Managing Internet Information Services

World Wide Web, Gopher, FTP, and more

Cricket Liu, Jerry Peek, Russ Jones, Bryan Buus, Adrian Nye

Publisher: O'Reilly, 1994, 630 pages

ISBN: 1-56592-062-7

Keywords: System Administration

Last modified: June 10, 2021, 12:32 a.m.

This comprehensive guide describes how to create information services for the millions of Internet users. By setting up Internet servers for World Wide Web, Gopher, FTP, Finger, Telnet, WAIS (Wide Area Information Services), or email services, anyone with a suitable computer and Internet connection can become an "Internet Publisher".

You can provide services to employees of your own company solving the information distribution problems of spread-out companies. Perhaps you'd like to create an Internet equivalent to the telephone company's directory-assistance service (and make some of that 65 cents per call). Or maybe you're the Species Survival Commission; this book describes a prototype service the authors created to make SSC's endangered species Action Plans viewable worldwide.

Creating a service can be a big job, involving more than one person. This book separates the setup and maintenance of servers software from the data management, so that a team can divide responsibilities.

Topics covered include:

  • Standard FTP servers and Washington University in St. Louis's enhanced FTP server
  • NCSA's Web server and both free and licensed versions of the University of Minnesota's Gopher server
  • The free version of WAIS (Wide Area Information Service)
  • The Majordomo mailing-list manager and other email services
  • Legal advice about Internet publishing
  • System security and how to provide services in the presence of firewalls
  1. Internet Service Concepts
    1. What Is the Internet?
      1. What Does It Mean to Be on the Internet?
      2. What Is on the Internet?
    2. How Are Internet Services Structured?
    3. What Is TCP/IP?
      1. Protocols
      2. The inetd Superserver
      3. Standalone Servers
      4. Naming
    4. How Information Clients Talk to Information Servers
  2. Introduction to Information Services
    1. An Overview of Internet Information Services
      1. Mail-based Services
      2. FTP
      3. Telnet and Finger
      4. Gopher
      5. The World Wide Web
      6. WAIS
    2. What To Do with Internet Services
      1. Internal Services
      2. External Services
      3. Can You Charge Money?
    3. System and Network Requirements
      1. Network Connection Type
      2. Network Load
      3. Computational Load
      4. Disk SPace
    4. Human Requirements
  3. Finger- Inetd-, and Telnet-based Services
    1. Finger-based Information Services
      1. FIFOs for Smart Updating
    2. Inetd-based Information Services
    3. Telnet and Other Login-based Information Services
      1. Security for Telnet and Inetd Services
      2. Clients as Login Shells
      3. Captured Shells as Login Shells
      4. Starting X Clients in a Captured Shell
      5. Customized Login and No Login Services
      6. An Example: The Weather Underground
    4. Other Possibilities
  4. Setting Up an FTP Archive
    1. What Is FTP Good For?
    2. The FTP Server
      1. inetd Configuration
      2. The ftp User
      3. Other Standard ftpd Command-Line Options
      4. Domain Naming
      5. Standard Aliases
    3. The Filesystem
      1. Anonymous FTP Directory Structure
      2. passwd and group Files
      3. File and Directory Permissions and Ownership
      4. A Note on SunOS and Solaris
      5. Optional Subdirectories
      6. Sublogins
    4. Testing and Debugging Your Archive
      1. Connecting to the Archive
      2. Using the Archive
  5. The WU Archive FTP Daemon
    1. Compiling the WU Archive ftpd
    2. New ftpd Command-Line Options
    3. The ftpconversions File
    4. The ftpaccess File
      1. Defining Classes of Users
      2. Denying Access
      3. Limiting Access
      4. Group Controls
      5. Printing Information
      6. Logging Information
      7. Easier Navigation
      8. Uploading Controls
    5. The ftphosts File
    6. Utility Programs
      1. ftpcount
      2. ftpwho
      3. ftpshut
    7. For More Information
  6. Maintaining an FTP Archive
    1. Populating Your Archive
      1. Standard Filename Extensions
    2. Making Access Easier
      1. Creating Links
      2. Aliases and Search Paths
      3. Printing Messages
      4. ls-lR Files and Archie Support
    3. Denying and Limiting User Access
      1. Denying Access
      2. Limiting Access
      3. Hidden Directories
    4. Monitoring Log Files
    5. Reading Mail
  7. Creating an Internet Database Server with WAIS
    1. What Is WAIS?
      1. Using a WAIS Database
      2. How Does WAIS Work?
    2. Building WAIS
    3. Testing and Installing WAIS
      1. Running waisserver Under inetd
      2. Running waisserver Standalone
      3. Testing waisserver
    4. Configuring waisserver
      1. waisserver Run-Time Configuration
      2. Server Security
      3. WAIS and Firewalls
  8. Creating WAIS Sources with waisindex
    1. Index Files
    2. Relevance Ranking
    3. A Table for the Impatient
    4. Document Formats
      1. Indexing Other File Types
      2. Associating One File with Another
    5. Other Command-Line Options
      1. Naming Your Source
      2. Exporting Your Source
      3. Registering Your Source
      4. Updating Existing Index Files
      5. Indexing an Entire Directory Tree
      6. Configuring Logging
      7. Controlling Indexing
      8. Saving Space
    6. Customizing waisindex Operation
      1. Selecting Words for waisindex to Ignore
      2. Setting Up Synonyms
    7. Updating Indexes
      1. Indexing from Scratch Without Downtime
      2. Adding to an Old Index
      3. Indexes with Multiple Types
  9. Gopher: Introduction
    1. How Gopher Works: The Gopher Protocol
    2. What Is Gopher+?
      1. A Tour of Gopher+ Features
      2. The Gopjer+ Protocol
    3. Selection of Server Software
      1. Licensing of the Gopher 2.x Server
    4. Variety of Client Software
    5. The Gopher FAQ
    6. Overview of Gopher Chapters
  10. Gopher: Compiling the Server
    1. Getting the Source Code
      1. Extracting the Files
      2. What's There?
    2. Precompilation Configuration
      1. Modifying Makefile.config
      2. Modifying conf.h
      3. Optional Precompilation Setup
    3. Compiling the Client and Server
      1. Compilation Problems
    4. Installing the Client and Server
  11. Gopher: Managing the Server
    1. Configuring the Server
      1. Naming the Server: the Hostalias Token
      2. Controlling Access: the Access Token
      3. Global Attributes
      4. Customizing the Access Denied Message: The BummerMsg Token
      5. Recognizing a New Filename Extension
      6. Excluding Files: the ignore Token
      7. Other Gopher 2.x Tokens
    2. Running the Server
      1. Preparing the Data Directory
      2. Recommended Command-Line Options
      3. Starting gopherd Standalone
      4. Using inetd
    3. Testing Your Server
      1. Ack! My Server Isn't Working!
    4. Running gopherd as gopherls and gindexd
    5. Making Sense of Gopher Logs
      1. Summarizing Log Data
      2. Rotating Logs
    6. How to Register Your Gopher Server
      1. Example
      2. Server Name
      3. Gopher Server Hostname
      4. Gopher Port Number
      5. Administrator's Email Address
      6. Geographic Location
  12. Gopher: Preparing Information
    1. The Easy Stuff — Text Files and Directories
    2. Menu Item Naming, Ordering, and Attributes
      1. So what's a .cap directory?
      2. Gopher 2.x names files
      3. Gopher+ Multi-format Menu Items
      4. Form and Abstract Attributes
    3. Data Architecture
      1. Menu Structure
      2. Menu Item Names
      3. Document Length and Format
      4. Getting the Big Picture
    4. File Types
      1. Overriding the Default Type
      2. Special Files
    5. Chroot and Symbolic Links
      1. Symbolic Links to Outside the Gopher Data Directory
      2. Symbolic Links to Within the Gopher Data Directory
    6. Converting an Existing FTP Structure
  13. Gopher: Linking Services Together
    1. Links Files
    2. Linking to Data on Other Gopher Servers
    3. Links to CSO Phone Book Server
      1. Linking to a CSO Phone Book Server
      2. The telnet Link Type (Including the TN3270 Type)
    4. Link to FTP, WAIS, and Scripts
      1. Links to FTP Archives
      2. Links That Execute Scripts
      3. Links That Do WAIS Searches
  14. Gopher: Incorporating Databases
    1. Using WAIS Indexes
      1. Placement of WAIS Data
      2. Creating an Index
      3. Using a Link to Incorporate WAIS Index
      4. WAIS Linking Using a .cap File
      5. Pointing to a WAIS server
      6. Using WAIS with a chrooted Server
      7. Avoiding Indexing Unwanted Files
      8. If Things Don't Work
    2. Using NeXT Indexes
      1. Building a NeXT Index
      2. Including a NeXT Index
    3. Serving WAIS and NeXT Indexes with gindexd
      1. Creating and Placing Index Files
      2. Creating a hostdata File
      3. Running gindexd
      4. Testing the gindexd server
      5. Linking to the gindexd Server
    4. grep Indexes
    5. Script Queries
      1. Combining Shell Indexes and exec: Links
      2. Security Concerns with Shell Indexes and exec: Links
    6. Searching Multiple Indexes
  15. Gopher: Veronica and Jughead
    1. Registering Your Gpher Server with Veronica
    2. Avoiding Veronica Registration
    3. Running a Veronica Server
    4. Local Links to Veronica Servers Using maltshop
    5. Making a Local Veronica Using Jughead
      1. Creating the Table
      2. Building the table and Index
      3. Running the Server
      4. Rereading the Index File
      5. Linking to a Jughead Server
  16. Gopher+ Forms and Other New Features
    1. Gopher+ Forms
      1. Types of Form Input
      2. How to Use Ask Blocks
      3. A Simple Example Form
      4. Adding Default Values and Radio Boxes (Choose)
      5. Adding Multiple Input (AskL) and Checkboxes (Select)
      6. Saving the Output
      7. Ask Forms That Return More Complicated Types
      8. My Ask Block Doesn't Work!
    2. Other Features of Gopher 2.0.16
      1. The ADMIT1 Protocol
      2. New Indexing Script
      3. New Information-only Type
    3. New Features in Gopher 2.1
      1. User Authentication
      2. Updated FTP Gateway
      3. Virtual Documents
  17. Introduction to the World Wide Web
    1. What Is the Web Good For?
    2. Basic Web Concepts
      1. Hyperlinking
      2. The HTML Tagging Language
      3. The URL Concept
      4. What Is a World Wide Web Browser?
      5. What Is a World Wide Web Server?
      6. HTTP
    3. World Wide Web Servers and Browsers
      1. Web Browsers
      2. Web Servers
    4. Future Directions
      1. HTML Enhancements
      2. Secure Transaction
      3. Uniform Naming
      4. Commercialization
    5. Overview of Web Chapters
  18. Setting Up a Web Server
    1. Setting Up Basic Services
      1. Installing a Precompiled Server
      2. Compilation of NCSA HTTP
      3. Site-Specific Configuration
      4. Installing the Server
      5. Starting the Server
      6. Startup Under inetd
      7. Mapping URLs to Documents
      8. Testing Your HTTP Server
      9. Setting Up Home Pages
      10. Delegating Document Tree Management
      11. Conventions for Public Access
      12. Announcing Your Server
    2. Web Server Maintenance
      1. Updating HTML Documents
      2. Managing the Log Files
      3. Moving Directory Structures
      4. Mirroring Documents and Servers
      5. HTTP Logs and Log Analysis
    3. Enabling More Features
      1. Adding MIME Types
      2. Enabling Server-Side Includes
      3. Automatic Directory Indexing
    4. Installation Summary
  19. Authoring for the Web
    1. HTML Overview
      1. Autoflowing and Autowrapping
      2. HTML tag Syntax
      3. Document Construction Guidelines
      4. Sample HTML Document
      5. Hyperlinks
      6. Linking to Points Within Documents
      7. URLs
      8. Lists
      9. Graphics
      10. Server-Side Includes
      11. For More Information About HTML
    2. Information Design Issues
      1. Document Modularity
      2. Degree of Hyperization
      3. Automatic Versus Manual Hyperlinking
      4. Style Guidelines
      5. An Example of Information Design
    3. HTML Authoring Tools
      1. Emacs HTML Mode
      2. FrameMaker
      3. HoTMetaL
      4. CyberLeaf
      5. HTML Conversion Tools and Filters
    4. Clickable Image Maps
      1. Planning the Clickable Image Map
      2. Mapping the Hotspots into a Map File
      3. Connecting Your Map File to a URL
      4. Referencing Clickable Image 
      5. Testing the Image Map
      6. How It Really Works
  20. Web: Gateways and Forms
    1. Gateways
      1. the Common Gateway Interface
      2. Prompting the User for Input
      3. URLs in HTML Documents returned by Gateways
      4. Existing Gateways
      5. Additional cgi-bin Directories
    2. Forms Processing
      1. HTML for Forms
      2. Scripts to Handle Form Input
      3. Adding Checkboxes to the Form
    3. WAIS Access from the Web
      1. Direct WAIS Access
      2. Web-to-WAIS Gateways
      3. Developing a Custom WAIS Gateway
      4. WAISgate
      5. Comparison of WAIS-to-Web Techniques
  21. Web: Access Control and Security
    1. Access Control and User Authentication
      1. Access Control Files
      2. Domain-Level Access Control
      3. User Authentication
    2. Security
      1. Links Outside the Document Tree
      2. Access Control and User Authentication
      3. Personal HTML Directories
      4. Shell Metacharacters in Forms
      5. Server-Side Includes
  22. Introduction to Email Services
    1. A Simple File Server: canned_reply
    2. Ways to Manage Mailing Lists
    3. What's It Like to Use List Server Software?
      1. From a Subscriber's Point of View
      2. For a List Owner
      3. Downside of List Servers
      4. The Personal Touch
      5. Mailing-List Security
    4. Choosing a Mailing List System: A Feature Comparison
      1. Simple Lists with Your MTA
      2. Lists Served by Majordomo
      3. Lists Served by ListProcessor 6.0c
    5. Email Ethics
    6. Email Services and Network Connections
    7. The List-managers Mailing List
    8. How Email is Delivered
  23. Simple Mailing Lists
    1. Setting Up the List
    2. Using a List Members File
    3. Aliases and Your Local Network
    4. Handling Bounces
    5. Mail from Local Users
    6. Envelope Sender in sendmail Version 8
    7. Minimizing Bounced Mail
    8. Changing the Message Header
    9. Logging Messages
    10. List Exploders
  24. Automating Mailing Lists with Majordomo
    1. An Overview of Majordomo
      1. A User's View of Majordomo
      2. Majordomo for List Owners
      3. Majordomo for Administrators
    2. Installing Majordomo
    3. Setting Up Lists
      1. Creating a New List
      2. For MMDF Systems
      3. Making a Digested List
      4. Testing Your Installation
    4. Day-to-day Administration
      1. Setting Up a List Owner's Account
      2. Editing Files with medit
      3. Majordomo Logs
      4. Managing the Archives
      5. Disabling Majordomo Temporarily
    5. The Majordomo Mailing List
  25. The Majordomo List Owner and Moderator
    1. List Owner Aliases
    2. Majordomo Commands for List Owners
    3. Changing a List's Configuration
      1. Config File Variables
      2. Regular Expressions for advertise and noadvertise
    4. Making a Moderated List
    5. Approving Subscriptions and Moderating 
      1. Approving Subscriptions and Moderating with approve
      2. Approving Subscriptions Without approve
      3. Moderating Lists Without approve
    6. Returned Mail and the Bounces List
  26. Ftpmail
    1. Ftpmail for Users
      1. A Sample Session
      2. Using A Different Address
      3. Overall Session Commands
      4. File Transfer Commands
    2. Installing Ftpmail
    3. Testing Your Installation
    4. Managing Ftpmail
      1. Routine Checks
      2. Restricting Ftpmail
      3. Ignored Mail
    5. The Ftpmail Developer's Mailing List
  27. Firewalls and Information Services
    1. What Is a Firewall?
    2. Types of Firewalls
      1. The Dual-Homed Gateway
      2. The Screened Host Gateway
      3. Other Firewall Topologies
    3. Hurdles for Information Providers
    4. Firewall Software
      1. CERN Web Server Proxy Mode
      2. SOCKS
      3. The Firewall Toolkit
    5. Locating Servers
      1. Web Services
      2. Anonymous FTP
      3. General Internal Location Concerns
    6. Solutions for Various Clients
      1. Telnet
      2. Archie
      3. FTP
      4. Mosaic
      5. Solutions for Various DOS/Windows/Mac Clients
    7. For More Information
  28. xinetd
    1. What xinted Does
      1. Understanding inetd's Role in Security
    2. How to Get xinetd
    3. Building xinetd
    4. Installing xinetd
    5. Configuring xinted with xinetd.conf
      1. The Default Entry
      2. Access Restrictions
      3. Controlling Logging
      4. Setting Environment Variables
    6. Managing xinetd
      1. Logging
      2. Reconfiguration
      3. Debugging
    7. How to Spot Security Break-Ins or Attempts
      1. Tracking Down a Culprit
  29. Legal Issues
    1. What's Allowed on the Internet?
    2. Intellectual Property Rights and Responsibilities
      1. Types of Intellectual Property Protection
      2. The Publishing Agreement
      3. Copyrights
    3. Other Publishing Pitfalls
      1. Libel
      2. Pornography
      3. Bootlegged Commercial Software
      4. Encryption Software
  30. Protecting Intellectual Property
    1. Non-Cryptographic Approaches
    2. Cryptographic Approaches
      1. Some Background on Encryption
      2. A Practical Example of Encryption Issues
      3. Encryption in a Book Browser
    3. Export Controls on Encryption
  1. gopherd Options
    1. Defaults
    2. The Options — an Overview
    3. The Options — Explained
      1. Disable chroot() (-c)
      2. Disable Directory Caching (-C)
      3. Enable Debugging Output (-D)
      4. Running Under inetd (-I)
      5. Log to a File (-l logfile)
      6. Load Average (-L loadavg)
      7. Alternate gopherd Configuration File (-o optionfile)
      8. Run As a Specific Login-namer (-u login-name)
      9. Run Under Specific User ID (-U uid)
      10. The Data Directory (data-directory)
      11. portnumber
  2. Gopher: Client Compilation Options
    1. Setting an FTP Gateway
    2. Client Security Options
    3. Setting Client Commands
    4. Using Downloading in the Client
  3. Gopher Tools and Gateways
  4. Web: More HTML Tags
    1. Common HTML Tags
    2. HTML Tags for Forms
      1. <FORM>
      2. <INPUT>
      3. <SELECT>
      4. <TEXTAREA>
  5. Web: httpd.conf Directives
  6. Web: srm.conf Directives
  7. Web: access.conf Directives
  8. Web: For More Information
    1. World Wide Web FAQ
    2. Newsgroups
    3. Mailing Lists
    4. Examples of Web Servers
    5. GNN's Best of the Net Servers
    6. Online Conference Proceedings

Reviews

Managing Internet Information Services

Reviewed by Roland Buresund

OK ***** (5 out of 10)

Last modified: May 21, 2007, 3:12 a.m.

One of the first practical books about the Word-Wide Web. So early, that you can forget Netscape, Microsoft and AOL: they weren't playing yet.

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