FAQs - Frequently Asked Questions
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Frequently Asked Technical Questions



What are all the files and directories in my home directory?

www................This is your web directory. Place all your web files in there.

infobots..........This is where you will need to put all your infobot text files. More Info

anonftp...........This is your anonymous ftp directory. More Info

.redirect..........This is the configuration file for mail aliases. More Info

How do I run my own CGI programs?



Put your CGI programs in the cgi-bin directory.
  • The cgi-bin will automatically chage the permissions to chmod 755 for you
  • Its important because of the apache wrapper being run that scripts and there directories be chmod 755, chmod 777 will not work

A special note - this does not apply to frontpage webs, follow normal cgi instructions



How do I use cgiemail, Formmail and the graphical counters?


CGIemail:This is a program that will email you the forms filled out from the web.

Here's an example -

Create a text file called "example" in the main web directory.
This is the content of the file:



        To: joe@blue.com

        Subject: example




        This is a test message.

        This is a test message.

        name: [name]

        phone: [phone]


That is the file that will be sent to joe@blue.com.
Now, cgiemail will automatically replace [name], [phone], anything
in the brackets with the corresponding user supplied info from the web
form. Also, you MUST have the To: and the Subject: line followed by
the blank line. Those three lines MUST be on the FIRST THREE lines. You
cannot change the From: address.

Here is a part of the web form page called "example.html"

<form method="post" action="/cgi-bin/cgiemail/example"> <input type=text name="name">Your name? <input type=text name="phone">your number? etc...

If you want to have your own customized "success" page, place the following
line in your form page:

<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="success" VALUE="http://yourdomain/somepage.html">
It will then redirect to somepage.html.

Formmail is a very easy to use form processor, simply place the following on any page after entering your domain.






Be sure to replace yourdomain, with your real domain name

Full Formmail instructions click here


Page Counter: A graphical counter that you can use by placing the following line in your page:




<IMG SRC="/cgi-bin/nph-count?width=5&link=http://yourdomain/yourpage">
This is what the counter looks like :




How do I use the anonymous ftp site?

Your anonymous ftp site is completely different from your web site.

When people ftp to your domain anonymously, they will see the following
directories:

bin/ dev/ etc/ incoming/ lib/ pub/

"pub" is where you should put all your anonymously accessible files.
"incoming" is for the anonymous users to upload files.

For security the following applies

  • Only the incoming directory can be written to anonymously
  • Subdirectories are not creatable
  • The incoming directory is not readable by people dropping files there
  • You are responsible
    for any "pirated" software uploaded by the anonymous users. The anonymous
    ftp sites will be periodically monitored for any abuses.

    You may ignore the other directories.


    How do I create email aliases, and how do I redirect them?

    Assume your domain is "example.com".

    You need to edit the .redirect file in your home directory.

    Here is a sample .redirect file for example.com:


    

        default example@example.com

        webmaster example@example.com

        sales joe@aol.com,mike@whatever.com

        info robert@example.com

    That will automatically redirect all webmaster@example.com emails to
    example@example.com, sales@example.com to joe@aol.com AND
    mike@whatever.com, and
    info@example.com to robert@example.com. All others will go to
    example@example.com. Note that webmaster line isn't necessary, but
    it's better to specifically redirect it to example@example.com.

    It's important to note that the second column must be REAL accounts. You cannot redirect emails to an alias.
    Please note that it takes a few minutes for the .redirect file to go into
    effect after you've updated it.

    Ask us to create additional real email(POP) accounts.

    How do I use the infobots?

    Very simple. Just create a text file and put it in the infobots directory.
    Let's say that the name of the text file is "info". Now, when you send
    mail to info@example.com, you will get the text file mailed back to you.
    That's it. Try it out. There is no limit to the number of these
    infobots. Note that the name of the file is simply "info", and not
    "info.txt".

    How do I see who is using my infobots?

    Assume your infobot address is info@example.com.
    Just put the following line in your .redirect file.
    Its important that you have the infobot installed
    before entering the address line in the .redirect

       info example@example.com

    The original email message will be sent to example@example.com, and the
    original sender will get the infobot text.

    How do I create a majordomo mailing list?

    Ask us. Tell us the name of the mailing list and the password for it.
    Email domo@safe-order.net for full instructions.
    There may be extra charges if your mailing list is very
    large(>1000 subscribers).

    How do I use Real Audio?

    Real Audio is available for a small extra charge (email sales for more info)

    RealAudio is a real time audio transmission/player system. A digital audio 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.

    Each audio clip requires two files: a metafile with extension .ram, and the digital audio 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:

    pnm://your-domain.com/your-domain/name-of-clip.ra

    Place your .ram and .ra files in the realaudio subdirectory under your web 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 realaudio/file.ram under your www directory.


    How do I change my login password?

    Telnet to your domain. After you've logged on, type "passwd" to change
    your password. You can exit the telnet session by typing "exit".


    Boutique Shop Cart
    The Boutique Single page shop cart can be found in the following directory for those domains that receive it as part of their package.

    
http://yourdomain-name-here/shop/boutique.html

    Standard usage of the shop cart can be customized off the working Demo at the above URL. If you wish to use this as a secure document, you must change the following.

    • saleslip.html and boutique.html in the /shop directory
    • Replace it with the following:
    Note: Your particular server may differ from this info. Each domain is setup with it's own faq page similar to this one, for you to use.
    
https://plus38.safe-order.net/cgi-yourdomain/shop/boutique.cgi

    You will also need to link to the page using the following URL to be completly secure.

    
https://plus38.safe-order.net/yourdomain/shop/boutique.html

    in both cases above yourdomain must be replaced with your actual domain name with no extension. As example fred.com would just be fred inplace of yourdomain above

    How do I check the web usage stats for my domain?

    Stats are updated once a week. You may check your stats by
    going to http://yourdomain/wusage with your favorite browser.

    I need to configure my mail reading program so I can access my emails. What are the proper settings?

    Assume your domain is fred.com

    Smtp = fred.com
    pop = fred@fred.com
    from = anyname@fred.com
    passwd = the same used for FTP

    What is the correct path to perl(and other programs)?

    perl5: /usr/bin/perl
    perl5.003: /usr/bin/perl5.003
    sendmail: /usr/sbin/sendmail
    date: /bin/date
    java: /usr/bin/java
    python: /usr/bin/python

    Domain paths
    using example if your domain was fred.com

    • Main dir: /www/fred/
    • Cgi-bin: /www/fred/cgi-bin


    What are the basic Frontpage settings?

    assume your domain is fred.com

    location to publish to: fred.com (note if the domain is not active use the ip# we assigned)
    FTP server name: fred.com
    Directory path: /www/fred
    Username: fred
    Passwd: As-sent-to-you

    What are the basic Msql2 settings?
    Msql2 is a database engine, docs may be found at Hughes SQL
    We dont provide technical support on this because of its complexity, the basic access path is below

    To use this you must submit your domain name and a database name to us, so we can set it up for you

    for machine you put your system name. This is the name that the prompt says when you log into the shell
    /usr/local/Hughes/bin/msql -h machine database-name

    How do I create my own "404 Not found" error page?

    Simply create/modify the missing.html file in your main web directory.
    How do I use the SSL server for my order form?

    Normally, any text(such as your credit card number) sent from your browser to the web server is sent as plain text. This means that a hacker could potentially intercept(however unlikely) the information sent from your browser and read it.
    However, by using the secure server, the information is encrypted before it is sent from your browser. It would be practically impossible for anyone to decrypt it without knowing the key.
    Please use the secure server only when necessary.

    Assume your domain is example.com.

    Use the following url to access your pages via the secure server.
    Note: Your particular server may differ from this info. Each domain is setup with it's own faq page similar to this one, for you to use.

    https://plus38.safe-order.net/example/anypage.html

    The above page would be accessed from the normal web server as: 
    http://example.com/anypage.html

    Your cgi-bin dir is: 
    https://plus38.safe-order.net/cgi-example/

    *SPECIAL NOTE FOR FORMMAIL.CGI*

    If you are using formmail.cgi thru the secure server, you MUST use the following url:
    Note: Your particular server may differ from this info. Each domain is setup with it's own faq page similar to this one, for you to use.

    https://plus38.safe-order.net/cgi-bin/formmail.cgi



Here's an example:

    The last two line allow a link back to your main page - thus they get a report of what they ordered and a link. We made the modification for you already

    Its important that you call your order page thru a secure URL in order to work properly

    Ex. https://plus38.safe-order.net/yourdomain/yourorderform.htm

    How do I use the maillists directory?
    Email the following autoresponders for help
    SOLUTIONS TO COMMON PROBLEMS

    SOLUTIONS TO COMMON PROBLEMS

    Access logs

    "I can't find my access log!"

    They are in your home directory, this is the directory you are in when you first logon.

    2.1.2) Error logs

    "I can't find my error log?"

    We don't keep error logs for performance reasons.

    Cgi-bin scripts

    "Where do I put my cgi-bin scripts?"

    Put them in the subdirectory cgi-bin which should be under your www directory.

    Perl scripts

    "I am being told file not found"

    "I am being told No such file or directory"

    Upload your Perl script in ascii mode, not binary mode.

    Sometimes it seems like this is asked about once a day, so we're going to repeat it, loudly.

    Upload your Perl script in ascii mode, not binary mode.

    "I get errors such as 

    
Literal @sdfsdf now requires backslash at ./test.rob line 2, within string

Execution of ./test.rob aborted due to compilation errors."

    Place a "\" before such offending @ characters. This is an incompatibility between Perl 5 and Perl 4.

    Anonymous ftp

    "Where should I store files for anonymous ftp access?"

    Put files in the directory named anonftp/pub. This will allow a file to be accessed by a customer with ftp://yourdomain.com/pub/your-file-name.

    For security the following applies

    • Only the incoming directory can be written to anonymously
    • Subdirectories are not creatable
    • The incoming directory is not readable by people dropping files there

  • Setting permissions

    "Hey, how do I stop people who are not in my group from reading a directory?"

    Type chmod o-r directory while you are in the directory above it.

    "I don't care if people in my group can read my directory, but I don't want them to write in it!"

    Type chmod g-w directory while you are in the directory above it.

    "Who is in my group?"

    In general, each domain has its own group. If you find you are in the group users, let us know if you wish for your domain to have its own group.

    "Tell me more about permissions, they sound neat!"

    To list the access permissions of a file or directory, type ls -ls *. r=read access, x=execute access, w=write access. The first three letters apply to you, the second three letters apply to your group, the last three letters apply to everyone else. Execute access enables you to run programs or enter directories.

    Examples of using chmod: 

    
    PEOPLE                                    PERMISSIONS

    u = the file's user (or owner)            r = read access

    g = the file's group                      x = execute access

    o = others                                w = write access

    a = the user, the group, and others.



    chmod a+w =  let everyone write to the file

    chmod go-r = don't let people in the file's group or others to read

                 the file

    chmod g+x =  let people in the file's group execute the file

    Don't have permission to access /
    This error message means that you are missing your index.html file.

    Note that files that start with a "." are hidden files. To see them, type ls -al at shell prompt.

    If you wish to ftp this file in, go to the /home/fred directory assuming your userid is fred.

    I get a forbidden when trying to access my site
    This error is generally because you have not placed a default page in the main directory.
    A default page must be called index.htm, or default.htm and it should be your main page