NetMAX Web Site (WWW) SETUP HOW-TO GUIDE

Description:

This HOW-TO document is intended to provide set-by-step instructions for configuring basic web services through the NetMAX interface.

Requirements:

1) NetMAX Server Software. (For external DNS services you will need the NetMAX Firewall 3.0 (retail), Firewall Suite 3, Firewall ProSuite 3, Professional Suite 3, VPN Server Suite.)

2) Installed and operational NetMAX product with network and router functions configured.

3) Basic understanding of network design, Internet connectivity, and domain set-up on the NetMAX.

SECTION 1. GETTING STARTED

Let's start with the main NetMAX interface and some of its features. We start from the Home page as displayed after logging in to the NetMAX web based interface. You should see something similar to the following screen shot: (Note: depending on what version of the NetMAX you have, some features may not be present.)

Throughout this document you will notice that we have placed letters, number and arrows next to important menu items in the diagrams for easier reference. You will not see these references in your actual interface.

Here are brief descriptions of what each menu item does:

A) PERSONAL: This is where all the local NetMAX user's can access and display their personal user information (home directory, file management, available shares). Remember, if you only have a FireWall product, this menu will have fewer items listed. This the first screen that is displayed after log in.

B) USERS: Here is where users are created, modified and stored. This includes creating new users (FireWall products have one user, the administrator), groups and passwords. You can also change the user's home directory, what groups they belong to, permissions, enable email, and other miscellaneous user settings. Again, FireWall products will have very limited options here.

C) SERVICES: This is where you set up subsystems like WWW (Apache), FTP, Proxy Server (Squid), Traffic Monitor, VPN (isakmpd), eMail (Sendmail), etc. Again, FireWall products will have limited options on configuring these services, though most of them will still be running, please see our FAQ for information on how these services can be shutdown from the command line.

D) REPORTS: This should be your first place to look when troubleshooting a problem. Reports will give you the ability to check system logs, daemon logs, current users, proxy cache, alerts etc. Basically, this is where to go to find out how your system is doing or what, if any, problems there are.

E) NETWORK: Just as the name implies, this is where to go to configure your NetMAX's network settings such as interfaces, and routing. You can set up the DNS server/resolver, firewalls, hosts for your DNS server, and advanced networking such as proxy ARPing, bridging, traffic rerouting, IP NAT, etc.

F) SHARING: For those who have this option, it is a place to set up shares, add volumes (new drives), mount removable media (CD-ROM, floppy drives), and share printers. If you have this link, you might not have others inside, e.g. WebServer products will have Home|Sharing, but no Printer Sharing option inside.

G) SYSTEM: This is for system changes only, i.e. Shutdown, Package Management (older versions have this under Home|Services), UPS support (again if available on your system).

This guide is intended for instruction to configure Web Sites only. It assumes that your NetMAX has already been implemented (including the domains for the web sites), and the network functions are working properly. If your NetMAX is not set up correctly on the network, then you will need to do so before proceeding.

If you have the firewall product (or the Professional Suite) you should ensure that you have the "Firewall Configuration" on all of your interfaces set to "None" to test network functionality. After you have verified that your NetMAX is properly configured, you can begin to design the "Independent Configuration" of your firewall, if applicable.

We will walk through creating a web site on the NetMAX we will use the example www.NetMAX.com. If you to create any web site, e.g. www.mydomain.com, you must first have that domain created and configured under Home->Network->Domains. This was explained in detail in out DNS How-To, you must absolutely certain you have configured that domain properly and since the NetMAX will be serving this the host name, in this case "www" must also be in Home->Network->Naming, more important it must be pointing to the external IP. Once the host name (www) and the domain name (NetMAX.com) are both entered under Naming will it appear as as web site options under Home->Services->WWW. First click on Service from the Home screen:

Once you have clicked on WWW you should get a screen similar to this one:

This screen will show you all the web sites that you have entered/configured either enabled or not! There is a lot of information here so we have marked this page for easier reference. You will not have these letters and numbers on your screen. Lets go quickly over through all the parts of this screen then we will go ahead and create our new web site and get into more detail, since ever one of these field can be changed through the editing/creating of web sites..

A) WEB SITES - This is the current tab we are on right now and it is the default the screen that first will come up when we click on the WWW link. This tab will basically list ALL the web sites (active and inactive).

B) MIME TYPES - This tab will allow you enter MIME (Multi-Purpose Internet Mail Extensions), these are basically file associations that are sent with web transmission. We will not be going over this as this guide is just for creating a web site and mime types are specific your application. If you need help you can click on this tab then click on the "?" to get all the information.

C) CREATE - This is what we will press shortly (after we go over the rest of this screen) to actually start creating a new web site.

SECTION 2. CREATING A WEB PAGE

Now that we have gone over the items on this screen lets go ahead and create a web page. Click on the CREATE to start once you clicked on the button you should get to this screen:

When creating a web site this is the first screen you will see, it has 4 tabs and three box, most of the time this is the only screen you will need to use to configure the web site but we will go through all the tab as you might need to customize some default settings. Lets go through the items we have marked here:

A) ALIASES - Most Server have only one true hostname so most web server basically set-up Aliases even for that host name. This is also because www.NetMAX.com/examples is really "/var/mnt/System/Web/external". Don't let the ALIASES tab fool you, it is a real web site.

B) OPTIONS - This is where you "customize" the web site configuration; default file, directory browsing, restricted access (by users) etc. We will get into more detail a little later in this guide.

C) USER PAGES - This will add user pages to the web, in the form "domain"/~user_name e.g. for www.NetMAX.com this would automatically generate www.NetMAX.com/~jdoe (if jdoe was a user on the NetMAX) and ALL other users that have user pages enabled in their properties. Also if the web site was www.NetMAX.com/examples/onemoredirectory then this would make the users pages www.NetMAX.com/examples/onemoredirectory/~jdoe. Again we will go over this a little more later in this guide.

D) FRONT PAGE - This will add the files necessary to implement FrontPage support.

Now lets look at the Individual items on this page.

1) Web Site Configuration - This box is the very basic set-up of the Web, no actual data (i.e. URL, path settings, etc.) that is necessary is entered in here. The check mark will enable (checked) or disable (unchecked) the web site, the description is just for your reference and make no impact on the web site set up. If you want the web site to be serve make sure you have Enable Web Site checked!

2) Web Site Host - This is basically the Web site primary configuration, this like URL, type of site (name or IP) etc.:

   Web site Host Method - This is where you would choose whether you would want to do name based to IP based hosting. If you are planning on hosting virtual domains (i.e. multiple domains pointing to the same IP) you would choose Name. If you are hosting one domain per IP the you would choose IP. ***NOTE: If you are implementing virtual hosting you MUST have ALL web site pointing Named based even if you have one web site decided to one IP***

   Protocol - This is where you choose whether you would want HTTP or HTTPS (secure). Unless you have already made a certificate you would want to choose HTTP. IF you choose HTTPS NetMAX will force you to choose the certificate for the site so make sure you have ready before trying to serve a secure site.

   Host Name - This information is "pulled" directly from Home->Network->Naming , again if you are not familiar with setting up the domains and placing NetMAX inside of them please refer to DNS (domains) set-up.

   Port - The port on which to serve this web site on, normally you would want to keep this at 80, unless you know exactly why you want to change this you should leave this alone (even for HTTPS site as the NetMAX will change it automatically).

   URL Path - This is the full path URL IF there is anything after host name, i.e. www.NetMAX.com/examples or www.NetMAX.com/support etc. This the URL and has no relation to the actual path, just want you want to server if different from just the straight URL.

   Create Domain Name Alias For This Host Name - This basically is self-explanatory, what it is saying is that if your web site's host name is www.NetMAX.com (remember the host name here is "www" and the domain name is "NetMAX.com") and you also want to server is someone types just http://NetMAX.com .

3) Web Site Type - This is actually where and how (redirect) the web site will be served.

   Path - In what directory the web site reside. It is HIGHLY recommended that you use th select button to make this entry. If you click on the select button it will automatically start you in the System directory (absolute path is /var/mnt/System , since this is where the bulk of the drive is) from there you can pick a directory that is already NOT being served by another web site.

   Redirect To: - If another URL (web site) that you have set-up already in the same specific directory then you would want to redirect to the URL that is pointing to that same directory. (e.g. www.NetMAX.com and www.NetMAX.org are pointing to the same directory on the server you would just redirect the second web site you create to the first one, www.NetMAX.org redirects to www.NetMAX.com)

For most web sites this is really all that needs to be filled, please remember if this all you filled out that the first page of your web site MUST BE index.html (this is case sensitive) on the directory that you picked. If you need to customize the settings further click on the Options tab.

How to set-up NetMAX Web Server Options Tab

Here is the Options tab screen:

Remember we are still on the www.NetMAX.com web site configuration, we are just at the options tab so all changes here will ONLY effect www.NetMAX.com web site. Lets take a look at the sections on this tab.

1) Web Site Properties - This is where you can change how the web site is configured.

   Web Site - Reminding you that you are configuring on only www.NetMAX.com web site is information is be "pulled" from the first screen where you picked the URL.

   Default File - This is the file that NetMAX is looking for, it IS case sensitive if you do not have a file in the directory you specified for this web site and you do not have "Enabled Directory Browsing" checked then you will get a permission denied message if you try to pull up the the web site. This is not permission problem rather a configuration issue.

   Enable Directory Browsing - When this is checked if some one enter the web with a valid directory it will list the directory and all the files inside that directory.

   Enable CGI Execution - This will set-up the CGI directory and the permissions so you can run CGI scripts on this web site.

   Enable .htaccess to Override Defaults - This will enable you to create a file called ".htaccess" in your web directory that can basically set permissions for users on the web site. That will override anything else like the NetMAX user settings.

2) Web Site Access Control - This will basically allow you to enable a password protected site by indicating which users or groups on the NetMAX will be allowed to access the site. This is configured through APACHE and NOT though HTML code also you can only limit access from users on th NetMAX (i.e. all users must be entered in the NetMAX).

   Authorized Access Group - This is where you would specify which user group on the NetMAX will ONLY have access to this web site and no one else (they will be prompted for a user name and password).

   Domain and IP Address Access - This will allow you to restrict (remember through APACHE NOT by HTML) web site by either domains or IPs. If you check "Allow the following" and have nothing in any of the fields then no one will be able to get to the web page.

How to set-up NetMAX Web Server UserPages Tab

Go ahead and click on the User Pages tab you should now see a screen similar to this:

This is where you would be add for this particular web site. If you choose this options all users that have home pages enabled will have and home page on this web site.

1) User Web Pages Configuration - This sections sets up and enables the user web pages.

   Enable User Web Pages - Checking this will enable the user web page to be created.

   Home Directory - This is where you would set the home directory for each user. This is referring to the the user's home directory, so in each users home directory there will be a public_html directory (i.e. /var/mnt/System/Users/User_name/public_html). You will not be able to give users there on page if you have not enabled a home directory for them (they really won't be able to do anything is they didn't have a home directory anyway).

   Default File - Which file to look for in the home directory listed above to post eh web site, the default file MUST be the same for ALL users. If users do not have a the default in their public_html (as stated above) directory then their web site will not be shown and they will get an error instead.

2) User Web Pages Properties - here is a list of properties for user pages these are the same properties that are available for the web site itself so we will not go over them again, you can go through this guide and find the functions defined.

On this screen you can enable MS Frontpage support.

1) Apache Support for Microsoft FrontPage Extensions - This will configure apache to allow and FrontPage support on this web site.

   Enable Root Web - Checking this will enable The NetMAX server to be used as a FrontPage server for your Microsoft FrontPage clients. When FrontPage support is enabled for a web site, the Protocol, Host Name, Port, URL Path, Path and Redirect To cannot be edited. And from the User Pages the Host and Home Directory cannot be edited. Also, Enable CGI and Allow .htaccess Override are automatically enabled and do not appear under the Options tab. If you are unsure of whether or not you need this or not please refer to either Apache or Microsoft for more information.

   Owner of Root Web - Type or Select the 'Owner of this Root Web' or 'Owner of This Sub Web'. The password for the FrontPage site is initially set to the user's log in password. However, a user's NetMAX log in password is independent of the user's FrontPage password, so changing one of them does not change the other.


Well that is it! That is all the setting that you can configure for a weg site. Once you have gone through these settings you can click on STORE then COMMIT to actually commit the web site. Once you have committed (remember once and ONLY when you have committed changes will take place) your web site should be up and running. If you are having problems after you have gone through this site then you should recheck all your settings then recommit. If you are still having problems check the logs: Home->Reports->System Log->httpd access(/var/log/httpd-access.log) and Home->Reports->System Log->httpd-error (/var/log/httpd-error.log) to get more information on what the errors are.