Mason Web Space


  1. get your PIN straight
  2. activate your MASON web space account
  3. create a public_html folder in your MASON web space
  4. upload an image to your MASON web space with an FTP program to make sure you can log in to the MASON account and upload a file


PIN (Personal Identification Number):

To activate your account or reset your password on various GMU accounts, you will need your student i.d. number (your G# or your Social Security number) and your PIN number (usually your Patriot Web PIN).

If you have already logged in to Patriot Web and know your Patriot Web PIN, you should be set.

If you have never logged on to Patriot Web, the initial default for your 6-digit PIN is your birth month, day, year in the format (mmddyy). For example, if your birthday is March 1, 1980, your PIN will be (030180). This PIN will be used for the initial login to the Patriot Web Self Service. You will be required to change the PIN after the initial login.

In the past, the PIN was the 4-digit number students used to register for classes by telephone (usually given to you by the Registrar when you first sign up for classes). If you are a student who has been around a while and already had one of these, they have been updated to 6-digits by adding two zeros on to the end of the number. If it was 7588, it is now 758800.

Important Note: Only try to activate your Mason Web Space two times. On the third time it will lock you out for 24 hours. So, decide two approaches to try: (G# and Patriot Web PIN, or SS# and old updated PIN, for example). If neither of these work, don't try a third time.

Instead, call ITU Support Center in Innovation Hall (703) 993-8870 if you have a cell phone, or just go down to IH 233 and bring your GMU ID. The staff should be able to reset the account and provide you with a new 6-digit PIN. (If you are off campus you can also e-mail the ITU Support Center at support@gmu.edu.)

Also see:



Mason Web Space:

Before you can upload any files to the web, you need to activate your Mason web space. (This is a separate account from your MEMO email account). All Mason faculty, staff, and students are automatically given accounts on the Mason system (osf1). These accounts have 20 MB of storage space and can be used for class assignments, personal Web space, and for certain programming functions. New accounts on the Mason cluster are created automatically, and are simply waiting to be activated.

To activate your new account or reset your password, you can:

  • Visit the web page http://mason.gmu.edu and click on the link for "Obtaining Your Mason Cluster Account", or you can go directly to https://mason.gmu.edu/ISO/SysEng/Mason/account.html and follow prompts.

  • Call the ITU Support Center at (703) 993-8870 and provide your 9-digit GMU ID number/G# and PIN number. The staff will provide you with a new 8-digit random password.

  • Visit the ITU Support Center in Innovation Hall, Room 233, and please bring your GMU ID. A Support Center Analyst will be able to facilitate changing the password.


Public_html Folder:

Once you have your account set up with a username and password, you will need to set up your folder if you wish to use the web space for a web site. ISPs (Internet Service Providers such as AOL and Erols) have different requirements as to where they want you to put your Web pages. At Mason, it is set up so that you must create a folder called public_html in your web space, and you must put an HTML file in your public_html directory called index.html. This is done so that the path to everyone's Web page is similar. For example, if user jsmith properly created a Web page and she wanted to give out the Web page address, she would give the following address: http://mason.gmu.edu/~jsmith

To set the public_html folder up you need to log in to your account via telnet. The University now recommends using SSH Secure Shell for both telnet purposes (which allows you to set up the web folder and activate it) as well as for transferring files from your desktop to the Mason web space (ftp). SSH is currently on all computers in Innovation Hall.

To use Secure Shell to telnet in and set up public_html folder

  1. Log into Mason (osf1) using the SSH Secure Shell Client.
    • Double-click the SSH Secure Shell Client desktop icon (or from the Start menu, select Programs, then select SSH Secure Shell).
    • When the SSH Secure Shell dialog box appears, press < ENTER >.
    • In the Connect to Remote Host dialog box, type the following:
      In the Host Name field, type osf1.gmu.edu.
      In the User Name field, type your osf1 usemame.
    • Click Connect.
    • If the Host Identification dialog box appears, click Yes. (Note: This dialog box will only appear if you have never logged into osf1.gmu.edu before.)
    • In the Enter Password dialog box, type your osf1 password.
    • Click OK.
    • In the next dialog box, you should see the osf1 prompt (osf1.gmu.edu) and can now work with your account.
  2. Create the appropriate directory. At the Mason prompt (osf1.gmu.edu>) type:
    mkdir public_html and press the < ENTER > key
  3. Make your public_html directory accessible to everyone, type:
    chmod 755 public_html and press the < ENTER > key
  4. To change permissions on your account so that the directories you create will be visible, type: cd and press the < ENTER > key (to get to your home directory). And then at the next prompt type: chmod 711 . (yes, that's a space and a period after the chmod 711) and press the < ENTER > key
  5. As you add pages to your public_html directory you may need to change permissions on those files; if so, go back into telnet and type: chmod 755 public_html/* (Typically, it is no longer necessary to do this, but if your files aren't showing up try it.)

To end your Secure Shell session:

  1. At the osf1 server's prompt, type exit and press the < ENTER > key. You are now logged out from the osf1 server.
  2. Quit the Secure Shell program.

Also see:



Uploading/Downloading

FTP (file transfer protocol) programs allow you to log in to your web space and provide you an interface for transferring files from your desktop to your web space and vice versa. On most programs, the screen will be split into two halves: the left side is the PC you are working on, and the right side is the server space you have logged into. Most programs allow you to simply drag files from one side and drop them in the other side.

Once you have set up and activated your web space, download the new Mason logo to your desktop.

  • go to Mason web guide
  • scroll down and pick an image
  • put cursor over image
  • right click on mouse
  • select save as
  • select the desktop
  • click save

Use Secure FTP to upload the image from the desktop to your Mason web space. You'll use your Mason id and password.

Setting up your Profile

  1. Double-click the Secure FTP desktop icon (or from the Start menu, select Programs, select SSH Secure Shell, and then select Secure File Transfer Client).
  2. Select the icon on the menu bar labeled Profiles.
  3. Select Add Profile from the list.
  4. Type the name of your profile in the field (for example, mason).
  5. Select the Profile menu again.
  6. Select Edit Profiles.
  7. Select the tab labeled Connection.
  8. Enter osf1.gmu.edu (or mason.gmu.edu) in the field labeled Host Name.
  9. Enter your username in the field labeled User Name.
  10. Leave all other tabs and fields to default settings, click OK.

Uploading/Downloading

  1. Once the profile is set up, click on "mason" (or whatever profile name you chose)
  2. a dialog box should appear, enter your password
  3. if the password is accepted, the right or server side should appear and you will see your public_html folder
  4. double click on the public_html folder to open it, it should be empty
  5. select the image file on the left or desktop side that you want to upload and simply drag and drop it on the right side.
  6. if the file appears on the right it has been uploaded to your web space (you simply reverse the process from left to right to download files from the server to your PC)
  7. in a browser, go to mason.gmu.edu/~yourusername/mason.gif (or whatever name you gave the mason image) to make sure the file is viewable from the web

Once you get home, you'll want to download an FTP program to your computer and set it up (unless you already have an FTP program). Some html editors such as Dreamweaver have ftp programs in them. Other programs such as WS_FTP for PCs and FUGU for Macs are available for free from the internet. Mason is now recommending SSH FTP and you can download it for free from Mason.


<< Back to Syllabus