AWC File Equivalencies

Charlie Balch
charles.balch@azwestern.edu
Spring 2009

Except to the extent to which location changes accessibility, the physical location of our files has little meaning for most computer users. We are, however, very concerned with the logical locations of our files. This document explores some logical locations of your files at AWC. Specifically showing access with Internet Browsers such as Internet Explorer, Windows Applications such as Word and Windows Explorer, and SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol).


The collage of Internet Explorer and FileZilla below shows three logical file locations that point to the same file. The address bar of the Internet Explorer window shows that Internet Explorer is displaying http://virgil.azwestern.edu/~cvb/frog.htm (Note: My AWC User login ID is "CVB" - your path uses your User Login ID and your file name.)

Below Internet Explorer is the FileZilla SFTP application window which has four annotated windows.

  1. The top left window shows the local drives
  2. The bottom left window shows the contents of Network drive "W: Webhome." which includes frog.htm
  3. The top right shows SFTP path "/export/home/cvb/public_html"
  4. The bottom right shows the contents of "/export/home/cvb/public_html" which include "frog.htm."

Thus the following all access the same physical file:

  • http://virgil.azwestern.edu/~cvb/frog.htm (Internet file server)
  • w:\frog.htm (Windows file structure)
  • sftp://virgil.azwestern.edu/export/home/cvb/public_html/frog.htm (SFTP file server)

Note:

  • Files in your Webhome/public_html are available to the general public via the web. These files will not be found with a Google search unless you make special efforts or the files are linked to from a file that is indexed by Google.
  • Files in your Userfiles/files are not accessible via Internet Browsers but are accessible via SFTP and your on-campus login.

AWC FileZilla Instructions : How to use FTP to get off-campus access to your files.