Choose the Web Publishing or File Storage Service
That Fits Your Needs

This chart is designed to show the various features available in Virginia Tech's Web publishing and file storage services. Whether it be hosting a Web site that you have created for a department, class or for individual use or storing files not meant for public use, there are publishing and storage services available for almost any need.

Still need help deciding which service you need? See Typical Web Publishing or File Storage Scenarios.

	Blackboard	Courseware	Filebox	Web Hosting	Individual NAS space (MyStorage)	Departmental NAS space
Availability	Faculty	Faculty1	Faculty/Staff Students1	Faculty/Staff Students1,2	Faculty/Staff	Faculty/Staff
Intended for Web publishing to larger audience	3	3
Intended for individual file storage
Intended for departmental/ organizational file storage
Intended for departmental/ organizational Web pages
Intended for student-accessible course materials
Support for file sharing & collaborative editing		4	4	4
Dynamic Web contents using PHP and MySQL
Accessible off-campus					5	5
Space quota	unlimited6	unlimited6	30 MB7	unlimited6	2.5 GB	case specific8
Other features	Web-based user interface only; many pre-defined collaboration features such as discussion forums, announcements, grade books	Web-based user interface (for permission management etc.) and WebDAV9 interface (for file transfer)	Web-based user interface (for permission management etc.) and WebDAV9 interface (for file transfer)	Web-based user interface (for permission management etc.) and WebDAV9 interface (for file transfer)	Accessible as a Windows share (works for Windows and MacOS); very fast file transfers	Accessible as a Windows share (works for Windows and MacOS); very fast file transfers

 

¹File read/write priviledges can also be made available to non-VT users; however the site management via the web-based user interface requires a Virginia Tech PID and password.

²Apart from departmental use, only student organizations, rather than individual students, may use the Web Hosting service.

³Only for course-related Web pages are allowed on Blackboard.

⁴Although this service allows for collaborative editing of documents it is not designed for it; speed and reliability are much better when using the NAS services.

⁵Some Internet Service Providers (e.g. Adelphia cable) block Windows-share based services; however, after configuring a Virtual Private Network (VPN), this service can be made accessible from any Internet-connected computer. For more information see the Virtual Private Network page.

⁶Space quota is subject to change depending on resource availability.

⁷Filebox space quota can be extended on request.

⁸Departmental NAS space quota is agreed upon during service setup and may be extended on request.

⁹WebDAV is a technology designed for publishing documents to Web servers; at Virginia Tech we offer the client software WebDrive for Windows and advocate the use of the Goliath software for Mac OS X earlier than v10.4 or the Finder for Mac OS X v10.4 and later.

Typical Web Publishing or File Storage Scenarios

If you are still having difficulty deciding which service is best for your needs, refer to the scenarios below and see which one best matches your situation. If you still need assistance, send an e-mail message to the Web Hosting group explaining your publishing or storage needs.

• You are a faculty member teaching a class who wants to provide online services for students without having to do much custom web development --> use Blackboard
• You are a faculty member teaching a class who wants to provide course web site for students with a high degree of flexibility --> use Courseware
• You are a staff or faculty member maintaining the Web site for your department --> use the Web Hosting Service
• You are a staff or faculty member who wants to use a file server for your department for backing up files, collaborating on documents etc. --> use the Departmental Network-Attached Storage (NAS)
• You are a student and want to publish a Web site or transfer files between home and campus --> use Filebox