Sambar Server Documentation

Frequently Asked Questions (2)


Is there a way I can use spaces in my page names ?
Why are there sometimes "ghost" watcher or Sambar Server icons ?
Why do I get the FORBIDDEN form when "successfully" logging in to the sysadmin area ?
What is the robots.txt file used for ?
Why does the modem try to connect when I'm accessing my local server ?
Why has my RDBMS "not been validated with the Sambar Server" ?
Does the Sambar Support Active Server Pages (ASP) ?
Why does the Sambar Server conflict with the running of programs such as Eudora ?
Why do I get an ever-increasing thread buildup when running the Sambar Server ?
Why do I get a Forbidden message after logging in to the System Administrator forms ?
My server crashed, what happened?
How do I get AOL Instant Messenger or ICQ to work ?
Why do many Java applets fail ?
Does the encryption used in the passwd and RC@encrypt use a server-specific seed ?
How can I redefine an icon displayed with files when listing a directory ?
What does the Automatic Directory Readme directive do ?
Why won't the server start if the calendar is set past 2038 ?
What is the favicon.ico used for ?
Is PHP supported ?
Why doesn't /session/adminlogin?RCpage=/search.dll work ?
How do I modify the user login timeout duration ?
Why does the server fail to start with the error port 110 is in use ?
Why do RAS ports periodically fail on my server ?

Full Documentation

Is there a way I can use spaces in my page names ?
You can use filenames with a space in them by replacing the space in the URL with '%20' (without the quotes). For example: http://localhost/this%20file.htm

Why are there sometimes "ghost" watcher or Sambar Server icons ?
The ghost icons are a problem with the system tray updates. The problem is that if the Sambar Server is not shutdown gracefully (or more often, when it shuts down the Watcher Daemon), the program does not unregister itself with the system tray. These ghost icons go away when you move your mouse over them.

Why do I get the FORBIDDEN form when "successfully" logging in to the sysadmin area ?
There are two common causes for receiving the FORBIDDEN form when "successfully" logging into the system administration forms (that is, you get the login form and correctly put in the username/password).

  • Verify that COOKIES aren't turned off in your browser.
  • Verify that you are entering via http://localhost/session/adminlogin?RCpage=/sysadmin/index.stm
    By default, the config.ini file limits access to the sysadmin are to localhost (127.0.0.1).

    What is the robots.txt file used for ?
    The robots.txt file is for web robots like those used by search engines. This file indicates what areas of the site may be searched and what areas should not be searched. See info.webcrawler.com/mak/projects/robots/robots.html for more information.

    Why does the modem try to connect when I'm accessing my local server ?
    When your browser is configured to use the Sambar Server as a proxy server, you must also configure your browser to not use the proxy for local server accesses (i.e. localhost). If you fail to configure your browser in this manner, the Sambar Server proxy server will connect to your remote service each time the server is accessed.

    Why has my RDBMS "not been validated with the Sambar Server" ?
    The Sambar Server uses an RDBMS infrastucture that is common to several applications developed by Sambar Technologies. This infrastructure is capable of generating DDL such as schema and index creation unique to specific databases. The Sambar Server does not use these elements of the RDBMS infrastructure, so this error message can be ignored.

    Does the Sambar Server support Active Server Pages (ASP) ?
    The Sambar Server supports Microsoft ISAPI functionality which should be enough to support Active Server Pages. Regretably, Microsoft restricts ASP installation to their own web servers (PWS and IIS).

    Halcyon Software Inc. provides an ASP implementation that can be configured for use with the Sambar Server.

    Why does the Sambar Server conflict with the running of programs such as Eudora ?
    Regretably, I do not yet have an answer for this problem. The conflict is only reported when the Sambar Server ODBC interface is enabled. The solution for NT users is to run the Sambar Server as an NT Service (make sure the ODBC datasources are configured as System DSNs).

    Why do I get an ever-increasing thread buildup when running the Sambar Server ?
    Many users running Windows95/98 or WindowsNT experience an increasing thread-count in the Sambar Server display which will eventually cause the server to crash. This problem is most likely caused by bugs in the Microsoft winsock driver that shipped with Windows 95/98 and NT. By applying the latest OS patches from Microsoft, the server thread count should stay at between 4 and 10 during average use.

    Why do I get a Forbidden message after logging into the System Administration forms ?
    By default you must> connect to the server via http://127.0.0.1/session/adminlogin?RCpage=index.stm to access the administration pages. Remote machines can be granted access by adding host IP addresses to the valid System Administrator IPs. Failure to have your IP address in the System Administrator IPs will result in an "Invalid Login" message.

    Assuming you are logging in correctly, the three most common causes of the Forbidden message are:

    • Browser cookies are not enabled. Cookies are required for user logins.
    • The browser is going through the Sambar Server Proxy to connect to the server. Modify the browser proxy configuration to "Don't Use Proxy" for local connections (exclude localhost:80 from going through the proxy).
    • The Administrator login has timed out. User logins are automatically timed out after a system defined Timeout Duration or Admin Timeout Duration (depending on the client classification); the login timeout duration defaults to 30 minutes for users and 5 minutes for system administrator logins (see the [events] section of the config.ini file.

    My Server crashed, what happened ?
    When the Sambar Server crashes, a crash debug file sambar.dbg is generated in the Sambar Server installation directory. This file provides a stack trace of the server crash that can be used by Sambar Technologies to diagnose (and hopefully) fix the server crash.

    How do I get AOL Instant Messenger or ICQ to work ?
    These programs rely on the SOCKS protocol to support operation behind a proxy. You will need to enable the SOCKS proxy within the Sambar Pro Server and setup DNS on your local network to get these to work. Important: The SOCKS5 proxy has a 300 second idle timeout, so ICQ must be configured accordingly.

    Why do many Java applets fail ?
    Many Java applets require that DNS be setup on your local lan in order to communicate back to the machine from which the applet was served.

    Does the encryption used in the passwd and RC@encrypt use a server-specific seed ?
    The encryption performed in the server uses a "seed" found in the config.ini file: Public Key = Sambar Server Encryption Key. This key can be modified to ensure that encryption on the server is different on each server installation; modifying this key affects all passwd entries as well as RC@encrypt function calls. The one drawback to changing htis key is that the sacrypt and htpasswd utilities have this seed hard-coded in them. A future release will permit these utilities to be passed in an arbritrary seed.

    How can I redefine an icon displayed with files when listing a directory ?
    The configuration file config/iconmap.ini contains the icon mappings for displaying files when a directory listing is performed by the server.

    What does the Automatic Directory Readme directive do ?
    If Automatic Directory listings are enabled, then before listing the contents of the directory, the server first looks for a README file to display above the directory listing. You can go to any directory where you do not have an index.htm file and create a file called README. Then visit the directory with your browser and the contents of the README file should be listed before the directory listing.

    Why won't the server start if the calendar is set past 2038 ?
    Time is calculated from 1970 in seconds on most machines using the time() function. In 2038, the number of seconds that can be stored in an integer is reached and time() returns -1. The Sambar Server requires time() for many internal uses so it won't start if time() returns -1 on startup. Most folks (myself included) seem to figure that 64-bit machines will eliminate this problem long before 2038 so there hasn't been much effort to fix it.

    What is the favicon.ico used for ?
    Visitors to your site using IE5.0 who add your URL to their "list of favorites" result in a request for /favicon.ico from the server. IE5.0 uses this ICO file when display the URL in the Favorites pulldown.

    Is PHP supported ?
    PHP4 is supported in 4.3 production and later releases on Windows using the ISAPI interface. See the ISAPI Applications documentation for installation instructions.

    Why doesn't /session/adminlogin?RCpage=/search.dll work ?
    The Sambar Server automatically executes RPCs and then returns the page identified by RCpage if the RPC did not return any output. The RCpage parameter cannot always be used. A second directive, RCredirect should be used for dynamic modules such as the ISAPI DLL in this example.

    How do I modify the user login timeout duration ?
    User logins are automatically timed out after the system defined Timeout Duration; the login timeout duration defaults to 30 minutes. To modify the user session timeout, modify the Timeout Duration in the [events] section of the config.ini file.

    Why does the server fail to start with the error "port 110 is in use" ?
    This indicates that you have another application, typically a mail server, running on your machine. In addition to mail servers, some antivirus software (specifically, Norton AntiVirus 2000) runs on this port to intercept POP3 traffic between your mail client and server. There is a workaround for proxy server users; those wishing to use the Sambar Mail Server must disable the application running on port 110.

    Why do RAS ports periodically fail on my server ?
    Microsoft Support Online article Q238171 indicates that in some cases, RAS ports disappear after a client disconnects (when using the Sambar Server proxy, the RAS port is continuously being connected and disconnected). The RAS problem arises from a mismatch in two different RAS modules, rasman.exe and rassrv.exe. The free port never reinitializes, it just disappears. Microsoft corrected the port disappearance in a late 1999 patch to rassrv.exe which you can get from Microsoft Support. This bug applies to all versions of Windows NT, independent of service-pack level.

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