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CHAPTER 2. General Features
2.1. Analyzing Your Site Traffic
2.2. Email Alias and Forwarding
2.3. Email Autoresponders
2.4. Majordomo Mailing List
2.5. Telnet
2.6. Anonymous FTP
2.7. Password Protecting Web Directories
2.8. SSI
2.1. Analyzing Your Site Traffic
2.1.1. Wusage 6.0
To count accesses, there is a directory called webstats in your
www
directory. To access it, just log on the Internet and with your
web
browser, go to:
http://www.yourdomain.com/webstats/
*For some customers, url may be as follows:
http://www.yourdomain.com/wusage/
You will see a webpage with statistics for your domain for the previous
week. If you are a brand new domain, you won't see any statistics
there
yet. If you go to the link from that page leading to Weekly Reports,
you
will see a much more detailed report, including pie charts, graphs,
etc.
These reports are automatically generated for you once each week,
and
are stored in one place so you can compare weekly statistics easily.
The previous week's data is erased each Sunday. For password protecting
your webstats/ directory, please go to Password Protected Subdirectories.
2.1.2. Raw Log File
In your home directory, you will see a file called access-log. You
can
download this file using a FTP program and open it in any word processor
to see exactly what files were accessed, what domain the visitor
came from, the dates and times of each visit, etc. You can also
download this file to be used with your own web traffic analyzer.
The previous week's data is erased each Sunday.
2.1.3. Referral Log
By turning on the referral log, you will be able to view regular
domain
names in your traffic report rather than IP addresses.
This is an optional service you can purchase for $2/month. Please
use
the form at http://resources.HostAvenue.com/support/add.htm
2.2. Email Alias and Forwarding
There is a file in your home (root) directory called .redirect.
This
file can be downloaded, edited and uploaded using any FTP program.
You can also edit the .redirect file by using telnet to your account.
Just
make sure that each of your redirects is on its own line, with a
space
between the name and where you want it directed to. Don't add empty
lines between entries, and make sure the file is saved in text (ASCII)
format, and uploaded in text (not binary) format.
Creating an Email Alias and Forwarding Them
You need to edit your .redirect file.
1) Log into your account on our server using an FTP program. Make
sure
you are in your home directory - /home/[username]/
2) Highlight a file called .redirect and download it into your local
computer.
3) Open it up using a text editor such as Notepad. You will see
that it
already has one entry that looks like this:
default [username]@[yourdomain].com
IMPORTANT: This line must be left as is, otherwise your POP
email
accounts will become non-functional. Without adding new entries,
any email that has whatever@[yourdomain].com will end up in your
default email box - [username]@[yourdomain].com
4) If you want all email to your domain to go to your already existing
POP account account somewhere else, you would add a line like this:
default [username]@[yourdomain].com
[username] you@somwhereelse.com This will redirect email addressed
to whatever@[yourdomain].com to you@somewhereelse.com
5) Suppose you want to create an alias called "fred@[yourdomain].com"
and you want to forward only email to fred@[yourdomain].com to an
email account somewhere else, you would add a line like this:
default [username]@[yourdomain].com
fred you@somwhereelse.com
By doing this you have created an email alias called "fred"
and now our
email system will forward all email to fred@[yourdomain].com to
you@somewhereelse.com.
6) Let's take a look at a more complex example:
default [username]@[yourdomain].com
fred you@somewhereelse.com,john@aol.com
info john@aol.com,jane@compuserve.com
sales [username2]@[yourdomain].com,jane@compuserve.com
In the above example, fred, info, and sales are email aliases and
are
being forwarded to corresponding email addresses on the same line.
You
should note that each alias must be on its own line. You can redirect
email to a particular email alias to up to 4 different email addresses.
You can have as many email aliases as you want as long as you add
them on separate lines. Remember, there are no spaces between email
addresses. There is a space between the aliases and the email addresses
being forwarded.
7) After you have finished editing your .redirect file, you should
save
it. Using your FTP program, upload it to your home directory. Make
sure
you are uploading it in ASCII format.
After editing the .redirect file, please wait 10 - 15 minutes to
test
it. The change will not become active for 10 -15 minutes.
Email redirects can be used in conjunction with Autoresponders to
return
an error message to people sending emails to invalid email addresses
on
your domain. This autoresponder could send back an error message
like
"Oops, you reached an invalid address, please try again."
See
Autoresponders for how to implement this.
2.3. Email Autoresponders
An autoresponder is a simple way of setting up an email address
which
will return a message automatically when someone sends email to
it. Here are the instructions for setting this up.
In your root (home) directory, there is a directory called infobots.
Set
up a welcome message in this directory -- you can name it anything
you
like, but for our example we'll call it info. Don't call it info.txt
--
just name it plain info with no file extension. The text for the
welcome
message could say:
"Thank you for requesting more information about our webpage
design
package. We have several design packages to choose from. Here are
our prices..."
Now, whenever someone sends email to: info@yourdomain.com they will
automatically receive that text email message to whatever email
address
they specified as their return address. It's as simple as that.
2.3.1. 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.
info example@example.com
The original email message will be sent to example@example.com,
and the original sender will get the infobot text.
IMPORTANT: Please be sure to put the text file in the infobot
directory
before putting the alias in your .redirect or the infobot will not
work.
You can have as many Autoresponders as you want. Just save them
all in the infobots directory and give them each a unique name of
anything with between 3-16 characters long.
2.4. Majordomo Mailing List
With qualifying accounts, at least one Majordomo mailing list comes
standard with the plan. You should request the mailing list to be
setup
at http://HostAvenue.com/support/add.htm
Majordomo Users Guide
Once you receive your Majordomo password, you can start using
the
list. It is being served by an automated mailing list manager
that
responds to commands emailed to the "Majordomo address"
listed above. This guide has all the details of how to manage
your list remotely using Majordomo.
******
There's a lot of info here, so please read this completely and carefully,
and save it for future reference.
******
Your list-owner password is shown above. Keep track of this;
you'll
need it later. Instructions for changing your password are
below.
As soon as possible, please issue a "newinfo" command
for your list (see
below) to create the file that someone will receive when they join
or
ask about your list. You can issue a "who" command for
your list to see who's already on your list. You may or may
not already be subscribed to your own list.
================
The Gory Details
================
Your mailing list is managed by an automated mailing list management
program called Majordomo. Majordomo should free you from dealing
with most of the administrivia usually associated with running mailing
lists (adding users, dropping users, etc.).
To submit something to your list, you (or anybody else) should simply
mail it to the list posting address shown at the top of this file.
To be added to your list, a user simply sends a message to majordomo.
address-- To: majordomo@FooBar.COM
message-- subscribe ListName
Majordomo understands several commands, and is not limited to a
single
command per message (it will process commands until reaching
end-of-message or the command "end"). The command
"help" will tell
you about all the other commands.
Actually, it won't tell you about _all_ the other commands that
Majordomo understands. There are several commands there for
use by
list owners such as yourself, which are not advertised to the public.
All of these commands are password-protected on a list-by-list basis,
but anyone with a valid list/password combination can invoke these
commands. This is not exactly high-tech security, but it's
more
intended to keep annoyance to a minimum than to be foolproof.
The "documented" commands which Majordomo understands
and which are for everyone to use are:
subscribe <list> [<address>]
unsubscribe <list> [<address>]
which [<address>]
who <list>
info <list>
index <list>
get <list>
lists
help
end
You can get detailed explanations of all of these by asking for
"help"
from Majordomo (send a message containing just the word "help"
as the
message text to majordomo@FooBar.COM).
The "undocumented" commands for use by list owners are:
approve <passwd> {subscribe|unsubscribe}
<list> [<address>]
This is so that you can
approve subscription or unsubscription
actions that need approval
by the list owner. Note that this
is just a standard "subscribe"
or "unsubscribe" command prefixed
with "approve <password>"
(where you substitute the password
for your list, which is listed above, for "<password>").
approve <passwd> who <list>
This allows you to get
the list of addresses for your anonymous
list. Without the
password, even the list owner can not see who is
on the list.
passwd <list> <old_passwd> <new_passwd>
This is so you can change
the password for your list, if you desire.
newinfo <list> <password>
This is so that you can
replace the information file that people
get when they do "info
<list>" or "subscribe <list>".
It reads
everything after the
"newinfo" command to end-of-message or the
word "EOF"
on a line by itself as the new info for the list.
config <list> <password>
Retrieves a self-documenting
configuration file for the list <list>.
The <password>
can be the password contained in the file
<list>.passwd or
the admin_password in the configuration file.
newconfig <list> <password>
Validates and installs
a new configuration file. It reads everything
after the "newconfig"
command to end-of-message or the word
"EOF" on a
line by itself as the new info for the list. The config file
is
expected to be a complete
config file as returned by "config".
Incremental changing
of the config file is not yet supported. As
soon as the config file
is validated and installed its settings are
available for use. This
is useful to remember if you have multiple
commands in your mail
message since they will be subject to the
settings of the new config
file. If there is an error in the config file
(incorrect value...),
the config file will not be accepted and the error
message identifying the
problem line(s) will be returned to the
sender. Note that
only the error messages are returned to the
sender not the entire
config file, so it would be a good idea to keep
a copy of your outgoing
email message.
writeconfig <list> <password>
Write a new config file
in standard form. Writeconfig forces a
rewrite of the config
file with all comments and default
values in place. It is
useful to use after an upgrade of
majordomo since it will
add the new keywords for people to
change. It also updates
the documentation in the file if that
has changed.
=====================
Configuring Your List
=====================
You should retrieve the configuration file for your list. To do
this,
send an email message to the majordomo address listed at the top
of
this form. The contents of this message should be:
config <list> <List
password>
Where <list> <List password> are given at the top of
the form. You
will receive a config file that can be used to change the operation
of
your list. If the information at the top of this form shows that
resend is being used, you want to configure the majordomo and resend
subsystems. Otherwise you only have to configure those items that
are
associated with the majordomo system.
The configuration file is meant to be self documenting. Once you
have
completed all of the changes to the config file, You should use
the
newconfig command (described above) to put a new configuration file
in
place.
If you have a digest version of your list, you should retrieve the
config file for the digest as well using:
config <Digest List
Name> <Digest list password>
and configure the parameters for the digest and majordomo subsystems.
========
Approval
========
When Majordomo requests your approval for something, it sends you
a
message that includes a template of the approval message; if you
concur,you simply need to replace "PASSWORD" in the template
with your list password, and send the template line back to Majordomo.
The requests for approval that Majordomo generates all start with
"APPROVE" in the "Subject:" line.
You aren't limited to approving only things to Majordomo requests
approval for. You can approve any "subscribe" or
"unsubscribe" request,
regardless of whether Majordomo has requested this approval, with
an
"approve" command. Thus, you can subscribe or unsubscribe
people from your list without them having to send anything to Majordomo;
just
send an appropriate "approve PASSWORD subscribe LIST ADDRESS"
or
"approve PASSWORD unsubscribe LIST ADDRESS" command off
to Majordomo.
================
Bounced Messages
================
Majordomo may bounce certain messages that people attempt to post
to
your mailing list. These messages may be bounced because they
appear to be administrative requests (i.e., someone mailed a request
to subscribe or unsubscribe to the posting address rather than to
Majordomo or to the request address), because they are too long,
because they match strings that you or the list server owner has
defined as being "taboo", or for any of a number of other
reasons, many of which may seem annoying but have been decided upon
as being useful in stopping unwanted messages from making it onto
your list. (These are often configurable, so if you find a
check to be too restrictive you can generally turn it off.)
Note also that the bounces mentioned here are not the same as the
errors that will be returned by various mail servers when addresses
or hosts are unreachable. Those are generally referred to
as bounces, also; sorry for the confusion.
Majordomo will forward these messages to you in another message
whose subject line begins with the word "BOUNCE"; the
subject line will also indicate the name of the list the message
was bounced from (in case you manage more than one list) and the
reason the message was bounced.
If you decide that the message is OK and should not have been bounced,
then you can cause Majordomo to post it anyway by sending the message
back to the posting address (NOT to the Majordomo address) with
a special "Approved: password" header.
To do so, follow the following directions _exactly_:
1) Save the original message (the body
of the message you received
from Majordomo) in a file. The portion you need will consist
of the headers of the original message, followed by a single blank
line, followed by the text of the original message. You do
not need to include any of the headers of the message which contained
the original message. Here's a quick example:
From: majordomo@list.server
\
To: your-list-approval@list.server | Don't want these headers
Subject: BOUNCE: taboo_header found /
- Blank line
>From list-member@her.site date \
Received: some long routing info | Headers of
original message;
From: list-member@her.site
| You want these. It's OK if you
To: your-list@list.server
| don't have the first line.
Subject: Just a message
/
- Blank line, you _must_ have this!
Hello. I'm just writing to
\
consume some bandwidth and
| Message body; include all of
take up space in your mail
| this.
spool!
/
Basically you want everything after (and not including) the first
blank line.
2) Edit the file to insert a line that
says "Approved: password" (where "password"
is the password for your list) at the top, before the original message,
with absolutely no intervening space:
Approved: sekrit
>From list-member@her.site date
Received: some long routing info
From: list-member@her.site
To: your-list@list.server
Subject: Just a message
Hello. I'm just writing to
consume some bandwidth and
take up space in your mail
spool!
3) Send this edited file back to the posting
address for your list (NOT to Majordomo). You should make
sure that your mailer doesn't try to do anything like include
your prepared mail as an attachment, encode it somehow, indent every
line, or add anything extra to the beginning or end of the message.
There are mailers that will do pretty horrible things to messages
before they are sent; you should take care that you aren't using
one or, if you are, you have it configured to pass your text on
unchanged. This time around, Majordomo will notice the "Approved:"
line and check it against your list password. If it matches,
Majordomo will strip off the header of your message and the "Approved:"
line (leaving just the original message), and send the original
message on through.
Even your own messages may be bounced to you for approval.
To send out your own message without server checks (perhaps you
know it contains something the list server will complain about)
you can pre-approve the message using one of the two following ways:
If you're using a mailer that can add additional headers, add one
like
the following:
Approved: sekrit
It's precise location within the headers is not important.
If your mailer does not allow you to add additional headers, you
can add
the line:
Approved: sekrit
as the first line of the message, followed by a blank line (which
is
required for your message to be sent properly) followed by the text
of
your message. The Approved: line and one following blank line
will be
deleted and the message will be passed without being checked.
The blank line is important because it is used to differentiate
between a pre-approval and the approval of a bounced message, outlined
above.
==========
Moderation
==========
If your list is moderated, (the moderate parameter in the config
file is yes) then messages without an "Approved:" line
are bounced,
just as described above. To cause them to be posted to the
list, you
add a valid "Approved:" line and send them back, just
as described
above.
===================
Restricting Posting
===================
An easier alternative to moderation is to restrict who can post
to the
list, which can be done with the restrict_post configuration variable.
The variable requires a file listing the people who can post.
The most common case is to limit posting to people who are subscribed
to the list. This keeps out advertisements and other junk
mail sent
by non-subscribers. Since majordomo already has a file of
subscribers,
you don't need to create and maintain a file, so it's easy to set.
Change the restrict_post line to this, where <listname> is
the name of
your list:
restrict_post = <listname>
If you want to restrict posting to any other set of people, you'll
need to ask majordomo-owner for help. Unfortunately there's
no way to
tell majordomo about keeping another file of people who are allowed
to
post, so a file would have to be set in place "by hand".
Some future
release of majordomo may provide a way to do this automatically.
=======
Digest
=======
A digest version of a list is a way to reduce the number of messages
sent from Majordomo to subscribers. Normally, each message
to the list is remailed to all the subscribers, but with a digest,
several messages are collected into a batch and then sent together
as one message. This does not reduce the total size too much,
although there are fewer mail header lines-- the main purpose is
to reduce the number of separate messages.
This actually helps the mail systems at both ends, and may help
subscribers reduce clutter in their mailboxes.
A Majordomo digest is actually a separate mailing list. The
digest of
ListName would normally be called ListName-digest.
People subscribe independently to ListName and ListName-digest.
Very likely no one would want to be on both lists. To change
between
ListName and ListName-digest, a subscriber needs to unsubscribe
from one list and subscribe to the other. This can be done
with one
message to majordomo@FooBar.COM with two command lines in it, e.g.:
unsubscribe ListName
subscribe ListName-digest
Remember that ListName-digest will have its own information file
and
configuration file. Change them, if you want to, when you
change the
same files for ListName.
Majordomo will send a digest automatically when the size of the
digest
exceeds the size given as max_length in the configuration file of
the
digest list. The default max_length is 40 K. Thus the
interval
between digests can vary, but they will be of a predictable size.
2.5. Telnet
A telnet account is just another name for Unix/Linux UserID. When
you
sign up with us, you get a UserID and password. You may ask for
more
than one such UserID. See the Fee Schedule for pricing. Each telnet
account for your domain has its own separate home directory, but
shares the same www and FTP directories.
You need a telnet client program to access your telnet account.
Simply
put in yourdomain.com as the host, and connect to the server. When
you
are connected, you will be prompted for your UserID and password.
Some of the programs available at the shell prompt are:
•mail - a primitive email program
•pine - a more powerful email program
•ftp - to FTP onto other sites
•telnet - to telnet to other sites
•pico - an easy to use text editor
•vi - a not so easy to use (but standard) text editor
•Joe - another easy to use text editor
•lynx - a text-based world wide web browser.
In general, it's a pretty complete POSIX environment. You access
these
programs by typing in their names and then following commands relevant
to each program. If you need help with any of the programs, at the
shell prompt, type man and the name of the program to get instructions
for that program online. If your problem is not knowing the name
of the program, try apropos subject (i.e. apropos mail). It is important
to remember that Unix is case-sensitive, and that "Index.htm"
is not the same as "index.htm."
QUICK TIP: If you experience problems with your telnet program
when
accessing the above programs you will need to make a entry in your
login directories .bash_profile file. Just add the following line
to the file:
export TERM=vt100. This will allow you to access all shell programs
properly.
NOTE: Telnet account is provided for file manipulations such
as changing
permission settings, password protecting sub-directories, and other
minor account maintenance. It is not provided as a full-blown Unix
account. Please make sure that you not abuse your telnet privilege.
9+ Character Names
A name of anywhere from 3-16 letters is legal for email accounts,
FTP
accounts, and telnet accounts. There is no limitation for file names
on
the server.
2.6. Anonymous FTP
IMPORTANT: Your anonymous ftp account is for light use only.
Your web
hosting account is not designed for heavy anonymous ftp usage for
the
purposes of distribution programs and/or multimedia files.
Please
contact us for special pricing for such usage.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Accessing the Anonymous FTP site via the Web
To access the anonymous FTP site via the web, use the following
address:
ftp://[yourdomain].com/pub/
Your HTML to download a file called mirc511s.exe from a webpage
would
look like this:
<A HREF="ftp://[yourdomain].com/pub/mirc511s.exe">Download
Mirc Now</A>
You should tell your visitors that they may need to right-click
on the
link if they are PC users, or if they use a Macintosh, they need
to hold
down the mouse button on the link, then select the appropriate option
from the Pop-up menu.
Please note its possible during peak hours to receive a "to
many
anonymous users error", We must restrict the number of simultaneous
anonymous users to keep the webserver and normal FTP performance
within normal limits. If you receive this error often you may want
to put you downloadable files in your main web directory and link
to them with a http call.
Example:
http://[yourdomain].com/files.zip
This assumes the zip files are in the main web directory.
2.7. Password Protecting Web Directories
QUICK TIP: If you are a FrontPage user, you should use the
password
protection tool that comes with FrontPage. More detail
IMPORTANT: You will need to use both FTP and Telnet to use
this feature. This means if you have Value Plan, you wouldn't be
able to use this feature.
2.7.1. Using .htaccess
Suppose your domain name is foobar.com and want to password protect
http://foobar.com/members/ you would need to do the following:
1) Using a text editor such as Notepad in your local PC, create
a file
called ".htaccess". Note that there is a period
in front of htaccess.
The file should contain following lines:
---COPY EVERYTHING BELOW--------------------
AuthUserFile /home/foobar/.htpasswd
AuthGroupFile /dev/null
AuthName ByPassword
AuthType Basic
<Limit GET POST>
require user Spock
</Limit>
---COPY UP TO THE LINE ABOVE---------------
IMPORTANT: DON'T forget to replace "foobar" with
your own domain name.
Please don't include .com or .net extensions.
2) Save the file in plain text.
3) Upload the file via FTP to /www/foobarmember/ Make
sure you are
uploading it in ASCII (plain text) mode.
4) Log onto your account on our server via Telnet.
5) Type following line at the command prompt and hit return:
htpasswd -c /home/foobar/.htpasswd Spock
This will create a file named .htpasswd in your home directory.
6) you will be prompted to type in the password for Spock.
7) Let's say you want to add another user called Kirk.
8) Type folling line at the command prompt and hit return:
htpasswd /home/foobar/.htpasswd Kirk
9) You would then add "require user Kirk" to your .htaccess.
It would
look like this:
---COPY EVERYTHING BELOW--------------------
AuthUserFile /home/foobar/.htpasswd
AuthGroupFile /dev/null
AuthName ByPassword
AuthType Basic
<Limit GET POST>
require user Spock
require user Kirk
</Limit>
---COPY UP TO THE LINE ABOVE---------------
10) That's it. Test it by visiting http://foobar.com/member/ You
will be
prompted to enter username and password.
2.7.2 Adding Additional Users and Passwords
pairs
1) Again telnet to your account.
2) Type following line at the command prompt and hit return:
htpasswd /home/foobar/.htpasswd Sulu
IMPORTANT: DON'T forget to add "require user Sulu"
to your .htaccess
file.
3) You may reuse existing user/password combinations that you created
in your .htpasswd file to allow access other password protected
directories just use the right user name in the .htaccess file.
IMPORTANT: You should store the .htpasswd file in your home
directory so it is hidden from others.
2.8. SSI (Server Side Includes)
In order for your SSI to work, the web page must have either .sht
or
.shtml extensions.
Sample SSI:
<!--#exec cgi="/cgi-bin/count.cgi"-->
Please note that the url must be relative as shown above. Following
would not work:
<!--#exec.cgi="http://yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/count.cgi"-->
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