Off-Campus File Access: Connecting Via a Web Browser

When connecting via the web, a web browser is used to display your files. This method is the slower of the two and should only be used from infrequently used computers such as a computer in an Internet café.

Web Browser Compatibility

The following web browsers are compatible with the off-campus file access:

  • Internet Explorer 5.0 and later
  • Netscape 6.0 and later
  • Mozilla 1.0 and later

Other browsers will not work or will not work correctly.

Making the Connection

  1. Open your web browser.
  2. In the URL field, enter ‘https://axel.stolaf.edu’
  3. When prompted, enter your username and password. Uncheck the box ‘Save this password in your password list’. Click OK.

    web login

  4. You will see the web interface to your files.



  5. When finished, click the logout button.

About the browser display

By default, the browser displays your files in the ‘Folder View’. This view is similar to the Windows Explorer or the Macintosh Finder.

The browser window is split into two sections. The left side displays a hierarchy of directories. The right side displays a list of files and folders. When you click on a folder on the left side, its contents are displayed on the right side of the window.

Alternatively, you can change to the ‘Text View’ by clicking the Text View button .

The text view uses only text to represent files and folders and therefore will provide better performance on slower Internet connections.

In the text view, each file or folder is displayed as a hyperlink. To distinguish files from folders, look at the Size column; a folder will be listed with a size of ‘0’. To open a folder, click on the folder name. To move up one level of folders, click the ‘Parent Directory’ hyperlink at the top of the page.

Downloading Files

Because of the web interface, you cannot open files directly from the web browser. To work with a file, you must first download it from the server to a local hard drive. When you are finished working with the file, you can upload it back to the server.

  1. Navigate to the file you wish to download and click on it.
  2. Click on File and select Download… (In the text view click the Download… hyperlink).
  3. You will be prompted to save the file, just as if you were downloading a file from another Internet site.

Note: You can only download one file at a time.

Uploading Files

  1. Navigate to the folder to which you want to upload a file.
  2. Click on File and select Upload… (In the text view click the Download… hyperlink).
  3. You will be prompted to browse to a file to upload to the server.



  4. Click the Browse button and navigate to the file you want to upload.
  5. Click the Upload button to upload the file to the server.



    Note: You can only upload one file at a time.

 

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