on a P3 and does a cracking job
sfarmilo Posted February 3, 2014 Author Posted February 3, 2014 I still don't think personally I'd be confident enough to configure something like that, I'm hoping that the network manager might be...
IKWeb Posted February 3, 2014 Posted February 3, 2014 When we did this we just took one of the student PCs that was been using in the classroom and used that. As SHimmer45 says its not like your going to host the next youtube or something like that. Entry lvl I3 desktop, with maybe 8GB RAM, and IIS, or Apache installed would be more than enough to run what you need. As for time, to get something like this up and running, your only really looking at a few hours max.
sfarmilo Posted February 3, 2014 Author Posted February 3, 2014 To be honest I've never tried installing something like that. Is it hard to do? I would like to think I'd be competent enough to work it out but I don't fancy taking on a massive project.
IKWeb Posted February 3, 2014 Posted February 3, 2014 Personally I wouldn't say its massive project, install windows 7 onto a machine, you will need a static IP address, so you will need to speak with your network manager for one of those. Once windows 7 is installed, allow the ports in the firewall, or just turn that off, and then install a FTP / Web Server solution. If its just for internal use, then you can FTP to the IP address, and FTP to the IP address to upload and view your files. Where you will need more knowledge is if you want to patch / make safe the solution which you will need to do if you want to make it accessible form the out side world, else you will find it will get hacked within hours of it going live. Also to get your ISP to open the ports on your schools firewall. TBH I would advise unless its needed you keep something like this internal for the students use. Maybe someone on here has a guide on how to install / setup this service, if not I am sure if you google it you should be able to find a basic guide.
sfarmilo Posted February 3, 2014 Author Posted February 3, 2014 Will every student will need a different log on, password and root directory as well?
IKWeb Posted February 3, 2014 Posted February 3, 2014 Hi As far as I know, from experience from when I set this up last, and if I am wrong I am sure someone would put me right, each student will need there own account, unless you use 1 account and then get each student to create there own folder within it, but each kid will be able to see each others work and delete it also. hope that helps.
NikChillin Posted February 3, 2014 Posted February 3, 2014 Have a look at the blog by Sonofsanta, Installing a PHP/MySQL Development Server for students on Windows Server 2012 - Part1 - Blogs - EduGeek.net and Installing a PHP/MySQL Development Server for students on Windows Server 2012 - Part2 - Blogs - EduGeek.net I used this but modified a few things as the teacher also wanted a PHPMYADMIN access for students to their individual databases and their own user account to put their files into so they could ftp using Dreamweaver. In effect, trying to replicate the user experience for the student. 1
sonofsanta Posted February 3, 2014 Posted February 3, 2014 Web server is dead easy to set up. I wrote up a couple of blog posts (Part 1, Part 2) on setting up a PHP/MySQL server on Server 2012 for students. Takes an afternoon. We only use it in house here, but external access would be a case of external IP + new DNS entry + setting up the FTP. Since I've set it up here I've spent approximately zero minutes dealing with it. I should really look to see when there's a second page of posts in case someone has already mentioned the thing I want to mention.
sfarmilo Posted February 4, 2014 Author Posted February 4, 2014 Sounds like its something I could have a crack at. Will have to try and convince the Network manager to let me have a go at it...
sfarmilo Posted February 6, 2014 Author Posted February 6, 2014 Going to give it a go just using FileZilla Server on a windows machine and see how we go
fiza Posted February 6, 2014 Posted February 6, 2014 I followed @sonofsanta 's guide. Works like a charm. Might try part 2 with sql next.
sonofsanta Posted February 6, 2014 Posted February 6, 2014 I followed @sonofsanta 's guide. Works like a charm. Might try part 2 with sql next. (here is some more writing to get over the minimum length)
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