Welcome to the ECE Department Shared Web Server
This server provides basic web service to department research groups, labs, faculty, course instructors, and other individuals associated with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Washington.
Below you'll find information regarding the options ECE supports internally, plus some other options offered by the University. There are, of course, a multitude of additional options available elsewhere... albeit usually for a fee.
ECE-affiliated student groups are eligible to use ECE web hosting. We do not offer web space to individual students - UW is better equipped for that (see the "Alternatives" section, below).
Space on the ECE Web Server
With this first option, we create a folder for you on this web server in the appropriate section: e.g. under classes (for course webpages); under research (for labs/groups); under people (for faculty/staff). This option only allows for pages utilizing HTML, Javascript, and CSS - no server-side scripting, no PHP, no CMS installations, no SQL database access. For lab or group websites, permissions can be controlled by setting up a group... so any number of people can be allowed to update the pages. This is what the majority of ECE labs currently use for their lab websites.
The URL of your site will depend on the grouping it falls under:
- Class web pages will have a URL starting with https://class.ece.uw.edu/class_number/
- Research web pages will have a URL that looks like https://labs.ece.uw.edu/your_lab_id/
- People web pages' URLs will look something like https://people.ece.uw.edu/doe_jane/
Research websites also have the option of a custom ECE web address, if desired (e.g. http://mylabsite.ece.uw.edu).
ECE Wordpress Server
The other primary ECE option is to use our Wordpress Multisite server. We have several labs and groups taking advantage of this.
A number of the most popular WordPress themes are already installed, and you are welcome to use any of them on your blog / site. If there is a theme you want but we do not provide, let us know — if the theme doesn't require special permissions, has a decent security track record, and is currently maintained, we are happy to accommodate you. Please be aware that not all WordPress themes meet this standard, though...
Because of security and maintenance issues, we have instituted a moratorium on installing additional plugins. Running a full-service WordPress server would require a dedicated full-time admin, and we simply don't have the resources for that. This policy was adopted to serve what we see as the best interests of the average user, but we understand it may not work for everyone.
We are happy to help with technical issues, but we do not have a Wordpress designer on staff with ECE Computing. You can certainly ask us questions! But be aware that users will generally be expected to figure out how to get their WordPress site design set up on their own.
There are also currently space restrictions placed on ECE's Wordpress server. If you need to include/link very large files on your Wordpress site, contact to discuss ways to deal with that.
Websites hosted on ECE's Wordpress server have the option of a custom ECE web address (e.g. http://mylabsite.ece.uw.edu).
Alternatives
If the options listed above don't appeal to you, UW offers several different options to individuals and groups - you can set up static html webpages, use a UW-managed Wordpress server, or even run your own CMS such as Drupal or Joomla. For more information, read UW's "Web Publishing" page. Please note that ECE Computing cannot offer any support for websites hosted outside of ECE's own server infrastructure.
If you want to use Wordpress, but don't want to live with the restrictions ECE or UW place on our self-hosted servers, there are many commercial WordPress hosts available who are happy to help!