Skip to content

Web Hosting♯

CTS maintains a variety of hosting environments on both Windows and Linux servers to meet the College's web hosting needs.

Questions regarding content hosted on the main Drexel.edu website

CTS does not maintain content on Drexel's main web site. For questions about content hosted under drexel.edu/engineering, please contact the College of Engineering's web team @ engineering@drexel.edu.

Drexel Logo Usage and other Identity Guidelines

University Communications provides guidelines for the use of Drexel logos, colors, fonts and other design elements. EPS and PNG files are available for download -- please follow the guidelines linked to above regarding logo usage.

Research and Student Group Websites♯

All Engineering research or student groups may request web hosting. We strongly recommend WordPress for these group sites -- the learning curve is shallow enough to allow new users to start managing their site quickly, while advanced users can customize sites from a wide variety of free or paid themes and plugins.

Research group sites are hosted at https://research.coe.drexel.edu/{department}/{research group name}. Plans to begin migrating existing sites under this new site hierarchy are still being finalized. All existing URLs still in use will be maintained.

Student group sites are hosted at https://orgs.coe.drexel.edu/{group name}. We will be migrating existing sites under the new site hierarchy shortly. All existing URLs still in use will be maintained.

Default WordPress Plugins and Settings♯

While we make every attempt to leave all settings up to the site owners to manage, there are a few plugins and settings we push to ensure the security and supportability of the sites we host.

By default, we disable comments via the Disable Comments plugin and disable the REST API via the Disable REST API plugin. We also install the MainWP Child plugin which allows us to tie the site into our MainWP management site so we can ensure security, theme, and plugin updates are applied in a timely manner.

Administering WordPress Sites♯

You can access the administrative login page for your research website by appending /wp-admin/ after your site URL (e.g. https://research.coe.drexel.edu/{dept}/{group}/wp-admin/)

If you've forgotten your password, there is a Lost your password? link from the site's login page that you can enter your email address and receive a password reset link.

Sites are set to restrict access to the /wp-admin/ folder to Drexel network address ranges to prevent brute-force attacks against our sites from off-campus. If you need to administer a CTS-hosted WordPress site from off-campus, simply connect to Drexel's VPN first and the site should work as expected. Attempts to access a site's admin interface from off-campus are directed to an error page with instructions for connecting to VPN.

WordPress Tutorials♯

The College of Engineering's Marketing and Communications team manages a sample research WordPress site that has recommendations and walk-throughs for managing the basics of setting up a new site.

CTS does not provide training or support for WordPress. There are a number of resources available online to help get users familiar with posting and editing content, creating new user accounts, and other normal site activities. New WordPress editors are encouraged to check out the following resources:

We've created a Team for Research Web Managers to ask questions or share ideas -- if you're in charge of your group's website, please feel free to join the group.

Hosting Datasets♯

For research groups that need to publish large data sets, separate space can be set up under https://research.coe.drexel.edu/shared/{dept}/{group}. This is meant for sharing publicly available datasets related to published research work with permanent URLs that will not change. Please contact us if you need space configured for your research group.

Direct File Access♯

While most of our research sites are managed via web-based content management systems, some sites are set up for direct access to the site files via SMB. We have recently blocked SMB access on the public IPs and hostnames associated with the servers, so please use the following hostnames to access your group's sites via SMB:

  • Main Web Server: \\coe-svw-web03.coe.drexel.edu
    • on MacOS/Linux, use smb://coe-svw-web03.coe.drexel.edu/
  • Legacy Server: \\coe-svw-web01.coe.drexel.edu
    • on MacOS/Linux, use smb://coe-svw-web01.coe.drexel.edu/

Security Management & Backups♯

CTS uses MainWP to manage our multitude of WordPress sites and centrally track updates and other security information. Drexel's Information Security team routinely scans all public facing servers managed by CTS to proactively report security issues to us for remediation.

CTS takes daily backups of our web hosts. We recommend using UpdraftPlus for sites that need more granular control over backups.

Requesting a New Site♯

If your group or project requires a website, we're happy to help install and host the site. If the site has special processing, storage, or framework needs that will not be fit under our existing hosting infrastructure, we will recommend other options. Please contact us to discuss details.

Assistance♯

CTS provides basic troubleshooting for issues with hosted websites. We do not provide content, design, or programming services for sites that we host.

Inactive Site Policy♯

If a site has not had any updates in over two years, the site may be taken offline or access restricted to Drexel's network based on the recommendation from the College of Engineering's Marketing and Communications team. Site maintainers will be contacted to see if the site is still needed or if there are access issues preventing updates.

The data is retained regardless of site status, so if you had previously managed a site that has since gone offline, please contact us regarding next steps to bring it back online or to access the archived data.

Hosting other sites♯

For Drexel faculty or staff involved in hosting events not directly related to the University, CTS can assist with basic web hosting needs provided proper attribution is given to Drexel University and the College of Engineering on the site. We may require that the requestor provide a domain name and SSL certificate.

Course Materials♯

We suggest that faculty use the Blackboard Learn learning management system provided and supported by Drexel's Instructional Technology Group (ITG). However, faculty members may wish to make certain course or supplemental materials available via direct web download. To that end, we host https://courses.coe.drexel.edu/. Access to this website is restricted to Drexel IP ranges unless explicitly requested by a faculty member for a given course folder.

Notes for faculty uploading content

  • Each department's faculty have access to \\coe-svw-web03.coe.drexel.edu\courses\{dept} as a network share.
  • To access from off-campus, please connect using Drexel's VPN.
  • If you want a folder or file to be hidden, please rename the extension to .old or append _disabled to the name.
  • If an index.htm or index.html file exists, it will be automatically displayed when browsing to a folder.
  • Empty folders will not be displayed via the web.

Faculty Websites♯

Faculty profiles and CVs are best maintained under the Engineering Faculty Directory on //drexel.edu/engineering. Due to the verbose nature of the official URLs, we have set up shorter URLs for each faculty member using the template:

https://faculty.coe.drexel.edu/{first initial last name}

By default, a faculty member's short URL will redirect to their official page on the Engineering website under the faculty directory. Some faculty may wish to host CV or small site that they may more easily update. Please contact us to request that your folder be converted from a redirect link to a virtual directory. You can access the folder via the \\coe-svw-web03.coe.drexel.edu\faculty\ network share.