Introduction

Product Overview

Installation & Use

Support & Troubleshooting

Links

 

 

updated:6/17/98

 



 

Installation & Use

Configuring Web & File Server Settings

This section will explain how to use the Web & File Server Admin program to enable File & Web sharing, FTP services, and connections from Windows clients (SMB).

[Advanced]

Launching the Web & File Admin Program

The Web & File Admin Program is used to access all server settings, and users & group information.

  • You can open the Web & File Admin program through ASIP Manager, or by double-clicking its icon in the AppleShare IP 6.0 folder.

  • You'll be prompted for administrator name and password. The administrator password provides a level of security to your AppleShare IP server. Without the password, a user cannot open the administrator program, where user logins are created, privileges enabled or passwords set.

    The administrator's name and password is the same as that entered in the "File Sharing" control panel (in "Network Identity" area), and can also be used by the administrator to log in remotely.

    For additional security, you can't change the administrator's password in the File Sharing control panel when the file server software is loaded. You can change it within the Web & File Admin program, but you'll need the password to open this application.

Forget the password? Use extension manager to temporarily diasable the ASIP Registry extension, and restart the computer. Open the File Sharing control panel, and enter a new password. Enable the ASIP Registry extension, and restart again.

Starting & Stopping Web Services

The Web & File Server is started and stopped from the Server menu of the Web & File Server Admin program.

You can also stop the server by quitting the Server application. Whenever stopping service or disconnecting users, you are given an opportunity to set a number of minutes before termination and send a message to connected users. This allows them time to close any open files they may have. If you change your mind, you can also cancel the shut down, by selecting that menu item from the Server menu. Connected users will receive a message indicating that they will no longer be disconnected.

This dialog box, as in previous versions of AppleShare file server software, foils attempts to perform an unattended shut down of the server, for example, so that all files could be backed up.

Dynamic RAM Allocation

Customers have asked AppleShare IP engineers to allow for more concurrent connections to the server. In response to this request, AppleShare IP 6.0 will now allow up to 500 concurrent connections if the two following conditions are met:

  • The server is a G3 with at least 128 MB of RAM installed.
  • There is at least 12MB of RAM available--above and beyond what has been reserved for other applications (via the cache setting, see below)--when Web & File Services are started.

There is no visible indication of whether or not the maximum number of connections allowed at a particular time is 250 or 500.

Configure Web & File Server Settings

Select Web & File Server Settings...from the Server menu.

This is where you control settings for:

  • Appleshare
  • Cache
  • FTP
  • General
  • Idle User Disconnect
  • Password
  • Serialization
  • Web Server
  • Web Plugins
  • Windows File Sharing

 

Each topic is discussed more fully below:

 

AppleShare

  • Enable File Server Multihoming over AppleTalk. Multihoming enables the file server to have a presence on more than one AppleTalk network, without the need for routers. For example, if your server had numerous network interfaces, such as LocalTalk network on the printer port, Ethernet network on built-in ethernet, and another Ethernet network on an ethernet card, turning on multihoming would allow all three networks to see and communicate with the server. Multihoming does not provide routing, so devices on the separate networks would not be able to see each other; but they could all see the server.

  • Enable clients to connect over TCP. This enables AFP (AppleTalk Filing Protocol) over a TCP/IP connection. If this option is set, when the client selects the server in the Chooser, the server sends its IP address to the client. Behind the scenes, if the client is configured for TCP/IP, the client will attempt the server connection using TCP/IP instead of AppleTalk (TCP/IP connections are normally more efficient, and thus faster than AppleTalk connections).

    Possible problem: If there is no IP connectivity between the server and the client, there may be a short period where nothing appears to happen; the client is waiting for a timeout (i.e., it will wait for a response from the server for a certain period of time before giving up). After the timeout it will connect to the server using AppleTalk. This is not a common occurrence, but might occur in a situation where the server has more than one network interface; it can only do IP over one of those interfaces. The new Appleshare 3.8 client allows you to cancel connections that are taking too long.

    TIP: Users can force an AppleTalk connection by holding down the Option key when selecting the server in the Chooser.

  • File server logon greeting. This allows you to set a message that will be sent to AppleShare users when they first log on to the server.

    This message can also be changed within the File Server application: Choose "Set Greeting…" from the Server menu.

 

Cache

The AppleShare cache improves performance by caching information into memory, and thus reducing wait times for data to be read from, or written to, server volumes.

By default, the server is set to use ALL but 1 MB of memory for caching. If left with this setting, the System Heap on the server would grow as file sharing was used, until the maximum cache size (=total memory - 1MB) had been reached. After that point, the least-used information stored in the AppleShare cache makes way for the new information.

If you need to run other services on the Appleshare file server, you can limit the amount of memory it will use by changing the "Reserved memory for other applications" setting to a higher number. Setting it as high as it will go will restrict the AppleShare caches to a minimum file and directory cache, part of a 6MB memory pool the file server will allocate on startup (i.e., when Web & File Services start up, you may notice the system heap increasing by approximately 6 MB.)

TIP: The Cache can be reset (all data flushed out) in the Web & File Server application. This may allow you to free up enough memory to launch a needed application without quitting the Web & File Services. Choose "Reset Cache" under the Server menu of the Web & File Server or Admin application. It may take a minute or two for the memory used by the cache to be released.

 

 

FTP

Checking "Enable FTP Service" (File Transfer Protocol) will allow clients to access files using an FTP client, such as Fetch or their web browser. All access privileges set up for AFP connections will still apply.

"Anonymous FTP" is similar to guest access on the File Server; anyone can login without a name and password. To enable anonymous FTP for the ASIP server, open the user called "Guest" and check the Anonymous FTP checkbox (described more fully in next section on Users & Groups). Unless anonymous FTP access is enabled, clients will need to enter their user name and password (with URL ).

  • If using an application like Fetch, you'll find fields for username and password. If using anonymous FTP, its common to use "anonymous" as the username and your email address as your password.

  • If using a web browser to connect, you can specify your username and password in the URL, for example

    ftp://username:password@your.servername.com

    or simply enter your name and password when prompted.

    If using anonymous FTP, you can simply use the URL

    ftp://your.servername.com

 

 

General

 

  • Web & File Server Name: This name is the same as that set in the File Sharing control panel, and is the name users will see in the Chooser when selecting the server. You can change it while the file server is running; changes take effect immediately.

  • Start Web & File Server on System Startup: Will automatically launch the Web & File Server application every time the system reboots. This information is stored in the Users & Groups data file.

  • File Server/FTP Client/Guest Connections: Allows you to set a maximum number of connections. You may want to restrict the number of users that can log in at any one time, to ensure a certain level of performance. You have the option of restricting all file server clients, or just guests.

 

Idle User Disconnect

This was a frequently requested feature. You can disconnect users if they've been idle for a specified period of time. You can decide whether this applies to registered users, administrators, or just guests, and you can send them a message upon disconnect

Note you can also omit users who have files open, to avoid data loss.

This feature is especially useful if you want to limit the maximum number of concurrent users; you can prevent people from staying logged on indefinitely, tying up one of your connections.

 

Password

  • Disabling logins after X many failed attempts, and requiring a minimum number of characters are security enhancements.

    Be careful when setting the value for disabling login after so many failed attempts; if you make this value too low, you'll be barraged by absent-minded clients who disabled their own login by running through their repertoire of usual passwords.

    Keep in mind that the client software for certain types of access (FTP, Web) will not support messaging from the server, informing them that their password has expired or their login has been disabled.

  • When you 'enable users to save password for automatic log on', clients can go to the Chooser and click a checkbox to automatically mount that server volume at system startup time.

    Information on the volume, plus users name and/or password are stored in the AppleShare Prep file in the System Folder:Preferences folder on the client). When only the user's name is saved, the client is prompted to enter the password at system startup; if both name and password are saved, they automatically log in. This is a security risk. If data security is a priority, do not check this box. The "Save My Name and Password" option will then be disabled, as shown above.

    If users have already saved their name and password for login, they will continue to be able to login automatically; you'll need to delete their AppleShare prep file on the client machine to prevent it.

 

Serialization

This is where you can see what your serial number is, or remove the serial number to add a new one. (You cannot list more than one serial number here.)

The serial number is stored in both the Users & Groups data file, and in Easy Set Up Preferences. When copying a U&G data file to another server that will run Web & File Services, the serial number should be changed in the other server immediately. Web & File Services will not startup if a duplicate serial number is detected on the network. Only the Web & File Services component of AppleShare IP looks for a serial number, so there will be no problem moving the Users & Groups data file to a server that will run only Mail Services or Print Services.

When duplicate serial numbers appear on the network, the server administrator should make every attempt to locate the renegade server and disable it, or enter a different serial number in it.

 

Web

  • Enable Web Service allows clients to acccess html files on the server.

  • Client Connections allows you to specify the maximum number of Web connections that will be accepted.

  • Enable Web Log will cause events to be written to a text file. Web logs can be used for troubleshooting, or simply for tracking Web services. Writing to a web log may affect overall server performance.

  • Enable directory listing will list the files and folders in a directory, similarly to as they appear in a Finder window. This feature is useful when you want visitors to be able to download or upload files in that directory (much like how Apple Software Updates works). If there is a file in the directory named "index.html", the page will be downloaded to the client instead of the directory being displayed.

  • Current Web Folder This is the folder in which all your html files reside. Visitors browsing your web sites will normally only be able to access directories and files within the Web Folder; other data on the server will not be accessible to them, even if it is in shared volumes.

    You will need to set access privileges on this folder to allow visitors to access it. The folder does not need to be made a share point.

    If you want your web visitors to be able to access files not in the Web Folder, you can do so by:

    • Configuring the appropriate level of access privileges for that other folder on the server that you want your web visitors to access.

    • Creating an alias to that folder.

    • Placing the alias in the Web Folder

      The default Web Folder contains a Plug Ins folder and an Errors Files folder. If you change the current Web Folder, move these folders to your new Web Folder.

  • Current Default Home Page File: this file is the one that will be served to visitors to your site, if they specify no other directory or page.

 

Web Plug-ins

Plug-ins are like extensions to Web service; they add functionality. ASIP 6.0 supports W*API (Application Program Interface) 1.2, making it compatible with most third-party plug-ins.

Technical support for Plug-ins are provided by the third-party software developers.

 

Windows File sharing

This is where you can enable SMB (Server Message Block), the type of file sharing built into Windows 95, NT and other clients.

    Give the server a valid Windows network host name (less than or equal to 13 characters, generally avoiding punctuation and special characters), and a valid workgroup name or Windows NT domain name.

    TIP: If practical, make the Windows network host name for your AppleShare IP server match its unqualified DNS host name. For example, if your DNS has an entry for your server as "asip1.mycompany.com", give your AppleShare IP server the Windows network host name of "asip1". This will help solve some name resolution issues (described in the Related Topic "More on SMB")

    Tip: If any Windows NT domains are available on the subnet, use one as AppleShare IP's workgroup name. This helps with cross-subnet network browsing, because NT domains can cross subnets, but workgroups cannot.

 

Related Topics