Version 3.0 User's Guide
Configuring NetCloak	Previous | Next Contents

NetCloak, like your Web server, serves files from a root folder. In fact, NetCloak can be configured to serve files from the folder selected by your Web server, which is particularly useful when using a server that supports multi-homing and passes the root folder information in the CGI AppleEvent or WebSTAR API request. Also like your Web server, NetCloak supports default, error and no access pages that can be defined for serving in error or restricted access circumstances.

To set these root folders, file names, and many other preferences, you must configure NetCloak. NetCloak configuration is done in one of two ways. You may use which ever method you are most comfortable with.

The first method is to use the commands in the "Configuration" menu in the NetCloak CGI application. The "Configure..." command displays the NetCloak Configuration window.

The Configuration window contains five tabbed panels which each contains a related set of settings.

If you are using the NetCloak plug-in, you must quit your Web server while configuring NetCloak with the CGI. This permits the plug-in to immediately recognize the changes when the server is restarted, and, more importantly, it prevents the plug-in and CGI from trying to simultaneously update the counter database, the globals database, and config settings, thus overwriting the other's changes. When using the plug-in, the second method is highly recommended.

The second method of configuring NetCloak is to access NetCloak's administration web pages using any Web browser. The exact same configuration settings that are available via the CGI's menu commands are also available via your browser. For each tab of the Configuration window, there is an equivalent web page in the browser-based web admin interface. This is the recommended method of configuring the NetCloak plug-in. You may also use the web admin pages with the NetCloak CGI, but you must first enable access using the "Enable web administration" checkbox in the "Security" tab of the Configuration window (see below).

To access the browser-based web admin pages, access the following URL in your browser (replacing "your.domain.com" with your server's actual domain name or IP address):

    http://your.domain.com/pi_admin.nclk

Unless you have already entered a valid username and password for the "pi_admin" realm on your web server, your browser will present you with the login dialog. Most Macintosh web servers, such as WebSTAR, automatically define a realm which protects any URL containing the text "pi_admin", so that only authorized users may change plug-in configuration settings. If you have not previously logged in as an admin user, and you aren't presented with a login dialog when accessing this URL, then your server does not automatically define this realm. You should immediately create such a realm for your web server before continuing. Consult your web server's documentation on how to create a realm. Failing to protect "pi_admin" URLs with a realm represents a severe security risk for your web server.

Once you have logged in as an admin user, you are shown the main NetCloak status page.

Notes for AppleShare IP users

AppleShare IP 5.0 does not handle special URLs which do not represent actual files in the web server root folder, such as the NetCloak admin URL . If you access the above URL, you will be presented with a "file not found" error message. To work around this problem, you can create an empty file named "pi_admin.nclk" in your Web root folder. The file must be completely empty (zero bytes in length). With this file present, AppleShare IP will ask NetCloak to process it. NetCloak will then ignore the file and serve its internally-generated admin web page instead.

Also, if you install the NetCloak Plug-In with AppleShare IP, and you want to use the NetCloak CGI to edit configuration settings, you must install the NetCloak.acgi application into the "Extensions" folder of your server's System Folder. This is because the active settings for the NetCloak Plug-In are stored in the "NetCloak Files" folder, which is created in the same folder as the Web server application. The AppleShare IP Web server application (named "AppleShare IP Web & File Server") is actually located in the "Extensions" folder, not the "Web Folder". This is yet another reason to prefer the Web admin interface for configuring the NetCloak Plug-In.

Files

Options

HTML

Logs

Security

Configuration Outside Of NetCloak

Adjusting Internal Settings (Advanced Users Only)