NetMAX Newsletter - August 2005

1. [Support] Holiday Hours
2. [News] NetMAX Donates SG20s to Charities and Non-Profits
3. [Sales] SG20 Blowout Continues
4. [Tips and Tricks] Using NetMAX to Serve CGI Applications
5. [General] Let's Hear From You

1. Holiday Hours

Monday, September 5th is Labor Day here in the U.S., and the NetMAX Team will be closing down to observe the holiday and enjoy the traditional last weekend of summer. Because of this, NetMAX Support will not be available on Monday, September 5th. Normal support hours will resume on Tuesday, September 6th.

Because of these holiday hours, any orders received after 2pm on Friday, September 2nd will not be shipped until Tuesday, July 5th.

Sorry for any inconvenience, and have a happy holiday!

2. NetMAX Donates SG20s to Worthy Charities and Non-Profits

NetMAX and Cybernet Systems Corporation want to help Non-Profits and Charitable organizations at the bottom line. How do we plan to do this? By implementing NetMAX servers and NetMAX Desktops that Cybernet and NetMAX will donate to your organization. This will save thousands of dollars on licensing fees and upgrade purchases, and cut down administrative costs because NetMAX eliminates the fear that a lack of management of your IT systems can result in:

• Virus Infections
• Security breaches and loss of important confidential and sensitive data
• Legal action for use of unlicensed software

With the NetMAX server and NetMAX Desktop there is no additional software to purchase because NetMAX Desktop comes fully loaded with applications comparable to those on other operating systems. The NetMAX donation bundle includes:

• Toshiba SG20 Magnia Server
• NetMAX Professional Suite 5
• NetMAX Firewall Prosuite
• NetMAX E-mail Powerpack
• NetMAX Personal Tutor
• NetMAX Desktop

Interested in such a donation for your charity or non-profit organization? All we ask in return is your organization's participation in a case study, and receipt of donation on your organization's letterhead. For more details, call us at:

1-800-CYBERNET extension 156

3. SG20 Blowout Continues

We've still got SG20s remaining, so the Final Clearance on NetMAX-preloaded Magnia SG20s is still ongoing... but you won't want to wait much longer, because when they're gone, they're gone for good!

A reminder on the details: while supplies last, we are offering our Toshiba Magnia SG20s for $199.99 (plus shipping), with licenses for NetMAX Professional Suite, Firewall ProSuite and VPN Server Suite 4.06 all included and pre-installed. You can only get this deal by calling us direct, even though you'll see it advertised on the front of the NetMAX Store. If you'd prefer an upgrade to the NetMAX 5 product family, it's just $75 more.

To order, contact NetMAX Sales at:

734-668-2567 or sales 'at' netmax.com

And why are we doing this? Well, as we said, we're making room for our new NetMAX pre-loaded mini servers! Currently, we expect to be offering new units based on the OpenBrick in October. In the meantime, if you're curious you can get some information on the OpenBrick project here:

http://www.openbrick.org/

4. Setting Up NetMAX to Serve Website CGI Applications

Common Gateway Interface (CGI) is a great technology for making websites more interactive. A CGI script is a program which is used to generate and customize HTML output or for processing of forms and user data.

To enable CGI execution on your website, follow these steps:

1. Log into the NetMAX interface as an administrative user
2. Access HOME|Services|WWW
3. Click Create to make a new website, or the pencil icon to edit an existing website
4. Supply the proper path and hostname information on the Aliases Tab
5. Click the OPTIONS tab
6. Ensure that Enable CGI Execution is checked
7. You may also wish to change the Default File to the name of your CGI app, i.e. index.cgi
8. Store and Commit the changes

This will cause your NetMAX server to treat any file whose name ends in ".cgi" and is marked as executable to be run from anywhere within the path specified in step 4 (including subdirectories) as a CGI application.

Please note that CGI scripts are programs that run on your server! This means that you should be sure that any CGI applications you choose to implement are secure and do not have any undesired side effects. CGI applications will be run as the user "nobody" by default, so they won't likely be able to damage the system -- but any directories and/or files accessible to the "nobody" user are accessible by CGI programs as well.

For this reason, it is common practice to put all cgi applications under a common directory which is separate from your usual web content. This directory is typically called "cgi-bin."

For more information, including how to set up a cgi-bin, and an example CGI script, visit the NetMAX website:

http://www.netmax.com/fom/fom.cgi?file=558

5. Let's Hear From You!

We would very much like to hear from you -- especially about how you use NetMAX and Linux in your business, and how we can make NetMAX better suited to your needs. Contribute your input to the NetMAX Forum at:

www.netmax.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard/ikonboard.cgi

or to our general NetMAX contact form at:

www.netmax.com/partners/contacts.html

Let us know about your likes, dislikes, and general comments. We are especially interested in the type of additions to NetMAX that you would like to see as we continue to develop the NetMAX line.

Thank you!