RedHat Linux Server Support Documents

Support Documents for ALL Users

Getting Started

E-Mail Questions and Issues

Domain Names

Domain Name Support

Database Support

System CGI

Advanced Questions and Issues

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FTP Applications
Download an FTP Program. We strongly recommend Cute/FTP or WS/FTP. In this demonstration we'll use IPSwitches WS_FTP program.

Using Your FTP Program
Got your FTP program? Great, now open it up. If you are using WS/FTP you will see a sessions property window (users of CuteFTP will be asked for the same information just in different places in the program...sorry you will need to find this yourself). Below is what you are asked for and what you need to enter:

I. Profile Name: Optional...anything from web site to Bob Smith :)
II. Host Name / Address: Enter your address or IP here. For example "coruscant.org" or "216.123.123.123" (without the quotes, of course.)
III. Host Type: Leave it on auto detect.
IV. UserID: This has been sent to you in your welcome e-mail. In case your forgot it is usually the first 8 letters of your domain name
V. Password: This has also been sent in your welcome letter. Please be aware that the password is case sensitive.

Connecting to our Servers with Your FTP Program
Got it all filled out? Great, click on connect and boom away you go! It should log you into a blank directory. At the top of the right screen under "Remote Session" you should the path to your site (example /web3/loginame/)

Uploading Files to our Servers with Your FTP Program
On the left are the files in your hard drive. Double-clicking one of those files will upload it into your web space. To start with browse to the folder on your hard drive that has your web site. (Clicking the arrow at the top of that screen will move you up a /dir - double clicking on a /dir will move you into that /dir.)

On your right you are now seeing your account. You will see a list of files and dirs. The ones in bold are the only ones you can actually interact with. The rest just leave be, as they are vital to the operation of your site.

File Types and Directories
cgiinfo
.xfm
cgi-bin
public_ftp
public_html
.cpanel
.www
.bash_history
.bash_profile
.bash_logout
.ftpaccts
.Xdefaults
access_log
fileman.dat
filemanlog.txt
logo.tiff

First Time UNIX Users
If you are a first time UNIX user this may look confusing to you, but don't worry its not that bad! First question:

Where do I upload files that I want to be on the web?
Either go into the public_html or .www dir (They both take you to the same place). Any files you upload here will be visible on the web. (Thus, your /public_html is the actual root directory of your website on our linux servers)

public_ftp Directory
The public_ftp dir is your own anonymous FTP account. This is what users see when they go to ftp://ftp.yourdomain.com.

cgi-bin Directory
The cgi-bin dir is where you should upload any cgi files such as perl scripts. This cgi-bin is access on the web at http://yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/.

access_log
The access_log is your access log. You can track visitors to your web site using this. Be warned it is only a text file (in many cases a large text file) and you will have to download a log analyzer to peer deep into it. We strongly recommend Web Trends. Don't worry we do have free of charge web log analyzers installed into your control panel.

Found your files?
Great, now highlight them and click the arrow pointing from the left to the right. The files should then begin transferring to your web space!

Browsing Your Website Directory on our Servers
Once you have uploaded your files browse to your web space such as http://www.coruscant.org or http://216.123.123.123. If you get a directory listing, then you need to check the files within your web space and make sure you have an "index.html" file. If you don't then create one! Our server also looks for the other docs:

index.html
index.htm
index.cgi
index.shtml
default.html
default.htm
index.php

Congratulations!
Congrats..you have now published content to your web site!

Login
Choose "Open FrontPage Web" from the File Menu in FrontPage Explorer. It will ask you for a Web Server of File Location. Enter yourdomain.com and then "list webs". Next, you will need to select (double-click) the root web. The requested login and password will be the same as your FTP account.

Usage
FrontPage supplies you with two separate interfaces. The FrontPage explorer is used to manage the files within your web site. If you open a file in your web site another program called FrontPage Editor will open. When you are connected to your web then all changes made to any file you edit will be saved to your web. Although the software documentation states that you can create the site on your computer and then "publish" it to the web server, we do not recommend this. Many times publishing to the server from your computer will loose the Interactive web bots features that you may have setup when designing your site on your local computer. We recommend that you create your entire site by being connected to your web and saving directly to the server. To move files already created on your web site use the Import command found under the File menu within FrontPage Explorer to select the files to import to the server. This is by far the best method for moving files from your hard drive to the server.

Login
Choose "Open FrontPage Web" from the File Menu in FrontPage Explorer. It will ask you for a Web Server of File Location. Enter yourdomain.com and then "list webs". Next, you will need to select (double-click) the root web. The requested login and password will be the same as your FTP account.

Usage
FrontPage supplies you with two separate interfaces. The FrontPage explorer is used to manage the files within your web site. If you open a file in your web site another program called FrontPage Editor will open. When you are connected to your web then all changes made to any file you edit will be saved to your web. Although the software documentation states that you can create the site on your computer and then "publish" it to the web server, we do not recommend this. Many times publishing to the server from your computer will loose the Interactive web bots features that you may have setup when designing your site on your local computer. We recommend that you create your entire site by being connected to your web and saving directly to the server. To move files already created on your web site use the Import command found under the File menu within FrontPage Explorer to select the files to import to the server. This is by far the best method for moving files from your hard drive to the server.

Incoming POP3 & Outgoing SMTP
Remember to always use "mail.yourdomain.com" as the incoming (POP3) and outgoing (SMTP) server in your local email client, such as Outlook Express.

Linux Mail Control Center
In the Linux mail control center, the forwarding function provides forwarding to outer address, and can be used to alias one account to another. Thus, if you want aces@fightwithhonor.org to head to a POP3 account of acebird@fightwithhonor.org, use a forward to make this happen.

E-Mail Login
Any POP3 accounts you setup other than your default account will use your email address as the login. For example, if you request , the actual login for that POP3 box will be "mouser@cheesewhiz.org" (your email address). Yes, email heading to mouser@cheesewhiz.org is received by the "mouser@cheesewhiz.org" POP3 box.

If You Forget Your Login
If you forget the exact login of one of your POP3 accounts, simply head over to the "POP account" menu within your /controlpanel to find out exactly what the logins are.

Your Default Address
Your "default address" is the root catch-all mailbox. It receives messages heading to all addresses which aren't setup as unique POP accounts within your domain. Keep in mind that the default address account does NOT use and email address, like other POP accounts. The login for your default address is the same as the main FTP login for your account.

Solving Problems
If it seems that you cannot lock a POP3 account to retrieve messages for any reason, the quickest way to solve this for yourself is to delete and recreate the account with your /controlpanel. This saves time as it bypasses asking our support staff for assistance. Yes, the changes you make to your email items with your /controlpanel are done in real time.

Mailing List Feature
The mailing list feature is very simple, please keep that in mind. If you require a more powerful listserv program, you should probably look elsewhere. We cannot utilize a robust listserv on our webhosting machines without causing the server's overall performance to suffer.

Can't Send E-Mail
Our SMTP servers are configured as secure relays. This means that you cannot simply reference "mail.yourdomain.com" as an Outgoing mailserver unless you successfully log in via one of your pop3 accounts at "mail.yourdomain.com' before you try to send. This is a mandatory setting to prevent spammers from using our mailservers as havens for unsolicited email. If you are getting a "relaying prohibited" or "disconnected by administrator" error, it means that you haven't logged into the pop3 server at your domain before you tried to send through the smtp server at your domain.

In addition to this, you might not be able to send regardless of if you check mail successfully. Some ISPs have it set so that their users cannot use an outbound SMTP server to relay messages. If you are still experiencing problems sending through your domain, and are certain that you have logged in via pop3 to an account at your domain, you might want to contact your local ISP to see if they do allow their users to use outbound smtp servers.

Finally, we'd like to clear up a common misconception of many users: the smtp relay you use to send out your messages has absolutely no bearing on the address your recipient sees as the sender. If you do end up having to use your local ISPs SMTP server, it will not prevent you from sending messages from address @yourdomain with PowerSurge. For example, let's say that you have the domain "lensoftruth.net" hosted at PowerSurge. You can configure your email client to send from the address "admin@lensoftruth.net " even if your outgoing (smtp) mail server is set as "mail27.prodigy.net" - your recipient will still see the message as being sent from "admin@lensoftruth.net " regardless of the smtp server you use to send it. Be sure that your incoming (pop3) server is set to "mail.lensoftruth.net", of course.

B

Your default Root e-mail Account
Every account starts out with a default "catch-all" account for its domain. This email box will grab all mail heading to ANYNAME@yourdomain.com . The login for this box is simply the same main account login you received after signing up. Thus, if your root account is "trilobyte@trilobyte.com" (login of "trilobyt" - first 8 letters of your domain), there is no need to request an alias to your root account, because all names under your domain already are filtered into this account.

C

Can't Lock Account
A common cause of this is that the e-mail account is being accessed already or it is still open from another mail checking session. Solution: Retry in about 30 minutes. If it still does not work it is possible that you are using the wrong user / password combination. If you suspect this send a message to tech@jtlnet.com and let them know what you are using to attempt to log into the account.

Please remember that POP accounts logins vary depending on the particular server your mail is hosted on. For instance, if you have an account named feanor@trilobyte.com , the login for the account may be "trilofeanor", depending on the amount of letters that make up you pop3 prefix. The mail control panel of your account keeps this information for you, so please check there to correct any login problems.

D

Any Username and Password Error
The main cause for this is trying to access the e-mail account with the wrong user / password. If this is NOT your primary e-mail account remember to apply your domain name prefix. For example if your accounts is jtlnet.com you might have a log in name of "jtlnetbmaster" for a webmaster@jtlnet.com account. If your domain is freeware32.com you might have a log in of "freewebmaster" as your log in to the webmaster@freeware32.com account. If all else fails, simply remove, and then recreate the account with your mail control panel.

If none of this helps, then most likely the pop3 box in question has a received a corrupted message. Email tech@jtlnet.com and tell them to clear that box out. Usually this results in most or all of that particular mailbox's contents being erased.

The Importance of MAIL.yourdomain.com
It's just a good idea to use it. Depending on how old your account is with us, you may have your mail hosted on a server which is independent from the server hosting your actual webpages. Thus, using "mail.yourdomain.com" will assure that you are accessing the correct server for mail transactions. If you are a newer customer, with your mail and web service hosted on the same machine, it is still a good idea to use "mail.yourdomain.com" - who knows what the future might hold?

Problems Resolving Your mailhost
If you find that you can't get "mail.yourdomain.com" to resolve as a valid SMTP or POP3 server, please be sure that your domain is registered to our nameservers. Also, try clearing out your cache and cookies and then restarting your computer. A whois lookup should reveal your domain's nameservers. Go to www.whois.sc and type your domain in the search filed to find your server.

Organization Information
This section is very important and is next to impossible to change or modify in the future so make sure you are 100% certain that you are choosing the organization name you wish to use with this domain.

B

Technical Contact Information
This will show up as the technical contact on your domain. If you are a reseller you may wish to use your own company's name for anonymity, but otherwise you should enter our NIC handle which is: JL23752. This is a "role" type contact.

C

Administrative Contact Information
You should enter your own information here. If you have a NIC handle you may want to use that. You can use the Network Solutions's whois form to lookup your NIC handle. (http://rs.internic.net/cgi-bin/whois )

D

Billing Contact Information
Again you should enter your own information here. If you have a NIC handle you may want to use that. You can use the Network Solutions's whois form to lookup your NIC handle.

E

Domain Name Server Information
As the Primary DNS server enter:
NS4.JTLNET.COM with the IP address of 69.36.9.72 . The Secondary DNS server is NS5.JTLNET.COM with the IP address of 69.36.2.104. You can also purchase the Anonymous DNS server add-on from us so you will be able to use NS.YOURDOMAIN.COM for this section.

F

Review Answers
This will show the template that you have created to register your domain. Verify that all the info is correct and click the "Mail me a copy of this form" button. The Network Solutions will then send you a copy of the form which you can send right back to hostmaster@internic.net (or reply to their message) and within 24-48 hours your new domain name should be registered!

Questions
tech@jtlnet.com

Modifying a Domain
We will gladly send in the modification for a domain, however, you will need to be sure that the current contacts will be agreeing of the changes. (The current contacts on a domain are revealed at a whois lookup... http://www.networksolutions.com/cgi-bin/whois/wh ois) This is something that you can do on your own. The modify domain form is
located at: http://www.networksolutions.com/makechanges/
Enter your CURRENT e-mail address and the domain you wish to modify and enter into the form.

B

Network Solutions Accounts
"All you need to get started is your Network Solutions Account Number and Password. If you have forgotten your account number and password, please call 1-888-642-9675 ( 24 hours / 7 days).
Outside US: 1-703-742-0914 for assistance."

C

Organization Information
You will not be able to change this.. don't bother trying.

D

Administrative Contact Information
Keep as is, it should be you already.

E

Billing Contact Information
Keep as is, it should be you already.

F

Virtual Name Servers
If you have purchased virtual name servers and are going to modify your domain to use NS.YOURDOMAIN.COM, then be sure to use those nameservers instead of the ones listed above.

Review Answers
This will show the template that you have created to register your domain. Verify that all the info is correct and click the "Mail me a copy of this form" button. The Network Solutions will then send you a copy of the form which you can send right back to hostmaster@internic.net (or reply to their message) and within 24-48 hours you should be sent an e-mail asking you to approve the transfer. Respond to this e-mail and enter "Y" where asked and your domain will be transferred.

Modifying a Domain
We will gladly send in the modification for a domain, however, you will need to be sure that the current contacts will be agreeing of the changes. (The current contacts on a domain are revealed at a whois lookup... http://www.networksolutions.com/cgi-bin/whois/wh ois) This is something that you can do on your own. The modify domain form is
located at: http://www.networksolutions.com/makechanges/
Enter your CURRENT e-mail address and the domain you wish to modify and enter into the form.

B

Network Solutions Accounts
"All you need to get started is your Network Solutions Account Number and Password. If you have forgotten your account number and password, please call 1-888-642-9675 ( 24 hours / 7 days).
Outside US: 1-703-742-0914 for assistance."

C

Organization Information
You will not be able to change this.. don't bother trying.

D

Administrative Contact Information
Keep as is, it should be you already.

E

Billing Contact Information
Keep as is, it should be you already.

F

Virtual Name Servers
If you have purchased virtual name servers and are going to modify your domain to use NS.YOURDOMAIN.COM, then be sure to use those nameservers instead of the ones listed above.

Review Answers
This will show the template that you have created to register your domain. Verify that all the info is correct and click the "Mail me a copy of this form" button. The Network Solutions will then send you a copy of the form which you can send right back to hostmaster@internic.net (or reply to their message) and within 24-48 hours you should be sent an e-mail asking you to approve the transfer. Respond to this e-mail and enter "Y" where asked and your domain will be transferred.

Modifying Contact Info
If you have a domain name the Network Solutions has assigned your NIC Handle. You can find your NIC handle by doing a whois on your domain. You will be able to see your NIC handle listed in parentheses to the right of your name in administrative, or billing contact.

The form to modify a contact info is at http://www.networksolutions.com/makechanges/
Enter your domain name and click proceed.

Select the "Contact Form," to modify your contact.

Enter your CURRENT e-mail address and your NIC handle. You will be able to see your current contact info and make the changes needed.

B

Review Answers
This will show the template that you have created to register your domain. Verify that all the info is correct and click the "Mail me a copy of this form" button. The Network Solutions will then send you a copy of the form which you can send right back to hostmaster@internic.net (or reply to their message) and within 24-48 hours you should be sent an e-mail asking you to approve the transfer. Respond to this e-mail and enter "Y" where asked and your domain will be transferred.

Include your company name / address / phone on the letter (letterhead is desirable.)

B

Request that the domain name be transferred to the name servers that are listed in your account email that you recieve from us.

C

Reference the NIC Tracking number that our tech staff has given you.

D

Have the company president sign the request and fax it to:
561-989-8784 ATTN: Domain Registration.

How To Enable Server Side Includes
I. Renaming the file to .shtml: On our server any file name .shtml will be parsed. So instead of having an index.html file, you would name it index.shtml. This is the easiest way of enabling includes.
II. CHMODing the file to 777: With CHMOD 777 you can also mark a file as executable. It is important to only make the files which you want parsed executable. This poses certain security issues, as well as a strain on our resources, as the processor has to work harder to parse a file.

Reasons for Using SSI
SSI is often used to include something into an HTML page. You can insert the contents of one HTML page into another page. An example of a practical usage for this would be to include your e-mail address at the bottom of each page. If you do this as an include, then when your e-mail address changes, you will only have to update it on one page and not your entire web site. Another usage is to call cgi scripts into action. Many counters, clocks, and other scripts are called using SSI. The command used will most likely be provided in the documentation of your cgi script.