The New Media Lab provides hosting on the American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning’s dedicated server. The hosting of web applications and content refers to making websites available by storing content and code on an internet-accessible server. A server must be configured with software that lets it (a) run the code required by its web applications and (b) interact with web browsers.
Your site on our server
You can host your project on the NML server while using any domain name not already in use or reserved. The New Media Lab controls newmedialab.cuny.edu, and we can provide you with a subdomain of it, such as your-name.newmedialab.cuny.edu or your-project.newmedialab.cuny.edu. You do not need to host your project on the NML server, but we encourage you to do so, both because it is free to you and because we can provide better support to locally hosted projects.
Custom Domain Names
If you would like a different domain name, you can lease one through a domain registrar. This allows you to use the NML server—or any other server to which you have access—but to have the public identity of the site be something such as your-name.com or your-project.org. (We don’t endorse any specific registrar, but we did register several domains with easydns.com and have so far found them reliable and easy to use.) Whatever domain you use for your site, we can help you set up DNS (Domain Name System) records, which computers use to look up the IP (Internet Protocol) address of the server on which they should expect to find site content.
If you register a domain name to be hosted on our server, you’ll need to set your A record to point to the IP address 146.96.128.39. If you’d like subdomains (including www.[your-domain]) to work, you will need to set your CNAME record for *.[your-domain] or just www.[your-domain] to point to your domain. Different domain registrars do this differently. If you need help, just ask us after your register your domain.
What a server does
The core function of a server is to respond to network requests. On the web, this usually means the server uses HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol). When a user’s web browser sends HTTP commands requesting content, software on the server computes what the request means, whether the server is allowed to provide that content, and then provides a response in the form of images, text, and other media described by HTML, Javascript, CSS, and other client-facing code. Occasionally, the server responds with static content, which is already written and not interpreted or modified by the server. More often, the server will interpret dynamic content, compiling information before it is served, using templates to combine and output information stored in a database. Similarly, when a user sends to the server data such as a form submission or file upload, the server computes whether to accept the data and, if it does, how to process and perhaps save it. Thanks to content management systems and other tools, web work doesn’t usually require deep knowledge of how a server works. If you’re nonetheless curious, we’ll tell you. But you were warned.
Security on our server
The New Media Lab’s server, named lw4, is configured with slightly tighter security policies than most servers. Consequently, server software cannot update itself. However, updates, themes, and plugins can be installed from the admin pages of WordPress using the same credentials used for uploading and downloading using FileZilla. Some Drupal changes can be made through similar means, though most require using FileZilla or a comparable program. Omeka and MediaWiki updates and extensions also require you to use FileZilla. In those cases where your CMS can’t manage its own updates or plugin and theme installations, follow the same steps you would to install a new CMS or plugin, described on the Installing Web Applications page.
Additionally, lw4 does not recognize .htaccess files. When allowed by a server, these files can be used to many of the server’s functions, such as redirecting traffic from one URL to another. NML staff can help install the same configuration instructions that would often be in a .htaccess file in your site’s configuration file.