Server Information

1. What is the path to my account?
2. What is the path to Perl?
3. Do you use PHP?
4. What Operating System does ABHost.Net use for its UNIX webservers?
5. Does ABHost.Net have Windows NT webservers?
6. What webserver software does ABHost.Net use for UNIX web hosting?
7. What is CGI?
8. What is the .htaccess file?
9. What are Server Side Includes?
10. What is SSL?

1. What is the path to my account?

The path to the root of your account would be "/virtual/username" where "username" is your actual login on our system. If you have a program that requires the absolute path to your cgi-bin, this would be: "/virtual/username/public_html/cgi-bin". When configuring your domain names in the web control panel for your account, you must select a directory in your account to host web pages from (document root). It is recommended that you select the /public_html/ directory to place your main index.html page in. In general you should upload html files to your site to the directory /public_html/. If you need help configuring your domain names or want to point multiple domain names to the same or different locations in you account please go here.

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2. What is the path to Perl?

We are currently running Perl version 5. Below is the path to our perl binary:

/usr/bin/perl

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3. Do you use PHP?

We are currently running PHP4. PHP runs as a module of the Apache server.

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4. What Operating System does ABHost.Net use for its UNIX webservers?

We are using a custom built Linux operating system.

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5. Does ABHost.Net have Windows NT webservers?

No, ABHost.Net does not provide Windows NT web hosting.

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6. What webserver software does ABHost.Net use for UNIX web hosting?

ABHost.Net uses Apache Webserver version 1.3.12 or better on all servers.

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7. What is CGI?

The Common Gateway Interface (CGI) defines how a Web server can invoke other programs, known as CGI programs, and use these programs to create essentially more interactive Web sites.

CGI is a simple interface built into Web servers to make them more flexible. CGI allows a Web server to invoke other programs, called CGI programs or CGI scripts, and use these programs to generate dynamic responses. Web developers often use CGI programs to process online forms or generate Web pages on-the-fly.

A CGI program is a computer program, written in a programming language. Because of this, writing and editing CGI programs is inherently more problematic than writing Web pages in HTML. You can't, for example, edit a CGI program without some risk of completely breaking it.

A CGI program resides on a Web server and behaves according to the rules of CGI. Unlike most files in your Web directory, a CGI program is invoked when it is requested by a Web browser. The results of executing the CGI program, not the CGI program itself, are passed along as the content of the response.

On the ABhost.Net server you can run a CGI program from any location within your web space. You can download and install CGI programs without having to write anything. This requires other skills, such as Unix skills, like setting the permissions on the programs. ABHost.Net does not install, support, or help fix CGI programs found at large. There are too many of them and too few of us.

If you use CGI programs you may accidentally allow someone to snoop through, remove, or even modify the files in your Web directory. When you install someone else's CGI program, you are trusting the author's competence and good intentions. If you write your own CGI program, you are trusting your own competence and good intentions. Be careful.

CGI ERRORS:

Here are the most common "server error" messages resulting from CGI programs.

Debugging Common CGI Error Messages

Note: Internet Explorer 5.x customizes server error responses rather than displaying the actual text returned by the server.

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8. What is the .htaccess file?

The .htaccess file is a file (that you make) which is read by Apache prior to incoming client request being fulfilled. Your .htaccess file can tell Apache to do certain things, overriding the global configuration for the webserver. The "rules" outlined in the .htaccess file will preside over the directory where the .htaccess file is located and every directory inside of it. Some simple examples of manipulation the webserver include the ability to redirect requests to a different URL, directory index manipulation, error documents, etc.

About .htaccess Files

You can control the way the Web server responds to requests to your files by creating a .htaccess file in your Web directory or one of its subdirectories. A .htaccess file contains one or more server directives--small commands known by the server--that tell the server how to behave. For example, you can turn on password protection by using a .htaccess file.

Here are some specific properties to know about .htaccess files:

* A .htaccess file must be a plain text file.
* A .htaccess file contains server directives, one per line.
* A .htaccess file applies server directives to a directory as well as its subdirectories.
* A .htaccess file in a subdirectory overrides any .htaccess files found in its parent directories.
* Each line in a .htaccess file that starts with a # symbol is ignored.

Creating .htaccess Files

Use a text editor such as Pico, Notepad, or SimpleText to create and modify .htaccess files. These editors specialize in plain text files.

Creating .htaccess Files on a Desktop Computer

To create a .htaccess file on your desktop computer use Notepad (Windows) or SimpleText (Macintosh). If you use a word processing program to create your .htaccess files be sure to save them as ASCII or plain text.

When you move a .htaccess file from your desktop computer to your Web directory remember to transfer it in text mode. Again, this helps preserve the plain text characteristic so important to .htaccess files.

Examples:

Here is a one line .htaccess file used to redirect "404 Not Found" responses to a specific Web page:

ErrorDocument 404 /webdemo/404.html

Here is a more elaborate .htaccess file that associates .dot files to a specific MIME type and turns on basic password protection:

AddType application/vnd.msword dot
AuthType Basic
AuthUserFile .htpasswd
AuthName "Town of Bedrock"
require user fred

Important Note: Any incorrect syntax in your .htaccess file will lead to the webserver returning a strange error when you try to visit your website. Therefore, you need to be sure to use proper syntax when writing to your .htaccess file.

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9. What are Server Side Includes?

Server Side Includes (SSI) let you create Web pages which are generated dynamically each time they are requested by a Web browser. All you have to do is embed SSI commands into your HTML. SSI's ease the maintenance of large Web sites by providing a way to insert the contents of a single file into several Web pages.

Server Side Includes (SSI) can be used to:

* Include headers and footers on several Web pages
* Include a last modification date on a Web page
* Include the output of a CGI program in a Web page
* Use conditional tests to generate Web page content

SSI commands are embedded in your HTML as comments. They are parsed by the server when a file is requested by a Web browser.

By default, HTML files are not parsed for SSI commands. To use SSI commands in a file, use a .shtml filename extension. For example, if you put SSI commands in your home page, it should be renamed index.shtml.

Examples and Resources

Here are several simple SSI command examples:

Include the contents of another file
<!--#include file="header.html" -->

Include last modification date
<!--#echo var="LAST_MODIFIED" -->

Include last modification date of another file
<!--#flastmod file="resume.html" -->

Include the contents of a CGI program
<!--#exec cgi="id.cgi" -->

Need more help:

Using Server Side Includes (from Apache Week)

Module mod_include (from Apache documentation)

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What is SSL?

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) provides encrypted connections, so that you and others can move information across the Internet with confidence that it will not be intercepted or modified in transit. SSL defeats most attempts to eavesdrop, forge or otherwise tamper with your data. ABHost.Net does not share the use of its SSL certificate. If you would like to use SSL with your site you will need to purchase a site certificate for your personal use.

It is appropriate to use SSL to protect passwords, intellectual property, and other information on your Web site that you do not want to travel across the Internet unencrypted.

Regardless of SSL, you should not collect and store highly sensitive or confidential information within your Web site. While SSL encrypts a Web browser's connection to your Web site, it does not protect information sitting in your Web directory. That is, the files in your Web directory are not encrypted and are therefore more vulnerable.

Thus, SSL should not be used on these Web servers to collect and store:

* Credit card numbers
* Medical records
* Private personnel records

Enter https in place of http to open a URL address using SSL.

To link between Web pages using a normal connection, insert a hyperlink and specify a relative target address:

<a href="info.html">read my info!</a>

To link to a Web page using SSL, insert a hyperlink and specify an absolute target address that calls for https:

<a href="https://depts.washington.edu/webdemo/info.html">read my private info!</a>

Note: this is the only time you should specify an absolute target address when linking between pages.

Known Problems

If you use SSL within your Web site, users may complain of warnings. That is, some versions of Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer may issue warnings when they connect to your SSL protected pages.

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