NetXpress Server README.TXT =========================== Version 1.1 updates: General: - All password checks are now case-sensitive! - Altered the user database interface in SETUP - Fixed some user database access problems WWW: - NetXpress Server now includes a CGI program that allows for word searches through your documents. Please see SEARCH.ZIP for more info. - Added a special HTML keyword that returns the number of accesses for that document. All you must do is place in a HTML and NetServer will send out a number instead of that string. If you change a documents location, then its access count will reset. Only documents with a content type of text/html will be recorded. NetServer uses the ACCESS.WWW file in the system directory to keep track of this information. Before: [ Visitor # ] After: [ Visitor # 143 ] - Added the ability for the Web server to handle If-Modified-Since headers - Added User Authorization to the Web server. - CGI programs may return, in the header of their message, the following: Status: Content-type: / Location: - Fixed the Web POST method - CGI programs now get these additional environmental variables: HTTP_ACCEPT: HTTP_USER_AGENT: CONTENT_LENGTH: REMOTE_USER: - CGI programs no longer receive the PATH_INFO variable. - NXCGI now correctly feeds input from POST operations through the stdin instead of trying to create the QUERY_STRING variable - Fixed massive problems with the WWW interface with CGI - Added the ability to add other Content-Types to the Web server. - Made all references to URLs in the NETSRV.WWW file able to handle the wildcard character '*' (must be the last character). - Added to the NETSRV.WWW file the following: protect_ip protect_mask protect_user protect_group The protect_ip and protect_mask keywords grants access to certain documents or directories to certain IP addresses. The protect_user and protect_group keywords will use the Basic authorization scheme to request a user name and password from the user. You may have more than one protect keyword per document. Their operation will be ORed together. - Added the WWW POST command. - Web requests to *.html will be processed as *.htm - Added the Date:, Server:, MIME-Version:, Content-Type:, Last-Modified: headers on outgoing HTTP/1.0 requests. - Caused a HEAD HHTP method to produce the same headers as a GET method. SMTP: - When SMTP bounced a message due to delivery problems, it created a share violation. - Altered the SMTP server to become an Extended SMTP server (ESMTP) - Added a POP3 server - Added a SMTP to POP3 gateway - SMTP will now wait 15 minutes after unsuccessfully trying a destination. - Got rid of the .LCK SMTP files. - The SMTP client now opens messages in DENYALL mode so only one session accesses the same message at the same time. UUCP: - Added support for FOSSIL and Smart DigiBoard in the UUCP module. FTP: - Added a User's FTP home directory. - The FTP server did not initialize the data transfer port correctly if no PORT command was sent. Finger: - The Finger server was not closing the connection on some requests. Welcome to NetXpress Server! ============================ This is a special early release of our exiting NetXpress Server product. Thus this version thus not include the BBS client door nor does it include the IP Router. These product will be made available for a small upgrade fee. þ The BBS client door includes all of the most popular internet clients like Telnet, FTP, WWW, Gopher, Finger and IRC. It can run under any BBS software. þ The IP Router allows any internet application that uses packet drivers to communicate with the Internet through the Netxpress Server without any other software. Bonus Software ============== Two extra programs are provided; NXDIAL and NXUUCICO. NXDIAL is a stand alone modem dialer that is compatible with NetXpress Server's internal dialer. The command file uses a command structure similar to the internal dialer. NXUUCICO is a stand alone UUCP transfer agent. It is exactly like the one in NetXpress Server. It uses the netsrv.cfg file. Ammendments =========== Telnet Wait for Carriage Return: A new option has been added to the Telnet Service window; Wait for the user to press When enabled, the user will need to press the key after the welcome file is displayed and before a free node is searched for. Maximum File Handles: This value is no longer configurable. NetXpress Server now comes with 256 file handles built-in. You must make sure that your "FILES=xx" value in your CONFIG.SYS file is enough to handle all of the open files. Syntax: The manual omits the syntax for netsrv.exe: Syntax: netsrv.exe [netsrv.cfg] [/E] [/5] [/S ] Where: [netsrv.cfg] is the path & filename of a config file /E will expand all display sessions /5 will display in 50 row mode /S will utilize UUCP to poll and then exit Internal Dialer & SLIP Driver: If you are using the internal dialer and the internal SLIP driver, you must ensure that after the dialer finishes there are almost no characters in the receive buffer. The rational behind this is that sometimes if you send out a TCP packet before your provider's host machine is in SLIP mode, it might echo that packet back thus corrupting the SLIP stream. Technical Support ================= If you experience any problems with this software, please contact our technical support: Merlin Systems Inc. P.O. Box 3043, Station C, Ottawa, Ontario, K1Y 4J3 Canada Phone: (613) 749-0888 Fax: (613) 741-7583 BBS: (613) 741-7583 Email: support@merlinsys.com Web: http://www.merlinsys.com FidoNet: 1:163/5091 Bugs ==== If you perceive that these problems maybe bugs in the software please contact our development staff at: Email: netsrv.bugs@merlinsys.com Known Problems ============== þ Zmodem downloads & uploads are known not to work properly. This will be fixed in a later release. We have also seen other protocols not work as well, although Xmodem & Kermit seem to work most of the time. We would encourage you to use the FTP server for transfering file instead of the telnet. You will get much better performance from the FTP protocol.