Online Manual: General Controls Click here to exit manual

General Controls Remote Server Setup Virtual Site Settings Reports Support Multimedia Overview

FireSite's "General Controls" are settings that take effect for your entire FireSite server. Each option is discussed in detail below.

Enable/Disable FireSite Server-wide
This feature is used to help you test FireSite, and to make easy comparisons between your server with FireSite, and your server without FireSite.
As soon as FireSite is correctly configured, it automatically "activates" itself. You may wish to operate your server without any of the FireSite services active. By selecting "Deactivate FireSite", you put FireSite into a "standby" mode where it will stay until you select "Activate FireSite" again. This allows you to deactivate and re-activate FireSite easily without shutting down your server.

Speed of this server's Internet Link
To correctly calculate statistical information, and to make the best decisions about what files should be replicated to which remote servers, FireSite needs to know the communications speed of the link between your server and the Internet.
If you use a regular modem and phone line, enter your modem speed. If you have a digital Internet link (ISDN, 56K, or other), enter the speed of your digital connection.

FTP Tracing
This feature is useful for helping you set up the information for your remote servers correctly. FireSite uses the standard "FTP" protocol to replicate files onto the remote servers. FireSite has a built-in FTP program that is designed to transfer files "gently", while still allowing visitors to access your site. If you wish to watch the progress of FireSite as it transfers files, turn on FTP Tracing. The transcript of the FTP session will appear in the Web Server's status window. Your FTP password will not be displayed.

The Multisite Index Page
This is the server-relative URL (such as /multisite-index.html) of the page that is served when FireSite cannot determine what page is being requested.
FireSite can always determine the correct page when the visitor is using a contemporary browser such as Netscape 2.0 or later, or Microsoft Internet Explorer 2.1 or later. In addition, FireSite can usually determine the correct page to serve, even if the visitor is using an old browser (or if the visitor is actually a Web-crawling program).
However, sometimes (usually about 0.1% of the time) FireSite cannot find the requested URL unambigiously, and the Multisite Index Page is served.

The Multisite Index Page that you create should contain a greeting, and hyperlinks to all your virtual Web sites, like this:

<a href="http://www.firstco.com/"> Visit FirstCo! </a>

Note that the hyperlink URLs on your Multisite Index Page should include only the "host name", and not the directory that the virtual site is in.

CGI and Action Processing ("Autoproxy")
FireSite has the ability (which is enabled by default) to make all your CGIs and plug-ins "virtual-domain-savvy" by re-writing their HTML output on the fly.
You may wish to exclude certain CGIs, plug-ins, or URLs from this "autoproxy" system, and you can exclude them simply by entering a "match string" in the field provided. By default, "pi_admin" is excluded so that you can access the administration pages of other plug-ins without going through the autoproxy system.
If a plug-in supports the PIXO standard for plug-in to plug-in communications, FireSite will communicate directly with the other plug-in. Otherwise, communication is performed through TCP/IP connections. PIXO is much faster, but not all plug-ins support it yet.

"Action" Error Processing
FireSite has the ability to serve a distinct Error page for each virtual site on your server. In order to do this correctly, you need to configure these settings. If an ACTION is file-based then you should configure FireSite to "Serve the Error Page" if the requested file is not found.
For example, if you use NetCloak to process your .HTML files, then the NetCloak/.HTML ACTION is file-based because it requires actual HTML files. In this case, you should set NetCloak/.HTML to "Serve the Error Page" if the .HTML file is not found.
On the other hand, the "Count WWWebula" plug-in is not file-based because Count WWWebula generates it's GIF images on the fly. Therefore, the "CountWWWebula/.COUNT" ACTION should be set to "Run the Action Anyway" if the requested file is not found.

Authorization Keys
This area lets you add and remove FireSite Authorization Keys. This area will not be visible on the "FireSite Setup" page unless there is a REALM protecting the page. You may install more than one key at a time, and the effects are cumulative. For example, you may install a FireSite Standard Edition Key, and also try out a FireSite Multimedia Edition Key at the same time.
You should remove keys that have expired, just to keep things tidy.

Additional Options in the Multimedia Edition

Disk Info Cache Time
This lets you specify how long to cache file info and file data in FireSite's internal RAM caches before re-checking the disk for changes. If changes are found, FireSite will refresh it's own caches, and inform other plug-ins that they should, also.

In the other Editions, this parameter is set to 10 seconds and cannot be adjusted.

RAM to Use for File Cache
This lets you specify how much RAM FireSite should use internally for caching files. Because of the way FireSite operates a 'streaming cache', only portions of each file need to reside in RAM at any given time, and a 3-4Mb FireSite cache is just as fast as a larger one.

The streaming cache in FireSite operates using multi-threaded, asynchronous disk I/O which allows it to stream large files quickly and smoothly, similar to the way QuickTime can play smooth video from a CD-ROM.

In the other Editions, this parameter is set to 512K and cannot be adjusted.

Welcome Mat Reset Time
This specify how long a given client must be "away" from your Web server before they are greeted with the 'Welcome Mat' when they return. If you set this to 24 hours (1440 minutes), then visitors will be 'Welcomed' no more than once per day.

Gravity Zone for the Main Server
This lets you control which domains and/or IP subnets will load their graphics from the main FireSite server, instead of a replication server. This is useful for making sure that people browsing your server from inside your LAN always get their graphics 'locally'.

In the other Editions, this parameter is set automatically and cannot be adjusted.