If you are looking for a place to host your website on campus, there are four options: web.mit.edu (Athena), purchasing your own server, getting a virtual server agreement (through IS&T), or through the student service, scripts.mit.edu.
web.mit.edu/yourname (Athena)
If you are going to host your site on the MIT Athena server, your url will look something like this:
http://web.mit.edu/yourname
The word "yourname" above is your MIT locker - your own storage space online. Individuals at MIT automatically get their own locker with 2GB of space.
I need a locker...
- ASA and Sloan Student Activity Locker request form (for MIT student activities, student living groups, and team sports)
- Course Locker request form.
- UROP Locker request form.
- MIT Organizational Locker request form
Locker requests may take up to 2 business days to process but are usually completed within a few hours.
I need more space in my locker...
You may be able to have your disk quota increased free of charge. If you are requesting a substantial increase in quota (totaling over 10 GB) you may need to lease space from IS&T.
The Leased Disk Space Program
For routine quota increases, including web space and user homedir quota, contact Athena User Accounts. If you're an MIT department, lab or center, and you need a large amount of AFS space for some other purpose, contact disk-space.
What can web.mit.edu sites do?
All sites hosted on Athena are static - meaning they have no dynamic back and forth between visitors and site except for serving up pages. You can run Google searches on them and submit forms, but for example you can't sign up or register for an account on the site. A static site is more like a newspaper - it delivers you content only. However, you can set permissions on lockers to restrict access to all of MIT or specific moira groups.
yourname.mit.edu
If you are looking for a url like http://name.mit.edu, you'll need your own server. If you don't already have a web server, you can contact IS&T Server Operations for options to either buy and house your server or sign up for a virtual server agreement. A virtual server is a server that is shared by multiple website owners. Each owner can use and administer it as though they had complete control of the server. It's generally the more cost effective of the two options.
scripts.mit.edu
scripts.mit.edu is a hosting service for the MIT community that provides several popular web packages such as Joomla and WordPress, as well as CGI script, MySQL, cron, and procmail hosting. The service is free to any Athena account holder or group locker. You can request your own url or use their default (yourname.scripts.mit.edu). Server upgrades conflicting with your app: scripts.mit.edu will occasionally be upgraded for OS and software updates. Upgrades to the server’s software can potentially cause users’ scripts to break, particularly when users’ scripts rely on software that does not respect backwards-compatibility. Usually you get a week's notice to test out your site to make sure it will still work when there is an upgrade. Server downtime: Keep in mind that this a student run service. While they are exceptionally reliable, there may be some downtime which the students can't address quickly due to other commitments. If your site draws high traffic, you may want to use a different hosting solution.
Can I host my site with an ISP?
Yes, but keep in mind the following:
- Some ISPs don't say that the data is yours, or backup your data. Make sure in your contract this is stated.
- Depending on the information being stored, you may be exposing MIT to additional legal liability by hosting information with a third party
You can request a yourname.mit.edu address by contacting the IS&T Help Desk, (617.253.1101), but be prepared to have a good reason why you need it.