Version 2.1


NetCloak

User's Guide


"Dynamic Web Sites...

...No Programming Required"


Server Configuration

Configuration Outside of NetCloak

There are a few configuration items outside of NetCloak that have an effect on how cloaking works and how some things are displayed:

1. WebSTAR's Use DNS Option - You probably want the "Use DNS" option to be off in WebSTAR. This will speed up your server, but more importantly makes WebSTAR pass the TCP/IP address of the user to NetCloak without trying to resolve the machine name. This setting affects the DOMAIN commands in NetCloak. If "Use DNS" is off, NetCloak will expect numeric IP addresses (like "198.85.68.67") as the parameters in HIDE and SHOW_DOMAIN commands, and the INSERT_DOMAIN command will insert the client's IP address. If "Use DNS" is on, DOMAIN commands will use domain names, like "maxum.com" instead of IP addresses. See the "Commands" section below for details.

2. Date & Time control panel - The <INSERT_TIME> and <INSERT_DATE> commands will display the time and date based on the setting of your Mac's "Date and Time" control panel. Make sure that the time and date formats are set according to how you would like them displayed on your pages. Since the date and time functions of NetCloak rely on the server's system clock, make sure the time and date are accurate.

Configuring NetCloak

NetCloak offers several configuration options that allow you to change the basic ways in which it operates. Here is the main configuration dialog presented when you choose "Misc. Configuration..." from the "Configuration" menu.

Logging

NetCloak can maintain a log in addition to the one created by your Web server. The format of NetCloak's log file is identical to the WebSTAR log, so you can use the same tools to process log files from either. Information included in the basic log is date and time of the request, status, the user's IP address or domain, the file requested, and the size of the response. The NetCloak extended log adds the username, password, referrer, and browser type. This extra information is added at the end of each line, so it should not interfere with log analyzing programs that expect only basic information.

One advantage to using the NetCloak log is that it will log only your HTML pages. When a client requests a page with multiple images on it, your normal Web server log will contain several entries, one for the HTML page and another for each of the images linked into the page. This redundancy is often unneeded, and causes your log files to quickly become very large. In addition, the Web server incurs the overhead associated with logging each page served multiple times.

By shutting off your Web server log, server performance will improve and your logs will be more manageable. The NetCloak log can then be used to show you who has visited your site and when. Of course, NetCloak will only log those file requests that it processes, so be aware that some site access will not be logged at all. This may not be appropriate for all Web sites, but for those whose logging requirements aren't as strict it is an excellent way to improve performance and simplify site management.

Security

NetCloak provides several security options designed to make your server as secure as you need it to be while giving you flexibility that is not possible with your Web server alone.

For aliased documents, the alias name, not the file name, is checked to see if the document is a member of a realm. Make sure that aliased documents contain the character string that defines the realm in the alias name.

Any document on any volume mounted on your server can be accessed through NetCloak by specifying a full path for an aliased file(See "Serving Cloaked Files" above). This includes files outside the Web server root folder and even documents on remote volumes. For this reason, you can restrict access to non-aliased files. You can specify that:

1. No files will be served unless specified by a NetCloak alias.

2. Only files in the server root folder or its sub-folders can be served.

3. Any files on any mounted volumes can be served.

Note that these restrictions also apply to files inserted by the Macro command, but NetCloak aliases are exempt from these restrictions. An alias to a document outside the Web server root directory will always be accessible.

File Defaults

There are 3 special files NetCloak requires to handle certain HTML requests.

1. The "Default Page" is the name of the page NetCloak will look for when the user specifies only a directory (including the root domain). For example, if the default file is set to "HomePage.html", then NetCloak will look for that filename by default when only a directory is specified by an incoming URL request.

2. When NetCloak is unable to find a file that matches an incoming URL, the "Error" file is returned. The error file can be specified as another CGI application, in which case NetCloak will call the CGI to handle the bad request.

3. The "No Access" page is returned when a user is denied access to a page because their IP address is denied or because they fail to enter a correct username/password for a password protected page.

These files are also set within WebSTAR (as well as most other server applications), so NetCloak can automatically retrieve the file information directly from WebSTAR. If you are using another Web server package that does not support WebSTAR-style CGI call-backs, then you can set the file defaults yourself.

Short Time

To change the option in Short Time and Short Date just pull down the Configuration Menu and select the one you wish to change with your cursor. The selection will be either checked or unchecked.

When "Short Time" is checked, the <INSERT_TIME> command will insert the time with hours and minutes only. When unchecked, seconds are included in the display.

Short Date

When this option is checked, in the <INSERT_DATE> command will insert the date using the "Short Date" as defined in the Macintosh "Date & Time" control panel. Short date formats look like "12/25/96". When not checked, the "Long Date" will be used instead. Long date formats look like "Thursday, December 25, 1996".

Hide (Show) Status Window

The NetCloak status window can be hidden to remove clutter from your desktop or to keep NetCloak out of sight. This is done by selecting the "Hide Status Window" option. When the status window is hidden, the menu option will become "Show Status Window".


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