Activate and Connect to Your TigerWeb Site

TigerWeb is a simple HTML-based web publishing platform for TU students, faculty and staff. Webpages may include HTML, CSS and Javascript; and, you can manage your TigerWeb site using SFTP, file share or SSH. You can develop webpages using text editors (e.g., Windows Notepad, Mac TextEdit) or desktop web publishing applications (e.g., Adobe Dreamweaver).

Activate your TigerWeb site

1. Open tigerweb.towson.edu in your preferred browser and select the Go To TigerWeb Portal button.
2. Sign in with your TU NetID and password, then select the Login button.
3. Select the Activate Website button.

Your website will become active, and TigerWeb will display the following:

• Your Website URL (https://tigerweb.towson.edu/yourNetID)
• Your Storage Usage
• Buttons to open access instructions and Frequently Asked Questions
  • File Upload - Use Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) software (such as FileZilla) to copy files between your computer and your website.
  • File Share - Use Windows Explorer or MacOS Finder to copy files between your computer and your website. This is the recommended method if you are using a desktop app such as Adobe Dreamweaver, and it requires that you work on the campus network, either in person or via RDP, VPN or VW.
  • Terminal Access - Advanced publishers can use an SSH client (such as Putty) to access a remote shell on TigerWeb. This requires that you work on the campus network, either in person or via RDP, VPN or VW.
• A button to Reset Permissions for your site should that ever become necessary
• A button to Deactivate Website

Your newly activated TigerWeb site contains a default (homepage) file named index.html that you can begin editing right away. If a person enters your URL without specifying a particular file after your NetID, the browser will open this file automatically (example).

Connect to TigerWeb using Adobe Dreamweaver

Adobe Dreamweaver is available to faculty and staff via the Virtual Workspace (VW) Towson Desktop at desktop.towson.edu. Due to licensing restrictions, it is not available on the VW Student Desktop; however, it is widely available in department labs and on Cook Library computers.

1. Launch Dreamweaver.
2. Select Manage Sites... from the Site menu. The Manage Sites window will display.
3. Select the New Site button at the bottom of the Manage Sites window. The Site Setup window will display.
4. Enter a meaningful name in the Site Name box. (E.g., YourName-Tigerweb-Site or YourNetID-Tigerweb-Site)
5. In the Local Site Folder box, navigate to and select a local folder to house the offline copy of your website.
   • "A Dreamweaver site usually has two parts: a local folder on your computer [or an external drive you connect to your computer] where you store and work on files, and a remote folder on [TigerWeb] where you post the same files to the web."
6. Select Servers in the left panel (as pictured below).
   
   
    
7. Select the + button to add a new server (as pictured above). The Servers menu will appear.
8. Enter a meaningful name, such as TigerWeb, in the Server Name box.
9. Set Connect using to SFTP.
10. Enter tigerweb.towson.edu in the SFTP Address box.
11. For Authentication,
    1. Select the Username and Password radio button.
    2. Enter your TU NetID username and password in the appropriate boxes.
    3. Select the Save Password check box.
12. Enter your TigerWeb URL in the Web URL box and select Save to return to the Site Setup window.
13. Select the Save button at the bottom of the Site Setup window. The Manage Sites window will display.
14. Select the Done button to exit Manage Sites.

Connect to TigerWeb using Windows Explorer

To access a network drive/share via Windows Explorer, you must first set up the connection — a process called mapping the drive. This requires that you work on the campus network, either in person or via RDP, VPN or VW. The procedure for mapping a drive in Windows is as follows.

1. Launch File Explorer from the Windows Start menu.
2. Select This PC in the leftmost panel.
3. Select the Computer tab.
4. Select the Map network drive button in the ribbon, then select Map network drive.
   
   
    
5. Select the drive letter you want to use for the network folder from the Drive drop-down list (perhaps T or W).
6. Enter the path of your TigerWeb share in the Folder box (be sure to replace yourNetID with your actual NetID):
   • \\tigerweb\yourNetID
7. Make sure Reconnect at sign-in is checked, and then select the Finish button.

Windows Explorer will now show your TigerWeb drive under This PC. You can right-click an HTML file and select Open in Notepad to start editing. You can also drag and drop other files into the Explorer window to add them to your TigerWeb folders.

Connect to TigerWeb using MacOS Finder

To access a network drive/share via MacOS Finder, you must first set up the connection. This requires that you work directly on the campus network. The procedure for connecting to TigerWeb on a Mac is as follows.

1. Open the Finder app on your Mac.
2. Select Go from the Finder menu.
3. Select Connect to Server... from the Go menu. The Connect to Server window will display.
   
   
    
4. Enter the path of your TigerWeb share in the box at the top of the window (be sure to replace yourNetID with your actual NetID):
   • smb://tigerweb/yourNetID
5. Press the Return key or select the Connect button. If another window opens prompting you to connect, select the Connect button.

Finder will now show your TigerWeb drive in the left navigation panel. You can right-click an HTML file and select Open with > TextEdit to start editing. You can also drag and drop other files into the Finder window to add them to your TigerWeb folders.

Connect to TigerWeb using FileZilla

The FileZilla Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) software is available to students, faculty and staff:

• On the VW Towson Desktop at desktop.towson.edu.
• On the VW Student Desktop at desktop.towson.edu.
• As a free desktop app for Windows and MacOS at FileZilla.com.

The following steps assume that you have created your local TigerWeb folder on your OneDrive and signed in to your OneDrive within VW (see Configure OneDrive in Windows).

1. Launch FileZilla from the Windows Start menu. The FileZilla window will display as pictured below. 
2. Enter sftp://tigerweb.towson.edu in the box labeled Host.
3. Enter your NetID username in the Username box.
4. Enter your NetID password in the Password box.
5. Enter 22 in the Port box.
6. Select the Quickconnect button. FileZilla will present several options for remembering your password. We recommend selecting Do not save passwords.
7. Select OK to close the password options prompt. FileZilla may display a window titled Unknown host key.
8. Select Always trust this host, add this key to the cache. FileZila will complete the connection and display Directory listing of "/yourNetID" successful.
9. If necessary, set the Local site to C:\Users\yourNetID\OneDrive - TOWSON UNIVERSITY\.
10. From the folder list, select your local TigerWeb folder.
    
    

Using Filezilla to manage and transfer files is beyond the focus of this article; tutorials and other documentation are available on the FileZilla Wiki.