Frequently Asked Questions

The frequently asked questions have been split up into a number of categories to make it easier to find the answer you want.

• About the SRCF
  • What is the SRCF?
  • What sort of system do you run?
  • You guys are doing a great job. How can I help you out?
  • How many users do you have?
  • How many members do you have?
  • How many societies do you host?
• Obtaining an Account
  • How do I get a personal account with the SRCF?
  • Can I host a web site for a University Society or other non-profit organisation which is connected to the University?
  • Is it Ok to apply for SRCF membership when all I really want is to run my club's website, rather than my own?
  • I need hosting for a commercial website — can I use the SRCF?
• Basic Usage
  • How can I upload my web site?
  • How do I “log in”?
• Managing Your Account
  • How do I change my password?
  • Can I tell my friend my password so that he can help maintain my website?
  • What is SSH and why should I use it?
  • What's your view on world writable files?
  • I can see everybody's files!
  • Other security issues.
  • What happens to my account when I graduate?
  • What is the full path to my filespace?
  • How do I find out how much of my quota I have used?
  • I've run out of quota — Can I get it increased?
• Managing Shared Accounts
  • Some files in our society space are owned by an ex-admin and can't be modified... help!
  • How do I hand access to my shared account to my successor?
  • How do I set up a society crontab?
• Troubleshooting
  • Why can't I log in with passwordless SSH?
  • Why does emacs complain when I try to edit an XHTML file?
• Email
  • How do I read my SRCF email?
  • Can I use the SRCF machine as an outgoing (SMTP) mail server?
  • How do I set up mail forwarding?
  • How do I set up mail filtering?
  • My mailing list, soc-something@lists.cam.ac.uk...
• Society Email Addresses
  • Can societies have email addresses @srcf.ucam.org?
  • What are the default society email addresses?
  • How do I control what happens to society email?
• Web Hosting
  • Can I run CGI scripts?
  • Can I use Server-Side Includes?
  • How can I access remote files from within PHP?
  • Can I use Apache content-negotiation?
  • I have registered www.foo.com — can I point it at my SRCF website?
  • Can I use Active Server Pages? (ASP)
  • Do you offer any uptime guarantees?
  • How do I get web stats for my account?
  • Can I use a secure (HTTPS) connection?
  • Can I protect my web page with a password?
  • Can I use the UCS Raven web authentication service on my website?
  • How do I make non-English characters and symbols display correctly?
  • The answer to the previous question only works for HTML files, how do I do this in PHP?
• CGI and PHP scripts
  • Can I run CGI scripts? Can I use PHP?
  • Where do I need to put my CGI/PHP files?
  • What unix user do scripts execute as?
  • What permissions and ownderships do scripts need to have?
  • How do I keep database passwords used in PHP scripts secret from other users?
  • Where do errors (STDERR) from my CGI scripts end up?
  • Why does my CGI/PHP script fail to connect to (some website) when I run it as a CGI/PHP script or from cron, yet work when I run it by hand?
  • My PHP script needs more memory!
  • Is there something wrong with PHP session tracking?
  • How do I send custom HTTP headers using PHP?
• Blogging
  • Do you have any software for managing a weblog?
  • WordPress Tips: UTF-8 character encodings and RSS feeds
  • How do I move my weblog from Movable Type to WordPress?
• Databases
  • Can I have a database?
  • How do I connect to my database?
  • Can I connect to my database from another computer?
  • Is there a web-based method of managing my database?
• Other Services
  • How do I get a Mailman mailing list set up?
  • How do I find documentation?
  • Can you host the mail exchange or name server for my domain?
  • Can you install the piece of software “foo”?
  • Can you upgrade “piece of software foo” to version 2046?
  • Why don't you run Netscape Navigator or Mozilla?
• Programming
  • What should I do if I want to run a long job?
  • Can you help me debug my PHP document/Perl Script/C++ Program?
  • Do you have Java™ installed?
• Inappropriate Content
  • What is the SRCF's policy on inappropriate content?
  • What should I do if I find something that I consider to be inappropriate hosted on the SRCF?
• Bonus question
  • How can you deliver value through best-of-breed services without sacrificing stakeholder focus?