Linux Web Hosting Manual & Guide
Chapter 1: General Features
1.1 Overview
1.2 What Do You Offer?
- 1.2.1 Web Space
- 1.2.1.1 MS-DOS Terminal Access
- 1.2.1.2 UNIX Shell Access
- 1.2.1.3 MS Windows Access
- 1.2.1.4 The "Home" Page and HTML
- 1.2.2 FTP Space
- 1.2.3 Telnet Account
- 1.2.6 Cgi-bin Access
- 1.2.10 Real Audio(tm) & Real Video(tm) Servers
- 1.2.13 Capture Mail for Domain - Default Address
- 1.2.14 HostForWeb SMTP Mail Server(tm)
1.3 How Do I Use This Program?
- 1.3.1 Mail Related Items
- 1.3.1.1 Mail
- 1.3.1.2 Pine
- 1.3.1.3 Eudora (windows mail program)
- 1.3.2 Managing the Linux Account
- 1.3.2.1 Symbolik Links (redirecting file access)
- 1.3.2.2 passwd (changing your password)
- 1.3.2.3 zip/unzip
- 1.3.2.4 du (disk usage)
1.1 Overview
HostForWeb handles all domain name registration documentation and filings with InterNIC (Network Solutions) for you. You need not do anything in regards to you domain name registration except to confirm the domain registration or transfer request when they email for your approval. Domain name registrations and transfers normally take 24-72 hours from the time you apply for your HostForWeb account, until the time the registration is completed. If you do not confirm the transfer of the domain name, your registration will be delayed until such time that you do such. If you do not have access to the email address that InterNIC has on file for your account, if it is already registered (not applicable to new accounts), you may need to fax them instead. HostForWeb will supply you wih all necessary details required for the fax documentation. Once your domain name is activated, you will be able to use yourname.com instead of your IP number. We highly recommend that you use yourname.com instead of your assigned IP number. As our customer base grows, it is very possible that your domain might be moved from one machine to another, thus changing your IP address from time to time. Accounts that do not come with static IPs can be accessed in the following methos for HTTP access: http://HostForWeb.net/~username
FTP access is gained via logging into HostForWeb.net OR the server's main IP address, with your assigned username and password, until such time that your own domain name is activated. Non-Domain name accounts, such as yourname.HostForWeb.net, have no waiting period for name activation.
Email Contact Info:
Sales Dept: sales@hostforweb.com
Support Dept: support@hostforweb.com
Billing Dept: billing@hostforweb.com
Internic Related: domains@hostforweb.com
Administration: president@hostforweb.com
Emergency: hfw@hostforweb.com
Webmaster: webmaster@hostforweb.com
Mailing Address:
2476 East Oakton St., Arlington Heights, IL 60005
Please include the login name and/or domain name you are referring to when you write to support. We can't yet tell from your e-mail address, unless we happen to remember working with you before, and we may need to know in order to help. If appropriate, tell us exactly what file(s) you are referring to.
HostForWeb offers storage space for web pages with global public access to those pages over the Internet. We also offer a limited form of program execution known as "cgi-bin". Our computers are Pentium III, or Pentium IV, class machines running the latest version of Apache web server software over the latest release of the Red Hat Linux operating system. Apache responds to web page fetch requests from remote browsers while Linux is one of several variants of the Unix operating system.
Every customer gets his own password protected username under Linux. By logging in to his username, the customer gains access to his web storage space. Every username "owns" a structure of disk subdirectories in the Linux file system. The "root" of this structure is the "home" directory, found at path "/home/username". Note that this is somewhat similar to the MS-DOS directory structure, except that there is no drive letter and forward slashes are used instead of backward slashes.
Inside the home directory is a subdirectory named "public_html". Every customer has his own separate "public_html" subdirectory. Files placed in "public_html" are visible to remote browsers over the Internet. As many clients are used to having their main directory refered to as "www", we have created another directory as such. When www is attempted to be accessed, the directory is automatically redirected to the correct public_html directory.
For example, when a browser asks for URL http://yourname.com/page.html, Apache looks for the file /home/username/public_html/page.html and sends it out. If you have not registered "yourdomain.com" with InterNIC and specified HostForWeb as its domain server, then the remote browser must ask for URL http://HostForWeb.net/~username/page.html to get the page, or the static IP number that you were supplied. Please be advised that static IPs may change from time to time, due to server re-arrangements that sometimes are necessary. Username/logins are always the first 8 digits of your domain name, or the the domain name itself if it is less than 8 digits.
Example:
The username for yourdomain.com would be "yourdoma".
The username for here.com would be "here".
Passwords are always 4-10 digits in length, as supplied by you.
Now that we know where the files have to be located in order to be visible from the Internet, just how do we put the files there? There are several ways, depending on the local computer. For the MacIntosh, a program called "Fetch" is used. Documentation on Fetch is not yet available. However, note that the binary mode referred to throughout the manual corresponds to the 'raw' mode in Fetch.
For MS-DOS systems, communications programs such as ProComm emulate dumb terminals for connection to Linux. (See 1.2.1.1).
For UNIX systems, use rlogin to connect. (See 1.2.1.2)
For Microsoft Windows systems, use FTP (See 1.2.1.3). This is the easiest method.
Set up your dumb terminal program under MS-DOS to connect to your local access provider. Log into your UNIX shell account and the use rlogin to get to your HostForWeb userid. Now follow the procedures under 1.2.1.2 immediately below.
After you have used rlogin to get to your HostForWeb userid, you should be at the shell prompt in your home directory. Type cd www to enter your www directory. Then use rz to upload files into your www directory. Please don't upload web files into your home directory!
One way to update pages is to enter your account with the command rlogin -8 -l user HostForWeb.net where user is your userid. This enables 8 bit access so zmodem can work. (Note this is the letter l, not the number 1.) Then type rz -a to upload a file or files to your directory. Type rz -ao if you wish to overwrite a file that is already there. You can edit files offline using a DOS editor and then upload them and test them before going offline.
The advantage of this over ftping is that you can then immediately run other shell commands after the files have been transfered. For example, you may wish to use lynx to test them or mail to send someone mail.
Note that the sequence rlogin -8 -l user HostForWeb.net plus typing in your password SHOULD be done via a modem script. You really don't want to be typing this stuff on a daily basis. Name your script HostForWeb. (Just be sure that the disk where your script is kept is physically guarded.)
This method is nearly intuitive and almost idiot-proof. You need an FTP program, many of which are available at Download.com. We recommend CuteFTP or WS_ftp. Then double-click on the FTP icon. This will bring up a "session profile" form. Under hostname, fill in your domain name (yourdomain.com, for example). Under username, fill in your username. Under password, put in your HostForWeb password. Make sure the checkbox for "Anonymous Login" is CLEARED.
At the bottom of the form, under "initial directories", you may specify which directories you want to work with on your local system and on your HostForWeb system. Under "remote host", specify /home/username/public_html. Under "local PC", specify the DOS path where your web files are located.
Hit the OK button. This will cause you to be connected to your HostForWeb acount. The right side of the screen will show the files in your public_html directory while the left side will show your local PC files. To send a file from your local PC to your HostForWeb public_html directory, click on the file you want to send and then click on the right arrow button. To send a file the other way, click on the left arrow button.
You will see two option radio buttons under the right window labeled "ASCII" and "Binary". For all text files, including html files, and perl cgi programs, be sure to select "ASCII" so the end-of-line conventions are handled correctly. Graphic/image files and sound files should be transferred in binary mode.
The filename of your home page should be index.htm or index.html. You must try them both, for each account may be set up differently., however, one of the two is sure to work. The web server will automatically send the file at path /home/username/public_html/index.htm or /home/username/public_html/index.html when a browser specifies http://yourdomain.com.
To learn how to write HTML, get Laura LeMay's books "Web Publishing with HTML in a Week", and "More Web Publishing with HTML in a Week" . Both are published by SAMS. Then find out about the latest Netscape extensions.
All accounts, except non static IP accounts, come preset up with an ANONYMOUS ftp area where files can be uploaded or downloaded by anyone in the world without a password. This area is necessarily separate from web space and password protected ftp space for obvious reasons. If you want both upload and download anonymous ftp, you may want a read-only subdirectory for distributing files and a separate write-only subdirectory for receiving files. This is to prevent files that you are distributing from being destroyed accidentally, and to prevent files uploaded to you from being distributed to others before you examine them. The location of this directory is /home/username/public_ftp/
Thru the browser control panel, you may also set up individual logins for extra FTP users, whom can have acces to a special subdirectory of your public_html directory. See the control panel instructions for informatioon how to go about this.
A telnet/ssh account is just another name for a Unix/Linux username. You need at least one to be able to upload/download your html files. When you sign up with HostForWeb, you get a username and password. You may ask for more than one such username. Regular accounts include one, Additional setups are available for an additional charge.
Multiple telnet/ssh accounts are useful when more than one staff member will be working on the domain. You may wish to set it up so that different accounts have different security levels. For example, you could make it so only one telnet account could access your listserver data. For those of you wishing sophisticated access control, we will be happy to create additional groups for your domain. That may not make sense to those of you who are not Unix veterans, but it can allow you to have one account able to access only one directory while your others can access all directories, including that one.
Some of the programs available at the shell prompt are mail, a primitive email program, and pine, a much more powerful email program, ftp, to FTP onto other sites, telnet, to telnet onto other sites, and lynx, a text-only WWW browser, pico, an easy to use text editor.
NOTE: Telnet is disabled due security reasons - Please use SSH access.
"CGI" stands for "Common Gateway Interface", a fancy name meaning computer programs running on the web server that can be invoked from a WWW page at the browser. The "bin" part alludes to the binary executables that result from compiled or assembled programs. It is a bit misleading because cgis can also be Unix shell scripts or interpreted languages like Perl.
A typical use for cgi is the processing of online forms. When the user fills in the boxes on the form and hits the SUBMIT button, the cgi program specified in the html will be run at the server, and the information in the boxes become available to the program as parameters. The program, being a program, can then do anything the programmer wanted it to do.
"cgiemail", for example, is a canned program written in C that gathers up the contents of the boxes on the form and emails them to a specified destination, then sends a WWW page confirming the action.
"imagemap" is another common use for cgi. Here, the X-Y coordinates of the pointer on an image are correlated with a specification table, so that clicking on different parts of the image will result in different links being followed.
Other cgis might ask for a password, check the password, then access a database for requested information. What it does is up to the programmer, but we do ask that the cgis are reasonable in their usage of CPU time and memory. While we do not require that they be submitted for approval first, out of control programs that hog the CPU and system resources will be hunted down and killed by our system monitors.
Standard pre-installed system cgis reside in the HostForWeb public cgi-sys subdirectory. Your presonal cgis reside in a web subdirectory named cgi-bin directory under your public_html directory. If your domain is named company.com, you would then access your scripts as http://www.yourdomain.com/cgi-bin, while the pre-installed system scripts are located at http://www.yourdomain.com/cgi-sys. You may need to set up the preinstalled scripts thru your browser control panel to see the correct HTML that is used for such. The browser control panel will walk you thru the simple processes.
See chapter four for more details on CGI.
Real( Servers are real time audio and/or video transmission/playing systems. A digital audio or video stream is transmitted from the server over the internet to the destination and played immediately, rather than being stored to disk first and then played. With this feature, visitors to your website need not wait for several minutes, or longer, to listen to an audio file, or view a video file, while the large file is downloading. With Real( technology, the audio/video starts playing from the first few bytes of data that is downloaded. This is called streaming technology.
Each Real( audio or video file you wish to transmit requires two files: a metafile with extension .ram, and the digital audio or video clip itself, with extension .ra. The .ram file holds one or more lines of ASCII text, each of which references the .ra file to be played when the .ram file is accessed by the browser.
Entries in .ram files have the form:
http://yourdomain.com/realaudio/filename.ra or
http://yourdomain.com/realvideo/filename.ra
Place your .ram and .ra files in the realaudio, or realvideo, subdirectory under your public_html directory. .ram files must be uploaded in ASCII mode while .ra files must be uploaded in BINARY mode. You may then access these files at http://www.yourdomain.com/realaudio/filename.ram or http://www.yourdomain.com/realvideo/filename.ram
Thru the browser control panel, you can configure your account to redirect all mail for your domain to arive at one email address. You may also configure all mail not specified otherwise to arrive at the "default" address. If no mail address is specified to capture all your non-specified mail, the mail will automatically default to your account username mailbox.
Only HostForWeb has the sophisticated HostForWeb SMTP Mail Server(tm) mailing system. In addition to being able to have nearly unlimited auto-responders by simply adding text files to your browser control panel, you can also redirect mail for everyone in your domain by simply clicking a few buttons.
Auto-Responder Example
A auto-responder is set up thru the browser control panel with the email address of help@yourdomain.com and says: We offer you help. Mail to help@yourdomain.com will return the message "We offer you help". These messages can be any size, even 100K!
Alias/Forwarding Example
Set up thru the browser control panel mail from "fred@yourdomain.com" to be redirected to "73452.452@compuserve.com ", by simply clicking a button This would redirect mail for fred@yourdomain.com to 73452.452@compuserve.com, etc. Mail to a user that was not set up as a pop account, nor as a alias/forwarder, would be sent to the default user.
Note that with the exception of the description of using Eudora, the commands you are told to type in this section assume you have logged on to the HostForWeb server with telnet or rlogin.
READING - Type mail to see if you have any mail. If you have any mail hit enter multiple times and all your messages will be displayed.
SENDING - type mail -s "juice" HostForWeb@HostForWeb.com<juice.msg to send the message juice.msg with the subject juice to HostForWeb@HostForWeb.com.
Type mail -s "juice" HostForWeb@HostForWeb.com juice is good . to send the message juice is good with the subject juice to HostForWeb@HostForWeb.com
Type mail HostForWeb@HostForWeb.com juice is good . to send the message juice is good with no subject to HostForWeb@HostForWeb.com
Type pine to enter a more advanced mail program.
Type L to select Folder List and then inbox to see what messages that you have received.
The rest of this program is quite easy to use. Why use mail instead? Mail has the advantage that it is easy to send files that you composed off line plus it is easy to read many files at once into a log file that you then read off line.
Eudora connects to the mail server over the Winsock. Mail may be composed and read offline, but make sure that Winsock is running before attempting to send or receive mail.
After Eudora has been installed, it must be configured to point to the HostForWebmail server. To do this, start Eudora and select "Special" from the menu bar. Then select "Settings". Most of the options are self explanatory.
- Leave the entries for PH, and Finger blank.
- Fill in username@yourdomain.com for your POP account (username replaced with your username and yourdomain.com replaced with your domain name).
- Fill in SMTP server as mail.yourdomain.com, where yourdomain.com is replaced with your domain name. Note: Some ISPs will not let you use any other SMTP server other than their own, so you may have to use your ISPs mail server instead. Contact your ISP for information as to the location of their mail server.
- Under advanced network features, select 90 seconds for your network timeout.
- The option save password should be checked.
- The authentication style should be password option.
- Under connection method, do not check the offline option.
If you have multiple email addresses, you can install a separate copy of Eudora for each email address. Newer versions of Eudora allow for multiple personalities. You can enter each POP/Login email account as a separate personality and download mail from all or some of these accounts at the same time.
Eudora "Light" is freeware offered by Qualcom and can be downloaded over the net. Eudora "Pro" must be purchased. Search for Eudora under Yahoo for details on how to obtain a copy.
To link one file to another in the same directory:
Type ln -s fred.htm index.htm to redirect all file accesses from index.htm to the file fred.htm , while you are in that directory.
To link a file in your current directory to a file in another directory:
Type ln -s /home/username/public_html/directory/joe.htm index.htm to redirect all file accesses from index.htm to the file fred.htm in the other directory, while you are in the index.htm directory.
Type passwd to change your password. Or type passwd username to change that of one of your ftp users or pop accounts. You may also change your passwords thru the control panel.
Type zip to zip files and unzip to unzip files. This program is compatible with the zip program for DOS. For example:
$ zip myzip file1 file2 file3
This puts the files file1, file2, and file3 into a new zip archive called myzip.zip. On the other hand, if you had the archive myzip.zip and wanted to get back the files:
$ unzip myzip
Typing zip or unzip by itself will give you a usage summary, showing nearly all the options availible.
The Unix command du -s directory shows how much disk space is used by a directory and everything below it. However, you may also check such on the front of your browser control panel for a pre-calculated figure. If you have an anonymous FTP area, also check du -s /home/username/public_ftp to see how much space your anonymous FTP users are using.
