Getting Started - DPO Web Site

If you have reached this page without applying for and receiving a new DPO account, please go here first to do so.

Otherwise, welcome aboard! The first and most important thing you need to know is that your DPO username and password are the same as your BlazerID (also known as your Phonebook alias) and password.

Your DPO account provides up to 5MB of disk storage** where you can store World Wide Web (WWW) pages for others to view with browsers such as Netscape, Microsoft Internet Explorer and so on. Your Web pages are required to comply with the specifications outlined in the UAB World Wide Web Pages Policy.

To make these available, you will need to use an FTP client (such as WSFTP for Windows or Fetch for Macintosh), or the file transfer capability built into some browsers, to transfer the files onto your space.

The FTP username and password will be your DPO username and password (which are also your BlazerID/Phonebook alias and password).

Your pages will need to be stored under the /web directory in your account. If you wish to have a "home page", it should be named index.html (in all lowercase). Any web page files you place here must end with the suffix .html or .htm in order to be recognized as such. Your pages will be available at the URL:

If no filename is provided, your home page (if you have one) will be displayed. An error will be displayed if you do not, or if the URL does not match an existing file.

More information about developing and uploading your web site can found be found on the DPO main home page under the section Your Web Page.

If you have any further questions, you can drop us an e-mail at UserServices@uab.edu. Please be aware that we cannot offer any assistance with the actual design of your web pages. There are a number of books on the subject, tutorial and information available on the Internet, as well as classes available through other UAB departments, to get you started.

A Note About Web Publishing Software

A number of products are now available which allow WYSIWYG design, creation and transfer of web pages. At this time, we do not specifically support or endorse any of them. Most should be compatible with our system, as long as they use FTP for uploading completed HTML to the server, and do not expect any additional software or functionality on our end.