Ashton ITC Client Services - Managing your Virtual Server

Client Support - Managing your Virtual Server

(Applies to AshtonITC Corporate and Enterprise Virtual Servers only)

For those AshtonITC clients leasing one of our Corporate or Enterprise Virtual Servers and who wish to assist in maintaining their own Internet Presence, the information in this document will be extremely valuable.

Although you have full control of your Server, most of the time you will be interested primarily in maintaining your Web site, E-mail accounts and FTP access to your Server. This document details how to setup and maintain these services as well as the tools you will need to perform these actions.

Setting up and managing your Virtual Server:

NEW!!! Browser Based SiteTools simplifies AshtonITC Virtual Server maintenance
The information below is still valid, however you will find that SiteTools is extremely easy to use.

The tools you will need:

Uploading and maintaining files with FTP
Using Telnet for complete remote control

The tasks:

Managing e-mail accounts
Managing FTP services

1. Uploading files using an FTP client
In order to upload and maintain files on your server via FTP, you will first need to choose an FTP client. Freeware, Shareware, and Commercial FTP clients are available. You can find a good number of FTP clients by searching Yahoo or c|net download.com for "FTP client".

If you are using the Windows 95/98/NT operating system, you can use the FTP client that is built into the TCP/IP stack. The AshtonITC Support Staff has also found the graphical FTP client, WS_FTP when installed using the "classic" configuration to be very useful. If you are using a Macintosh, Fetch is probably the most popular FTP program available and is quite easy to use.

Approximately 80% of all your Virtual Server maintenance will be done using this tool. A lot of tedious Unix command line Telnet work can be done using the graphical interface of a tool like WS_FTP. Take the time to learn its capabilities. Also, by downloading files, editing them locally, and then uploading the results, you will have a backup copy on your local machine.

Since each FTP program is unique, it is impractical to give a step by step description about how to use each FTP program. However, despite this, there is some common information required by all FTP programs. This information includes your Host Name, your User ID, and your Password. The e-mail configuration letter you received from the AshtonITC Order Processing department includes this information. If you have lost this information you can request it from support@ashtonitc.com.

We have included specific instructions about how to use both WS_FTP and Fetch below.

Using WS_FTP (Windows)

Establish a connection to your Virtual Server by selecting the "Connect" button. Specify your company name as the "Profile Name", your domain name (or IP address or temporary domain name if your domain name has not yet been registered) as the "Host Name/Address", your login name as the "User ID", and your login password as the "Password".
Once a connection is established, two columns will appear on your screen. The column on the left displays files on your computer while the column on the right represents directories and files on your Virtual Server.
You will want to navigate to the "www/htdocs" or "usr/local/etc/httpd/htdocs" folder on your Virtual Server (the right side of the dialog). This is the directory where you will store your web content.
Select the appropriate files or directories that you want to transfer from your computer (the left side) to your Virtual Server (the right side) by selecting them with your mouse. You can select more than one by holding down the shift key.
Once these files are selected you simply hit the arrow "-->" pointing toward the right or toward the Virtual Server directory window. Be sure that all HTML documents and cgi script are transferred in ASCII mode. Graphics should be transferred in Binary format. The latest versions of WS_FTP provide an "Auto" toggle button you can select- WS_FTP will then automatically determine which mode to transfer the file (we recommend you use the "Auto" mode).

Using Fetch (Macintosh)

Establish a connection to your Virtual Server by selecting the "New Connection" button under the "File" menu. Specify your domain name (or temporary domain name if your domain name has not yet been registered) as the "Host", your login name as the "User ID", and your login password as the "Password".
You will want to navigate to the "www/htdocs" or "usr/local/etc/httpd/htdocs" folder on your Virtual Server. This is the directory where you will store your web content.
To upload content to your Virtual server you can either drag files and folders from your desktop to the Fetch window or select the "Put File..." button and select files and folders.
Be sure that all HTML documents and cgi script are transferred in ASCII mode. Graphics should be transferred in Binary format. Fetch also has a setting, "Automatic", that you can select- Fetch will then automatically determine which mode to transfer the file (we recommend you use the "Automatic" mode).

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2. Using Telnet and SSH
AshtonITC and our bandwidth partners are not only the leaders in Virtual Server technology, we are also seasoned security experts. Because of this, we are more than comfortable providing our clients with telnet and SSH access to their Virtual Servers (most other web hosting providers lack the confidence and expertise necessary to make their servers secure). Our "security hardened" server environment insures that your data (and our data) cannot be compromised.

Providing Telnet and SSH access is a fundamental part of AshtonITC's philosophy with regard to Remote Administration. An AshtonITC Virtual Server System allows you to have a dedicated presence on the Internet and maintain it remotely via a low cost dial-up connection. Remote administration is one of the most powerful tools included as part of the AshtonITC Virtual Server System. By using a Telnet or SSH client, you can connect to your Virtual Server from anywhere in the world, and log in to your server as if you were sitting right in front it.

Choosing a Telnet Client
There are quite a few telnet clients available, many of which are free. For example, the Windows 95/98/NT operating systems are shipped with a telnet client included (found at "c:\windows\telnet.exe" and "c:\winnt\system32\telnet.exe" respectively). This telnet client is simple and functional, but not quite as flexible and friendly as CRT from Van Dyke Technologies, Inc.

For the Macintosh OS, we recommend NSCA Telnet written by the Software Development Group at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. Unix users can use the built-in telnet client software shipped with the operating system.

Choosing a SSH Client
SSH (or Secure Shell) is a program that can be used to log into a remote machine (your Virtual Server) and provide secure encrypted communications between your Virtual Server and your local computer. All of the commands you would use in a Telnet client, you can use in an SSH client. The only difference is that the communication is made via encrypted channels to and from your Virtual Server. An excellent SSH client to use to connect to your Virtual Server is F-Secure SSH which is included in the F-Secure Desktop written by Data Fellows.

Connecting To Your Virtual Server
Once you have chosen a Telnet or SSH client, connecting to your AshtonITC Virtual Server is extremely simple. Although telnet and SSH clients vary in their exact configuration, most of them will simply require you to specify a "remote host". Your remote host is your Virtual Server, so you would specify your domain name (or your temporary domain or IP address if applicable).

Once you are connected, you will be prompted for your login name and login password. Your login name and login password where specified on your Virtual Server order confirmation. After the login process is successful, you will have gained access to your Virtual Server and can now issue commands at the command prompt. If you are not familiar with UNIX, we suggest one of the many fine books published by O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. on this and other topics of interest to webmasters and network administrators.

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3. Managing E-mail Aliases and E-mail Mailboxes
Each of the AshtonITC Virtual Server Systems allow you to create unlimited e-mail aliases. If you ordered a Fully Functional Virtual Server (Corporate or Enterprise Server), you have the additional capability of adding unlimited individual e-mail mailboxes. The AshtonITC Basic Server is only allowed one (1) e-mail mailbox.

Using E-mail Aliasing
Each Virtual Server is configured with e-mail aliasing capability. You can test your e-mail aliasing by setting up a "webmaster" alias to forward e-mail sent to the address
```
    webmaster@your_domain.name
```
to actually deliver to
```
    your@current_isp.address
```
You can add the alias manually by including the following line somewhere in your etc/aliases file:
```
    webmaster: your@current-isp.address
```
In addition to allowing you to "route" mail to a different account using e-mail aliasing, it is also a way to get around the 8 character limitation for mailbox account names. For example you could create a mail account using the 8 character limitation for a person named Tom Breckenridge and then use an alias of the full name that routed mail to the actual account mailbox.. Keep in mind that the e-mail client software (discussed below) must be configured to use the actual account name (tbrecken@your_domain) in the example shown below.
```
    tbreckenridge@your_domain.name
```
to actually deliver to
```
    tbrecken@your_domain.name
```
You can edit the etc/aliases file on the server itself by connecting to your server via telnet and using any of the many editors available such as pico, vi, or emacs. Or if you would rather, you can download the file using FTP (be sure to transfer in ascii mode), edit it locally on your machine, and then FTP it back up to your Virtual Server. This procedure offers the advantage of keeping a local copy of this file for backup.

After the etc/aliases file has been edited, run the program "vnewaliases" from a telnet connection to update the etc/aliases.db file.

You have the freedom to add any number of e-mail aliases that you desire. There is no limitation.

Setting up an E-mail Mailbox
The AshtonITC Basic Virtual Server is configured with one (1) e-mail mailbox. This single mailbox shares the same name as the login name used to access your Virtual Server. If you are reading this as an AshtonITC Basic Server administrator, skip down to the next step "Accessing your E-mail Mailbox".

E-mail mailboxes are different from e-mail aliasing. E-mail aliasing simply configures an e-mail address to forward to an existing (off-site or on-site) e-mail mailbox. The e-mail mailbox stores the mail until it is "popped" or removed.

AshtonITC Corporate and Enterprise Virtual Server administrators are at liberty to create as many e-mail mailboxes as desired. There is no extra charge for additional mailboxes.

Setting up additional e-mail mailboxes is extremely easy. You add the mailbox by connecting to your server via telnet and running the command "vadduser". The vadduser program will prompt you for the necessary information. Other mailbox utilities include "vrmuser" to remove e-mail mailboxes, "vlistuser" to list all of your current e-mail mailboxes and "vpasswd" to change an accounts password.

Below is an actual vadduser session for your information. The choices made are typical for a user e-mail account without FTP services. The responses that were typed in by the user are in red any notes are italicized.

To Add User Accounts:

%vadduser

Press <Enter> to continue: <ENTER>

(1) User Name

Email/FTP User Names are up to 8 characters and consist of upper or lower
case alphabetic characters or digits. They must start with an alphabetic
character and should generally be all lower case.

Email/FTP User Name: username

(2) Password

Now, enter a password for this user's Email/FTP account.

For security reasons you may want to use a password that is longer
than 6 characters and that has at least one non alphabetic character.
The password will *not* be echoed to the screen and you will be required
to type it twice.

Email/FTP Password: ********
Retype new password: ********
(note if you enter a short simple password you will be prompted
with a message that passwords should be more complex and asked
to re-enter a password. You can ignore the suggestion by entering
the same password in which case you will need to enter it 3 times
instead of 2)

(3) User's Full Name

Now, enter the Email/FTP User's full name followed by a return.
Please use less than 80 characters and no ':' characters.

Full Name: User's full name (First, Last)

(4) Account Services

Please select the services that this account will be using:

ftp File Transfer Protocol for uploading/downloading files
mail Email services including POP, IMAP, SMTP

Enter the service name (i.e. "ftp", "mail") to toggle the services
for the account. Hit return will done selecting/deselecting services.

Select (or DeSelect) Services [ftp mail]: ftp
Select (or DeSelect) Services [mail]: <ENTER>
(note: in this example we want to just create a mail account for the
user so have deselected ftp by entering it at the first prompt. We
are then given a second prompt without ftp and to accept the mail
only default just press <enter>

(5) Service Options

You selected service options that can have arguments such as files quotas.
If you want to this account to have ftp or email quotas then select you
will need to add service options.

Do you want to add service options like quotas to this account? [Yes]: <ENTER>

Enter mail quota for this account in MB (0 for no quota): 0

(6) Account Home Directory

Where would you like to put "username"'s home directory?

Enter "1" for an email account home directory: /usr/home/username
Enter "2" for a web hosted account home directory: /usr/local/etc/httpd/htdocs/username
Enter "3" for an anonymous FTP home directory: /ftp/pub/username
Or enter in any custom path.

Select 1, 2, 3 or enter a path [1]: <ENTER>
%

To List User Accounts:

%vlistuser

You will be shown a list of e-mail (and FTP) clients including any assigned quotas

To Delete User Accounts:

%vrmuser

You will be prompted for the account name (mail and/or FTP) to remove

To Change User Password:

%vpasswd [username]

You will be prompted for the new password.
Accessing your E-mail Mailbox
Any number of e-mail clients can be used to access e-mail stored at an e-mail mailbox on your Virtual Server. If you are using the Post Office Protocol (POP) to "pop" mail off of your Virtual Server e-mail mailbox (i.e. download the mail to your local computer) then you should consider Qualcomm Eudora, Netscape Communicator, Pegasus Mail by David Harris, or the Microsoft Internet Explorer. If you are using the Internet Mail Access Protocol (IMAP) to read mail from your Virtual Server e-mail mailbox then Netscape Communicator or Qualcomm Eudora 4.0+ are good choices.
Each mail client, though different, will require essentially the same information, namely: the mailbox location, your identity, your e-mail address, and the SMTP relay host. Some sample configuration parameters for several e-mail clients are given below:

Qualcomm Eudora Configuration Settings (POP)
Under the Tools menu, select the Options menu item.
   In the "Getting Started" section:
      POP account: username@pop.your_domain.name
      Real name: your full name
   In the "Personal Info" section:
      Return address: username@your_domain.name
   In the "Hosts" section:
      SMTP: smtp.your_domain.name

Pegasus Mail Configuration Settings (POP)
Under the Tools menu, select the Options menu item.
   In the "General settings" category:
      Personal name: your full name
      Reply address: username@your_domain.name
   In the "Network configuration" category:
      POP3 host: pop.your_domain.name
      User name: username
      Password: your mailbox password (optional)
      SMTP host: smtp.your_domain.name

Netscape Navigator 3.x Configuration Settings (POP)
Under the Options menu, select the Mail and News Preferences menu item.
   Under the "Servers" tab:
      SMTP server: smtp.your_domain.name
      POP3 server: pop.your_domain.name
      User name: username
   Under the "Identity" tab:
      Your name: your full name
      Email address: username@your_domain.name

Netscape Navigator 4.x Configuration Settings (POP)
Under the Edit menu, select the Preferences menu item.
Click on the Mail & Groups Category.
   Select the "Identity" item:
      Your name: your full name
      Email address: username@your_domain.name
   Select the "Mail Server" item:
      Mail server user name: username
      Outgoing mail (SMTP) server: smtp.your_domain.name
      Incoming mail server: pop.your_domain.name
      Mail server type: POP3

Netscape Navigator 4.x Configuration Settings (IMAP)
Under the Edit menu, select the Preferences menu item.
Click on the Mail & Groups Category.
   Select the "Identity" item:
      Your name: your full name
      Email address: username@your_domain.name
   Select the "Mail Server" item:
      Mail server user name: username
      Outgoing mail (SMTP) server: smtp.your_domain.name
      Incoming mail server: imap.your_domain.name
      Mail server type: IMAP

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4. Managing Your FTP Site
The AshtonITC Corporate and Enterprise Virtual Servers include the Virtual FTP Service or the capability of providing anonymous and non-anonymous FTP access.

Secure FTP: Non-anonymous or secure FTP access is extremely valuable and is configured by using the "vadduser" command (as described in the previous section about creating e-mail mailboxes). This allows you to grant users access to a specific folder (directory) provided they supply the correct username and password pair using FTP client software. This is the preferred way to transmit large files over the Internet rather than attaching them to e-mail.

When a User logs onto your Virtual Server with FTP software using your domain as the host name (your_domain.com) and the UserName and Password you created for a given folder they will be automatically placed in that folder with no access to any files outside of the folder. They can upload, download, rename and delete files within the secure folder as needed.

Non-Secure FTP: Your anonymous FTP site is used to grant indiscriminate or open access to your "ftp" directory of your Virtual Server (this directory is located in your Virtual Server's home directory). An anonymous FTP site is primarily used to distribute software, disseminate information, or to allow your clients and customers to upload data to your site.

In the "ftp" directory of your Virtual Server you will find two directories, "bin" and "pub". Your "bin" directory contains some executables necessary for your FTP site to function. Your "pub" directory (short for public) is ideal for you to use to store content and create additional directory structures.

You can create a "welcome message" which will be displayed to all your anonymous ftp visitors when they connect to your site. For example, you may create a file like this:

******************************************************************

  Welcome to our Anonymous FTP Archive

  Download demo versions of our products.  We support several 
  platforms:
      Macintosh       pub/software/macintosh
      Windows 3.1     pub/software/win31
      Windows 95/NT   pub/software/win95_NT

  If you are a registered user, please download the latest
  patches:
      Macintosh       pub/software/patches/macintosh
      Windows 3.1     pub/software/patches/win31
      Windows 95/NT   pub/software/patches/win95_NT

  You will find our documentation in pub/docs

  If our technical support department has asked you to upload 
  files, please do so in the incoming directory

  Thank you for visiting.  If you have any comments about our 
  ftp site, you can send them to suggest@our_domain.name

******************************************************************

Each time someone connects to your FTP site they will see this very informative welcome message. The welcome message must be stored in your ftp directory under the name of ".welcome".

You may want to create a special directory to allow people to upload files to your FTP site. You indicate that a directory is for upload only by creating a ".incoming" file in that directory. For example, create an "incoming" directory in your ftp root directory:

    mkdir incoming

Change your current working directory to the incoming directory:

    cd incoming

Then create a blank ".incoming" file:

    touch .incoming

This will mark the directory as an "incoming" directory which will allow your FTP site visitors to upload files for your review.

Each subdirectory of your FTP site may contain an individual message. This message must be stored in the directory under the name of ".message".

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