What's in this book?

Conventions used in this book

Computer system requirements

Chapter 1 Welcome to the Internet

Web basics

Understanding URLs

Understanding web servers

The Netscape FastTrack Server

Chapter 2 Installing the server

Before you begin installation

Make sure DNS is running

Create an alias for the server

Create a user account for the server

Choose unique port numbers

Upgrading an existing server

Installation instructions

Running ns-setup

Configuring your new server

What the installation process does

Troubleshooting installation

Chapter 3 Configuring and managing your server

Using the Server Selector

Accessing the Server Selector

Choosing a server to configure

Shutting down the administration server

Installing multiple web servers

Removing a server from your system

Configuring your administration server

Starting and stopping a web server

Using the Server Manager

Chapter 4 Managing server content

Setting the primary document directory

Setting additional document directories

Customizing user public information directories

Enabling remote file manipulation

Configuring document preferences

Directory indexing 45

Server home page 45

Default MIME type 46

Forwarding URLs

Setting up software virtual servers

Assigning a character set

Specifying a document footer

Customizing parsed HTML

Working with configuration styles

Creating a configuration style

Editing a configuration style

Removing a configuration style

Applying configuration styles

Listing configuration style assignments

Chapter 5 Configuring system settings

Starting and stopping the server

Restarting with inittab

Restarting with the system RC scripts

Restarting manually

Soft-restart 59

Stopping the server manually 60

Viewing server settings

Tuning server performance

Server processes

Setting the number of server threads

Configuring listen-queue size

Enabling Domain Name System lookups

Configuring network settings

Changing the server's location

Changing the server's user account

Changing the server name

Changing the server port number

Changing the server address (binding address)

Customizing error responses

What are the errors?

Setting up the response

Chapter 6 Controlling access to your server

Creating, removing, and editing databases

Creating a database

Removing a database

Changing a database's password

Creating, removing, and editing users

Creating a user

Removing a user

Editing a user

Listing users

Creating, removing, and editing groups

Creating a group

Removing a group

Editing a group

Listing groups

Importing users

Restricting access

Denying access to a resource

Allowing access to a resource

Chapter 7 Encryption and SSL

Internet security threats

Internet security precautions

Encryption

Public-key encryption

Signing files

How does encryption work?

How secure is encryption? 91

Authentication and certificates

What's in a certificate file?

Choosing Certification Authorities 95

Putting all the pieces together: SSL

Increasing server security

Limit physical access

Limit administration access

Choose good passwords

Secure your private key

Limit other applications on the server machine

Limit ports

Know your server's limits

Enabling SSL on your server

Generating a key pair

Changing your key pair file password

Requesting a certificate

What information does a CA need? 103

Installing the certificate

Managing server certificates

Activating SSL

Setting security preferences

Specifying stronger encryption strength

Keeping clients from caching SSL files

Effects of an SSL-enabled server

Secure URL construction

Secure server document root and logging

The secure log 110

Unprotected server document directory

Changes to the magnus.conf file

Security 110

SSL2 111

SSL3 111

ServerKey 111

ServerCert 111

Ciphers 112

SSL3Ciphers 112

Further reading

Chapter 8 Using programs with your server

Installing server-side programs

Installing server-side Java applets

Installing LiveWire applications

Securing the LiveWire Application Manager 118

Installing CGI programs

Specifying a CGI directory 120

Specifying CGI as a file type 120

Specifying Windows CGI as a file type 121

Installing client-side programs

Installing client-side Java

Installing client-side JavaScript

Chapter 9 Monitoring the server

Monitoring the server using HTTP

Server usage

Activity breakdown

Totals

.Working with log files

Viewing the error log file

Setting log preferences

Viewing an access log file

Working with the log analyzer

Running the log analyzer from the Server Manager 130

Running the log analyzer from the command line 132

Archiving log files

Appendix A Hypertext Transfer Protocol

Requests

Request method 136

Request header 136

Request data 136

Responses

Status code 137

Response header 138

Response data 138

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