Overview: FTP (the File Transfer Protocol)
allows files to be copied from one computer on the Internet to another. It is
a standard protocol across many different types of computers. This means a
computer that uses Windows can send/receive files to/from a Unix computer, or a
Macintosh, etc. We will show you how to use FTP to upload your web page
to Netmar for the first time.
Before Beginning
Select the type of computer and Internet connection you have
Startup your America Online software and connect to America
Online.
Go to keyword "ftp". First bring up the "Go to
Keyword" box by doing ONE OF the following:
Pressing CONTROL-K (hold down the CONTROL key and press K)
Pressing the "KEYWORD" button on the right end of the
main menu bar (near the top right-hand corner of the main window).
Selecting "Keyword" from the "Go To" menu.
Then enter "ftp" into the "Keyword"
box and press the "Go" button as shown below.
Select the "Go to FTP" button on the next window.
Select the "Other Site" button on the "Anonymous
FTP" window as shown below.
Enter "login.netmar.com" (without the quotes)
in the "Site Address" box on the "Other Site"
window that comes up. Check the "Ask for login name
and password" checkbox. Press the "Connect"
button as shown below.
Note: If you are immediately
shown a welcome message WITHOUT being asked for your login name and
password, then you forgot to check the checkbox on this window. If so,
press the OK button on the welcome message box, and close the following
directory window. You will be back on the "Other Site"
window. Check the checkbox and press the "Connect"
button.
Enter your 3-8 character Netmar username in the login name box on
the "Remote Sign-On" window. Please note that this is
ONLY a 3 to 8 character single word in all lowercase letters with
no spaces. You selected it when you ordered your account. It is
indicated at the top right-hand corner of any of your invoices and is
also shown in the introductory email you were sent when your account
was first setup. Enter your password in the password box. Note that
the password assigned to you by Netmar is a 7 character random
sequence of lowercase letters and numbers WITH NO SPACES. It will not
appear as you type, so type carefully.
Once you have entered your username and password, press the
"Continue" button as shown below.
You should now be looking at your home directory. Your home directory
is where all of your personal files, including web pages, go on the
server. It is located at /users/X/USERNAME, where the X stands for
the first letter of your username and USERNAME stands for your username,
in all lowercase. The image below shows the home directory of user
"guest."
If you are uploading webpages or images, select the "www"
directory by clicking on it with the mouse. If you are uploading a
CGI script, select the "cgi-bin" directory.
Press the "Open" button.
You should now be looking at your "www" or "cgi-bin"
directory. If this is the first time you're using your account, then
it will look just like the figure below (for www), except that the
directory name (/users/g/guest/www) will show your own username instead.
Press the "Upload" button as shown below.
Decide on which file you are uploading, and enter its name in the
"Remote Filename" box. This will tell the server what name
to save it under (you COULD use a name different than the file's name
on your computer- but that could get confusing). If the file is an
actual Webpage (HTML) or text file, check the "ASCII"
checkbox. Otherwise, or if you are unsure, check the
"Binary" checkbox. Press the "Continue" button
as shown below.
Enter the name of the file on your computer, including its full
pathname. If you are unsure of its full pathname, press the
"Select File" button to find it. Once you have the filename
entered in the "File" box, press the "Send" button
as shown below.
Note: If you are using a Macintosh
computer, the filename will not have a drive letter ("C:") at
the beginning, as pictured above.
Repeat steps 8 and 9 for each of your files.
Connect to the Internet through your ISP. If you are viewing a
printed or saved copy of this document, verify that you are connected
by accessing our homepage at http://netmar.com/. Then press
Netscape's BACK button.
(You can click here to bypass Steps
2 and 3).
Click on the Netscape Location bar (where the current URL is
printed) or type Control-O (hold down the CONTROL key and press the
letter O key) or select "Open Page" from the File menu.
Enter "ftp://" (without the quotes),
followed by your Netmar username, then a colon, then your Netmar
password, then the @ symbol, then "login.netmar.com/users/"
(without the quotes), then the first letter of your username, followed
by a slash, and then your username. The whole URL should look like
this:
If your username was "bob" and your
password was "square", the URL would be:
ftp://bob:square@login.netmar.com/users/b/bob
Press ENTER or select the "Open" or "Open in
Navigator" button.
You should now be looking at your home directory. If you are uploading
webpages or images, click on "www" to switch to your web
directory. If you are uploading a CGI script, click on
"cgi-bin" to switch to your cgi-bin directory.
Select "Upload File" from the Netscape File menu.
Locate the file you wish to upload and press the OK button. Repeat
steps 5 and 6 for each file you wish to upload. (Note: Be sure your
homepage file is named index.html so that it will come up when you
enter your URL.)
Follow these steps Note: Unless otherwise noted, when told to type a command, never
include the quotes that surround the command in what you type.
Connect to the Internet through your ISP. If you are viewing a
printed or saved copy of this document, verify that you are connected
by accessing our homepage at http://netmar.com/. Then press your
browser's BACK button.
Select Start->Run (press the Start button and click on
"Run...")
In the "Run" box, type "ftp
login.netmar.com" and press ENTER or click on the OK button.
When prompted, enter your 3-8 character Netmar username and press ENTER.
Please note that this is ONLY a 3 to 8 character single word in all
lowercase letters with no spaces. You selected it when your ordered
your account. It is indicated at the top right-hand corner of any of
your invoices and is also shown in the introductory email you were sent
when your account was first setup.
When prompted for your password, enter a dash character, followed by
your Netmar password. Your password will not appear when entered, so
type carefully! Do not enter any spaces anywhere on the password
line, just a dash and the password. If your password were
"apple," you would enter "-apple".
Press ENTER.
At the next "ftp>" prompt type "cd
www" and press ENTER.
At the next "ftp>" prompt type "lcd
DIRNAME" replacing DIRNAME with the
location on your computer where your webpages are housed. If your
webpages were located in C:\data\website, you would type,
"lcd c:\data\website" at the prompt. Press
ENTER.
If the next file you are going to upload is an HTML (webpage) or
plain text file, type "asc" and press ENTER.
Otherwise, type "bin" and press ENTER.
Note: You can use the "ldir" command to list the
files in the current directory on your computer.
Type "put FILENAME" replacing FILENAME with
the name of the file you want to upload and press ENTER.
OR
Type "prompt" and press ENTER and then type
"mput *.html *.htm" to upload all of your
HTML files at once.
OR
Type "prompt" and press ENTER and then type
"mput *.gif *.jpg" to upload all of your
image files at once.
If you have subdirectories (sub-folders) on your website, type
"lcd FOLDER " (where FOLDER is the name of
the folder) followed by "mkdir FOLDER " and
ENTER then "cd FOLDER " and ENTER. Then
repeat steps 8 and 9 for all of the files in that directory.
Repeat steps 8-10 until all of your files are uploaded.
Overview: Any website on the Internet can be transferred to Netmar
with no downtime. By following the instructions below, you can install
and test your webpage data before your domain name is moved so that visitors
to your website will never see it go down, but will just be instantaneously
directed here.
Before Beginning
Determine the level of access you have to your old site.
Follow the steps in Question 1 to upload
your website data into your Netmar account.
Test your Netmar website using the basic URL's give to you in your
introductory email message. These are
"http://netmar.com/~username/" or
"http://netmar.com/users/username", where "username"
is your 3-8 character Netmar username (login ID).
Fill out a Domain Name
Registration Template to Modify your existing domain name to point
it to your Netmar website. If your domain name ends in
.COM, .NET, or .ORG, you will
be using the standard template.
Your Netmar website will be active within 3-5 working days.
Enter your 3-8 character Netmar username when you reach the
login prompt. Please note that this is ONLY a 3 to 8 character
single word in all lowercase letters with no spaces. You selected
it when you ordered your account. It is indicated at the top
right-hand corner of any of your invoices and is also shown in the
introductory email you were sent when your account was first setup.
Enter your password when prompted. Your password will not appear
on the screen when typed, so please type carefully.
If this is your first time logging in to your account via telnet,
press the SPACE bar to page through the introductory messages.
At the "netmar>" prompt, type "cd
www" and press ENTER.
At the next prompt, type "sitecopy URL",
where URL is the website address of your current website, and
press ENTER. For instance, if your current website were
http://apples.com/, you would type "sitecopy
http://apples.com".
Follow the onscreen instructions. If the introductory text is
more than one screen in length, press the SPACE bar to advance
to the next page. When complete, type "exit"
and press ENTER to logout.
Test your Netmar website using the basic URL's give to you in your
introductory email message. These are
"http://netmar.com/~username/" or
"http://netmar.com/users/username", where "username"
is your 3-8 character Netmar username (login ID).
Fill out a Domain Name
Registration Template to Modify your existing domain name to point
it to your Netmar website. If your domain name ends in
.COM, .NET, or .ORG, you will
be using the standard template.
Your Netmar website will be active within 3-5 working days.
Overview: When you register a domain name (e.g.
www.something.com), you have control over a number of aspects of that
domain. One thing you can do is reference your existing email account at
Netmar through that domain.
Before Beginning
Confirm that your new domain name is active and working properly on
the web. Additionally, be aware that there may be as much as a 3-4
day delay on getting new registration data online. So if your account
and domain name are both new, you may just need to wait for all of
the data to get updated.
Follow these steps
When you signed up for your account, the email address
user@netmar.com (where "user" is your
Netmar username) immediately became valid. Now,
user@yourdomain.com is already valid, and you
can send mail there. If that's all you want to do, you're
done. There is no need to proceed further.
By default, all mail sent to your Netmar account is forwarded to the
email address you gave us when you ordered your account. You can
disable this by logging in via telnet or FTP and deleting the
.forward file in your home directory.
To do this, by telnet, login (see Question 1.9)
and, at the netmar> type:
rm .forward
and press ENTER.
You can then retrieve this mail using the instructions in
Question 6.
Overview: You can setup an unlimited number of virtual email addresses
in your domain that end in @domain.com for your domain name.
Each of these addresses (called email aliases) will then receive email
and forward it to an email box of your choosing, anywhere on the Internet.
With this feature, your one single email account can receive email sent to
any of several email addresses. For instance, email sent to
sales@domain.com and info@domain.com could
be directed to your email box, while mail sent to
help@domain.com could be sent to your co-worker.
Before Beginning
Assemble a list of email addresses you want to create including, for each
one, where mail sent there should be redirected. NOTE
that you WILL NOT be creating a separate physical email BOX for each of
these addresses. These addresses are just forwarding locations. Mail
sent to each one will be forwarded to a real email box.
Follow these steps
Login by telnet to your Netmar account by following the
instructions on Question 1.9
At the netmar> prompt, type:
"edit .aliasmap"
and press ENTER. You are now in a regular text editor in which
you will enter your aliases. Enter the first address you wish
to create, followed by a colon, then the email address to which
that alias should be directed. Do not type any spaces on the line.
Press ENTER.
Type the second alias, followed by a colon, then the destination
address. Be sure not to type any spaces. Press ENTER.
Continue in this manner until you've entered all of your addresses.
If you make a mistake, you can use the BACKSPACE and arrow keys to
move around and make corrections.
Type CONTROL-X (hold down the CONTROL key and press the letter X key).
Type Y (to answer yes to the save question).
Press ENTER (to use the filename you already typed).
Your changes will take effect at 1:00 AM US/Eastern time.
Overview: Email is very much like postal mail in this regard. You
write a letter, put it in an envelope, and write the destination and
return addresses on the envelope. You then drop the letter in a mailbox
and it gets sent. But the return address that goes on it is up to you.
It has nothing to do with what mailbox you drop the letter in.
Email is no different. Your mail software on your computer (like Eudora,
Pegasus, Netscape, or Microsoft) addresses your email, including the
return address, BEFORE it is sent. It has nothing to do with the server
from which it is sent. That is why, in the instructions below, we will no
direct you to access your Netmar account at all.
Follow these steps
Configure your local mail software to set your email address as
the email address from which you want your email to appear to come.
OR
Configure your local mail software to set your Reply-To address as
the email address from which you want your email to appear to come.
The message will still have your real address on the "From"
line, but replies to the message will go to the Reply-To address.
Overview: Netmar provides what is called POP3 (stands for Post Office
Protocol 3) access to your email box here on the server. POP3 allows you
to download the contents of your mailbox to your computer and store them
there, using whatever filing methods your software uses.
NOTE
Before Beginning
Make sure you have a POP3 mail client program. Common programs include
Netscape Mail (part of Netscape Communicator), Eudora or Eudora Pro,
Pegasus Mail, and Microsoft Outlook, among others.
Follow these steps
Find the program's configuration screen(s) (consult your software
documentation if you're not sure how to do this).
Most mail programs use 3 separate boxes for the information we are
about to enter. If you are using Eudora or Eudora Pro, skip to step
5.
Locate the box with a label similar to POP3 Server
or POP3 Hostname. In that box, type:
login.netmar.com
Locate the box with a label similar to POP3 Username
or POP3 login (or just username or
login). In that box, enter your 3 to 8 character
Netmar username in ALL lowercase letters. Please note that this is
ONLY a 3 to 8 character single word in all lowercase letters with
no spaces. You selected it when you ordered your account. It is
indicated at the top right-hand corner of any of your invoices and is
also shown in the introductory email you were sent when your account
was first setup.
If you are NOT using Eudora, skip this step. If you are, the username
and hostname are in a single box labelled POP3 Account
or POP3 Location. In that box, type:
username@login.netmar.com
replacing username with your 3 to 8 character Netmar
username (see note in Step 4). Note also that this box IS NOT
AN EMAIL ADDRESS, nor is it meant to be. It just happens to
use a format that includes the @-symbol. Please don't enter an email
address in this box. It won't work.
Locate the Password box. Enter your 7 character Netmar password there.
Please note that the password assigned to you by Netmar is a 7
character random sequence of lowercase letters and numbers WITH NO
SPACES. It will probably not appear as you type, so type carefully.
That's it. You're done. You can now check your mail using your
POP3 software. Note: If you check your mail and
it is empty, it may be because you haven't deleted your .forward file
and the mail is still going to the email address you gave us with
your order. See Question 3.
Overview: Weekly statistics and all official email message sent by
Netmar to its customers are sent directly to the user accounts here at
Netmar. By default, when your account is setup, it is configured to forward
ALL email sent to it to the email address you gave us with your order.
This address can ONLY be changed by you. You can delete it (see
Question 1.3) to receive email in your account
here, or modify it if your current email address changes.
Before Beginning
Determine your new address and whether you want your Netmar account to
forward to that address or receive and store mail on the Netmar server.
Follow these steps
Login to your Netmar account via telnet. (see Question 1.9) To have your account receive
and store mail, skip to step 7.
At the first netmar> prompt, type:
edit .forward
and press ENTER.
You will be taken into a plain text editor program containing your
current forwarding address. Edit it using the arrow and BACKSPACE
keys.
Type CONTROL-X (hold down the CONTROL key and press the letter X key).
Type Y (to answer yes to the save question).
Press ENTER (to use the filename you already typed).
If you wish to have your Netmar account receive and store your mail
on the Netmar server (for later retrieval via POP3 as explained in
Question 6), at the netmar>
prompt, type:
Overview: Netmar allows the use of custom CGI scripts with all
user accounts, regardless of whether the account is a Basic or Sitemaster
account, or whether or not the account has a Virtual Server (domain) setup.
Before Beginning
Determine what type of script you have. Perl and compiled C programs
are the most common types. You cannot use DOS/Windows .exe programs.
Follow these steps
Upload the script to your account (see Question 1.1. If your script is a Perl script,
be sure to use ASCII (asc) mode to upload it.
Login to your account via telnet (see Question
1.9)
At the netmar> prompt, type:
cd cgi-bin
and press ENTER.
At the next prompt, type:
chmod 755 SCRIPTNAME
replacing SCRIPTNAME with the actual name (remote
filename) of the script you uploaded in Step 1.
You may now reference your script using CGIWrap. The URL used
to execute your script will be:
/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/USERNAME/SCRIPTNAME
Replace USERNAME in that with your Netmar username, and SCRIPTNAME
with your script's filename.
This means you can include hyperlinks to the script (if the script
itself is meant to be used that way) using the above URL, or you
can include that same URL in an HTML Form's ACTION tag. e.g. <FORM
ACTION="/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/USERNAME/SCRIPTNAME">
If your script is a Perl script, and does not
include a default PATH to the Perl interpreter, you should use,
/opt/bin/perl as the location.
Make sure your computer has a telnet client program and that your have
direct telnet access to the Internet. If you have a PC with Windows 95/98,
then you probably have the software. If you're not sure if you have direct
telnet access to the Internet, ask your local network administrator or ISP
support.
Follow these steps
Telnet to login.netmar.com.
Windows 95/98
Select Start->Run (click on the Start menu and then click on
Run...) and type "telnet
login.netmar.com" into the run box.
Macintosh
Start your telnet program and connect to login.netmar.com.
Unix
Type "telnet login.netmar.com" at the Unix prompt.
Enter your 3-8 character Netmar username when you reach the
login prompt. Please note that this is ONLY a 3 to 8 character
single word in all lowercase letters with no spaces. You selected
it when you ordered your account. It is indicated at the top
right-hand corner of any of your invoices and is also shown in the
introductory email you were sent when your account was first setup.
Enter your password when prompted. Your password will not appear
on the screen when typed, so please type carefully.
If this is your first time logging in to your account via telnet,
press the SPACE bar to page through the introductory messages.
When you reach the netmar> prompt,
the system is ready to accept commands and you are logged in. You
can logout at any time by typing exit
at the netmar> prompt.
Overview: FTP (the File Transfer Protocol)
allows files to be copied from one computer on the Internet to another. It is
a standard protocol across many different types of computers. This means a
computer that uses Windows can send/receive files to/from a Unix computer, or a
Macintosh, etc. We will show you how to use FTP to upload your web page
to Netmar for the first time.
Before Beginning
Select the type of computer and Internet connection you have
Startup your America Online software and connect to America
Online.
Go to keyword "ftp". First bring up the "Go to
Keyword" box by doing ONE OF the following:
Pressing CONTROL-K (hold down the CONTROL key and press K)
Pressing the "KEYWORD" button on the right end of the
main menu bar (near the top right-hand corner of the main window).
Selecting "Keyword" from the "Go To" menu.
Then enter "ftp" into the "Keyword"
box and press the "Go" button as shown below.
Select the "Go to FTP" button on the next window.
Select the "Other Site" button on the "Anonymous
FTP" window as shown below.
Enter "login.netmar.com" (without the quotes)
in the "Site Address" box on the "Other Site"
window that comes up. Check the "Ask for login name
and password" checkbox. Press the "Connect"
button as shown below.
Note: If you are immediately
shown a welcome message WITHOUT being asked for your login name and
password, then you forgot to check the checkbox on this window. If so,
press the OK button on the welcome message box, and close the following
directory window. You will be back on the "Other Site"
window. Check the checkbox and press the "Connect"
button.
Enter your 3-8 character Netmar username in the login name box on
the "Remote Sign-On" window. Please note that this is
ONLY a 3 to 8 character single word in all lowercase letters with
no spaces. You selected it when you ordered your account. It is
indicated at the top right-hand corner of any of your invoices and is
also shown in the introductory email you were sent when your account
was first setup. Enter your password in the password box. Note that
the password assigned to you by Netmar is a 7 character random
sequence of lowercase letters and numbers WITH NO SPACES. It will not
appear as you type, so type carefully.
Once you have entered your username and password, press the
"Continue" button as shown below.
You should now be looking at your home directory. Your home directory
is where all of your personal files, including web pages, go on the
server. It is located at /users/X/USERNAME, where the X stands for
the first letter of your username and USERNAME stands for your username,
in all lowercase. The image below shows the home directory of user
"guest."
You are now logged in to your account by FTP. For information on
transferring various type of data, see Question
1.1.
Connect to the Internet through your ISP. If you are viewing a
printed or saved copy of this document, verify that you are connected
by accessing our homepage at http://netmar.com/. Then press
Netscape's BACK button.
(You can click here to bypass Steps
2 and 3).
Click on the Netscape Location bar (where the current URL is
printed) or type Control-O (hold down the CONTROL key and press the
letter O key) or select "Open Page" from the File menu.
Enter "ftp://" (without the quotes),
followed by your Netmar username, then a colon, then your Netmar
password, then the @ symbol, then "login.netmar.com/users/"
(without the quotes), then the first letter of your username, followed
by a slash, and then your username. The whole URL should look like
this:
If your username was "bob" and your
password was "square", the URL would be:
ftp://bob:square@login.netmar.com/users/b/bob
Press ENTER or select the "Open" or "Open in
Navigator" button.
You should then see the Netmar Welcome message, meaning you are now
logged in to your account by FTP. For information on
transferring various type of data, see Question
1.1.
Follow these steps Note: Unless otherwise noted, when told to type a command, never
include the quotes that surround the command in what you type.
Connect to the Internet through your ISP. If you are viewing a
printed or saved copy of this document, verify that you are connected
by accessing our homepage at http://netmar.com/. Then press your
browser's BACK button.
Select Start->Run (press the Start button and click on
"Run...")
In the "Run" box, type "ftp
login.netmar.com" and press ENTER or click on the OK button.
When prompted, enter your 3-8 character Netmar username and press ENTER.
Please note that this is ONLY a 3 to 8 character single word in all
lowercase letters with no spaces. You selected it when your ordered
your account. It is indicated at the top right-hand corner of any of
your invoices and is also shown in the introductory email you were sent
when your account was first setup.
When prompted for your password, enter a dash character, followed by
your Netmar password. Your password will not appear when entered, so
type carefully! Do not enter any spaces anywhere on the password
line, just a dash and the password. If your password were
"apple," you would enter "-apple".
Press ENTER.
You are now logged in to your account by FTP. For information on
transferring various type of data, see Question
1.1.
Overview: Netmar systems utilize the Unix operating system. This
system provides a command line interface, like DOS, where you can enter
commands at the prompt through the keyboard and receive a response after
your commands are executed.
You can do just about ANYTHING from this prompt. Every feature available
in your Netmar account can be utilized to its fullest from this prompt.
Before Beginning
If you're reading a printed or saved version of this document, connect to
the Internet and verify your connection by pulling up our homepage at
http://netmar.com/.
If this is your first time logging in, read the introductory
messages that will be shown. Press the SPACE bar to advance to
the next screenful of information or the letter B key to go backwards.
The information in these messages is saved for you, so you don't
have to copy anything down.
After you have read all of the messages, you will be shown your first
netmar> prompt. You can enter any of the
commands listed in the messages you just read or any other regular
Unix command.
Overview: A domain name allows you to load your homepage using a
short, and easy to remember URL address, such as www.netmar.com or any
other short name.
Before Beginning
Determine the domain name you want. PLEASE NOTE that
a domain name DOES NOT have a leading www.. Netmar's
registered domain name is just netmar.com and NOT
www.netmar.com.
Verify that the name you want is available by going to
http://www.networksolutions.com/
and entering the name you want to check in the search box.
Overview: A domain name allows you to load your homepage using a
short, and easy to remember URL address, such as www.netmar.com or any
other short name.
Sometimes, you may want to reserve a domain name before you actually
put it into use, since putting it to use on a web site would cause you
to incur additional monthly fees.
Netmar allows you to "park" a domain name by paying only the
regular setup fee and no additional monthly fee. A "parked"
domain name will show the homepage of one of your existing Virtual
Servers (domains). You must have at least one existing Virtual Server
in order to park a domain name.
Before Beginning
Determine the domain name you want. PLEASE NOTE that
a domain name DOES NOT have a leading www.. Netmar's
registered domain name is just netmar.com and NOT
www.netmar.com.
Verify that the name you want is available by going to
http://www.networksolutions.com/
and entering the name you want to check in the search box.
Be sure to include your Netmar username when you fill in the form as
that is REQUIRED information.
In the DocumentRoot box, enter the words
same asfollowed by the domain name of your EXISTING
Virtual Server under which you want THIS domain name parked.
For instance, if you had apples.com already, and were
registering pears.com to be parked under it, you
would enter same as apples.com in the
DocumentRoot box.
Submit the form when completed. Depending on the type of domain you
register, it should generally be functioning in 2-10 days.
Overview: All Netmar accounts are priced based on the amount of
disk space required by the data housed. All accounts are assigned a
quota when created, indicating the maximum expected disk space usage.
These are the figures Netmar users to plan resource usage.
When an account goes over its quota, it causes us to have to make
unexpected adjustments to our resource planning, and thus, such
overages are charged a much higher rate than they would be if the
quota was simply increased.
This charge can be avoided by knowing your usage and quota, and increasing
your quota if you have or are about to exceed it.
Before Beginning
If you're reading a printed or saved version of this document, connect to
the Internet and verify your connection by pulling up our homepage at
http://netmar.com/.
You will be immediately shown, prior to the first prompt, your current
disk usage for your account. If it is over your quota, you will be
shown an additional warning message.
If you have accessory accounts, however, the above notice does not
include usage for them. At the netmar> prompt,
type
ducheck -a
and press ENTER to show the total disk usage for your account and all
your accessory accounts.
Overview: The Netmar Mail Script, along with the standard SSL secure
web server and/or Netmar SecureCard, allow you to receive just about any
information from the visitors of your website, while providing, where
necessary, a completely encrypted channel of communication. An HTML form
is the simplest way to get information from your visitors.
These instructions will lead you through creating an HTML form.
For details on all of the features available, see the Mail Script Manual Page.
Any of the steps that begins with OPTIONALLY, may be skipped.
Before Beginning
Determine where you want the results of the form sent and whether or not
the information is sensitive and needs to be encrypted.
Replace user@netmar.com with the email
address(es) to which you want the results of the form sent. More than
one address should be separate by commas.
Optionally, if you want the user's name to appear on the return
address of the email message created by the form, enter a line which
assigns a value to the special CGI variable, "name
" to allow the user of the form to supply their name:
<input type="text" name="name">
This will create a textbox for the user to enter their name.
Optionally, if you want the resulting email message to have the user's
email address as the return address, enter a line which assigns a
value to the special CGI
variable, "email" to allow the user of
the form to supply their email address:
<input type="text" name="email">
This will create a text box for the user to enter their email address.
Optionally, if you want to specify or allow the user of the form to
specify what will go on the subject line of the resulting email message,
enter a line which assigns a value to the special CGI
variable, "subject" to allow the user of
the form to supply a subject for the message, or to assign a subject
yourself. This would allow you to enter a subject:
Replace somefile.phtml or
http://somewhere.com/somefile.html with
the webpage filename or URL address that you want the user to see AFTER
submitting the form. If you use just a filename, you can use a
parseable template as discussed in Step 19 to include data that the
user entered in the screen the user sees.
Optionally, if you want to create a formatted email message instead of
just a list of variables and values, enter a line which assigns a
value to the special CGI
variable, "emailtemplate" to designate a
file to be used as a template for generating the resulting email
message from this form. Creating this file is discussed in Step 20.
Replace somefile.etemp with the name of the file you
would like to use as a template.
Optionally, if you want to send an email message BACK to the person
filling out the form, enter a line which assigns a value to the special
CGI variable, "confirm" to designate both a
file to be used as a template for generating an email message to be
sent BACK TO THE USER as well as the email address from which that
message should appear to come. Creating this file is discussed in Step
#.
Replace sales@netmar.com with the address from which
you'd like the confirmation email message to appear to originate.
Replace confirm.etemp with the name of the file you
would like to use as a template for this confirmation email message.
Optionally, if you want to encrypt the resulting email message before
it is sent, enter a line which assigns a value to the special CGI
variable, "pgp" to designate the Netmar
username whose public keyring should be used (typically, your own
Netmar username), as well as the PGP
Key ID (PGP Username) of the key on that keyring that should be used
to encrypt the email message.
<input type="hidden" name="pgp"
value="johndoe; John Doe">
See Question 3.9 for information on setting
up PGP in your Netmar account.
Optionally, if you want to require the user of the form to enter data
for certain fields, enter a line which assigns a value to the special
CGI variable, "require" to designate the
CGI variables which must contain data, as well as a file to be
displayed if no data is included in some of those fields.
Replace "var1 var2 var3" with a list of
CGI variables that you want to restrict, and replace
somefile.phtml with the file you would like displayed
if one or more of those fields is left blank.
Optionally, if you want to require the user of the form to enter a
valid credit card number in one or more fields, enter a line which
assigns a value to the special CGI variable,
"is_ccard" to designate the CGI variables
which must contain valid credit card numbers, as well as a file to be
displayed if displayed if one of the fields contains invalid data.
Replace "var1 var2 var3" with a list of
CGI variables that you want to restrict, and replace
somefile.phtml with the file you would like displayed
if one or more of those fields contains invalid data.
Note: Thie function DOES NOT connect to any
banking computer to verify the card number. Rather, it simply performs
the mathematical checksum calculations on the digits of the number
to determine if it COULD BE USED as a credit card number.
Optionally, if you want to require the user of the form to enter a
valid email address in one or more fields, enter a line which
assigns a value to the special CGI variable,
"is_email" to designate the CGI variables
which must contain valid email addresses, as well as a file to be
displayed if displayed if one of the fields contains invalid data.
Replace "var1 var2 var3" with a list of
CGI variables that you want to restrict, and replace
somefile.phtml with the file you would like displayed
if one or more of those fields contains invalid data.
Optionally, if you want to require the user of the form to enter a
valid web address in one or more fields, enter a line which
assigns a value to the special CGI variable,
"is_web" to designate the CGI variables
which must contain valid email addresses, as well as a file to be
displayed if displayed if one of the fields contains invalid data.
Replace "var1 var2 var3" with a list of
CGI variables that you want to restrict, and replace
somefile.phtml with the file you would like displayed
if one or more of those fields contains invalid data.
Include a line for a SUBMIT button and end the form:
<input type="submit"></FORM>
Save the form by typing CONTROL-X (hold down the CONTROL key and press
the letter X key), followed by Y and ENTER
OR
Save the form in your HTML editor and upload it via FTP (see
Question 1.1).
If you specified a file in Step 9, at the netmar>
prompt, type:
edit www/somefile.phtml
and press ENTER. Replace somefile.phtml with the
filename you used in Step 9.
Enter the HTML for the webpage you want displayed after the user
presses the SUBMIT button. In this file, you can include data from
the form by using subcodes-- codes matching CGI variable names--
surrounded by ${}. For instance, if you wanted to include the
user's name, you would include the text:
${name}
For a more detailed explanation of the features available to you
in creating this template, see the Mail Script Manual Page
If you specified a file in Step 10, at the netmar>
prompt, type:
edit www/somefile.etemp
and press ENTER. Replace somefile.etemp with the
filename you used in Step 10.
Enter the email message format you want created when the email message
is generated by the form. In this file, you can include data entered
by the user by using subcodes-- codes matching CGI variable names--
surrounded by ${}. For instance, if you wanted to include the
user's name, you would include the text:
${name}
For a more detailed explanation of the features available to you
in creating this template, see the Mail Script Manual Page.
The first line of this file should be the Subject line:
Subject: ${subject}
followed by a blank line.
If you included a confirm line in Step 11, repeat step 10 to create
another template for the email to be sent back to the user of the form.
If you included anything for Steps 13-16, repeat Step 19 to create
HTML pages to be displayed for each of those rules.
Overview: Your Netmar password should be kept secretly and, ideally,
should never be written down. If you do write it down, please keep it
somewhere safe. Your should change it regularly to minimize the risk of
it being used by unauthorized people to access your account.
Before Beginning
If you're reading a printed or saved version of this document, connect to
the Internet and verify your connection by pulling up our homepage at
http://netmar.com/.
Follow these steps
Login via telnet to login1.netmar.com. Be sure to connect only
to login1.netmar.com instead of just login.netmar.com. (see Question 1.9)
At the netmar> prompt, type:
passwd
and press ENTER.
As prompted, enter your old password once, followed by your new
password twice. Nothing will appear as you type, so type carefully.
Once you come back to the netmar> prompt,
your password is changed.
Overview: Netmar has a number of features that allow for safe,
secure placement of credit card orders by your customers through
your Netmar website. These instructions will guide you through the
steps of setting up a complete, secure ordering solution.
Before Beginning
If you're reading a printed or saved version of this document, connect to
the Internet and verify your connection by pulling up our homepage at
http://netmar.com/.
Overview: All documents on the server that can be accessed by the web
server can also be accessed by the SSL secure web server. This allows
use of the secure server with little or no modification to your existing
documents.
Before Beginning
1.15)
Follow these steps
Update links that point to the page you want to secure. The links
should use the following format:
https://www.netmar.com/~username/dir/file.html
Replace username in the above with your Netmar
username.
Replace dir/file.html in the above with the full
filepath to the file you want to reference starting from your
www directory. For instance, if the file is: /users/u/username/www/fruit/apple.html, you would
use the URL:
https://www.netmar.com/~username/fruit/apple.html
Change image references ON the page you are securing to be RELATIVE.
This means that they DO NOT start with http://.
Change links ON the page you are securing to be ABSOLUTE so that they
will switch the user back to the regular server afterwards. This
means that the links should start with
http://yourdomain.com.
If the page you are securing is an order form, switch the links on
the followup page to be absolute.
Overview: The Netmar mail script can employ the PGP encryption package
to encrypt email for safe transit over the Internet. Only you or the
person you designate will be able to decrypt the email message.
Note: The PGP software was recently upgraded. To access the old
version, use the command pgp262 instead of pgp.
Before Beginning
If you're reading a printed or saved version of this document, connect to
the Internet and verify your connection by pulling up our homepage at
http://netmar.com/.
Follow these steps
Login to your Netmar account through telnet (see Question 1.9)
At the netmar> prompt, type:
pgp -kg
and press ENTER.
Select a key size (larger key sizes are safer but slower).
Select a User ID (this is the ID under which the key will be saved).
The User ID can be any collection of words or names, but should
generally be just a name or name and email address. Just make sure
to write down whatever you enter here. Note: This is
NOT the same thing as your Netmar username. This is a PGP User ID
that you will make up now, and use later.
Enter a passphrase (secret phrase) to protect your secret key.
This DOES NOT need to be JUST ONE WORD. It CAN BE multiple words
or even a whole sentence. Using a whole sentence will make it harder
for someone else to guess without necessarily making it harder for
you to remember it.
Press random keys on the keyboard when prompted until your key
is completed.
Include a PGP line in the form similar to the following:
<input type="hidden" name="pgp"
value="johndoe; John Doe">
Replace johndoe in the above line with your Netmar
username. Replace John Doe with the User ID you
selected in Step 4. Be sure to type it EXACTLY as you entered it in
Step 4.
If you are sending email to be received by some mail software
(e.g. Netscape, Eudora, Pegasus) on your computer, you will need
to download and install PGP on your computer. Download PGP for
here.
The PGP keyring you have created is located
in the .pgp directory in your home directory.
Overview: Netmar supplies a large number of standard scripts that can
be used directly from your website without being copied into your
account. The scripts provide almost all of the most sought after
website features. Use of these scripts over custom scripts is
advantageous because unlike custom scripts, the standard scripts
are run directly by the system with no additional overhead. Custom
scripts, on the other hand (scripts in your own cgi-bin directory),
must pass through a number of security checks and run at a lower
priority than regular scripts, thus running a little slower. So
when you're looking for a feature that can be provided by these
scripts, we recommend you use them in place of custom scripts for
maximum performance.
Before Beginning
In general, to use a Netmar-provided CGI script, you need only reference
it with /cgi-bin/scriptname in your
HTML code. This means you either link to it with an A tag, or
designate the script as the action in your FORM tag. Specific
instructions for each script are available by clicking on the
links below.
reads the data submitted through an HTML form, qualifies
it (validates information and checks that required fields have been
filled in), then creates an HTML followup page, email to the webmaster,
and possibly a confirmation email for the person using the form.
Include a number on your page that increases (or decreases) by
one (or more) each time the page is loaded. The number can either
be plain text, or a graphical number. The actual number can also
be hidden so that you can just check the data file to see how many
times the page has been loaded without actuall telling everyone
else who visits the page.
Provide a complete means for visitors to your website to send
your their credit card numbers (as part of their order or not) in
a secure fashion WITHOUT using the standard SSL method of encryption.
This allows you to provide secure ordering for people that don't
have browsers capable of SSL or other scenarios where SSL isn't viable.
Log the locations FROM which people visit your site. This is not
just the IP addresses of the visitors, but rather the URL addresses
of the pages that linked them to your site.
Construct dynamic HTML pages on the fly using small to medium-sized
text databases containing almost any type of info. This allows you
to instantly create 10, 50, 100 or more webpages with the same
general layout, but different specific information, like a mail merge.
Also includes a paging and search feature to function as a search
engine for the database you use. Emphasis is on ease of use.
Overview: Netmar allows you to host any number of websites in a
SINGLE Netmar account. You DO NOT need to get a separate Netmar
account for each website you host. This allows you to aggregate
your total diskspace purchase and buy just a single larger block
of diskspace, instead of several smaller ones, saving you money.
Follow these steps
Fill out a Domain Name
Registration Template to register your domain name and point
it to your Netmar account. If your domain name ends in .COM, .NET, or
.ORG, you will be using the standard template.
Create a directory for your new website in your accounts
www directory. The name of the directory
should be the same as the first part of the domain name. For instance,
if your domain name is apples.com, you
would create the directory apples in your
wwwYour new website will be active within 3-5 working days.
Overview: Most modern web browsers send the server what is called
HTTP Referer information. This information tells the server the
page the browser was just on that led to the page being requested
(e.g. your website). Using this information, you can determine,
for any of the pages in your website, how people are finding them.
Before Beginning
Determine which pages you want to monitor. Generally, just your homepage
and maybe one or two other pages that people come to directly is
plenty. It doesn't do much good to monitor every page because most
of the referers for those pages will just be the other pages in your
own site, which won't tell you much.
Follow these steps
After you already have a working website, login via telnet
(see Question 1.9).
Go to the directory housing the page you want to monitor. For the
homepage of your primary (or only) website, type:
cd www
and press ENTER.
Edit the file. To edit your homepage file (or the index file for the
directory you're in), type: edit index.html
Add the following HTML code in the file:
<!--#exec cgi="/cgi-bin/reflog/name" -->
Replace the word name with some name
you want to use to refer to this page.
Type CONTROL-X (hold down CONTROL and press the letter X key)
Type Y and press ENTER.
If the name of the file you just edited does NOT end in
.shtml, then type: chmod u+x filename
Of course, replace filename with the
actual name of the file.
A logfile will be created in the same directory with the name
name-ref.log where name
is the name you chose. For example, if you entered
<!--#exec cgi="/cgi-bin/reflog/john" -->
a file named john-ref.log will
be created in the directory the next time the page is loaded.
Overview: RealAudio is an audio streaming technology that allows
visitors to your website to listen to audio clips WITHOUT first having
to wait for the clips to download entirely. Rather, the first few
seconds of the clip is downloaded, and the clip is then played while
it is downloading, eliminating the long wait for download.
Before Beginning
Decide on the type of streaming you wish to use. You can use either
HTTP (through the regular web server) or RealAudio streaming. RealAudio
streaming is more adaptable for situations where the user may have low
or bandwidth access to the Internet, whereas HTTP-based streaming is more
reliable overall.
To use RealAudio streaming, you must first email us at staff@netmar.com and ask us to enable
RealAudio streaming for your account. It is a free service, but must be
enabled on your account before you can use it. Be sure to include your
username and account number in your request.
Create or convert your sounds sample as per the instructions in the
software. Be sure to use a filename ending in
.ra for RealAudio or
.rm for RealVideo.
Upload the file to your www directory
(see Question 1.1)
You may now link to the RealAudio or RealVideo file as you would
any other sound file by simply including a link in your HTML code
like the following:
Create or convert your sounds sample as per the instructions in the
software. Be sure to use a filename ending in
.ra for RealAudio or
.rm for RealVideo.
Upload the file to your audio directory
(see Question 1.1) Be sure to upload the
file to your audio directory and not
your www directory.
Create a RealAudio Metafile (.ram)
containing the following URL:
pnm://audio.netmar.com/users/USERNAME/FILE.ra
Replace USERNAME with your 3-8 character Netmar username. Replace
FILE.ra with the filename of your RealAudio or RealVideo file.
The RealAudio Metafile is just a one line, plain text file. Be sure
the filename you choose for this file ends in .ram
only.
Upload the RealAudio Metafile to your www
directory.
You may now link to the RealAudio or RealVideo file as you would
any other sound file by simply including a link to the RealAudio
Metafile in your HTML code like the following:
Overview: The Unix filesystem does not have an undelete feature as
is available in PC DOS. However, Netmar backs up all data on its
network regularly, including all user website data. We can provide
a snapshot of any of your files from any of the past 60 days.
Before Beginning
Determine the exact location of the files you actually deleted and the
EXACT date of the last modifications saved by our systems. Backups
are done at 11pm US/Eastern Time every night. Please tell us
during what backup the files were last intact.
Follow these steps
Determine the FULL PATHNAME for each file to be restored. The
full pathname for your www directory
is /users/u/username/www (where username
is your 3-8 character Netmar username and u is the first letter of
that). The full pathname for file abc.jpg in your www
directory is
/users/u/username/www/abc.jpg.
Determine the last full day that the files were intact. A full day
ends at 11pm US/Eastern Time, when our backup starts.
Email us at staff@netmar.com
with the above information. Please be sure to include your username
and account number with the request.
Overview: When a user requests a missing or prohibited document,
runs a broken CGI script, or otherwise makes an illegal request, the
Web server issues an error response to the browser. This response
can be customized on any Netmar website served by a Virtual Server.
Before Beginning
Select which type of error for which you wish to setup a custom error page.
The following error codes and types are supported:
Code
Description
400
Bad Request
401
Authentication Required / Password Incorrect
403
Permission Denied - File/Directory is not accessible
404
Document Not Found
500
Server Error (almost always a CGI Script Error)
501
Request Type Not Implemented
Follow these steps
Create a webpage that informs the user of the error condition.
Be sure to use absolute links for images and links on that page.
Name the file XXX-error.html, where
XXX is the three digit error code
for the type of code you want to address.
Upload your webpage file to your www
directory (see Question 1.1) or to the
DocumentRoot directory of your Virtual Server (see Question
2.5).
Overview: One of the more common features included on website
homepages is a simple counter that increases every time the page is
loaded. This tells the public how many times the page was viewed
since a particular date. The counter can be either plain text, or
a graphical odometer-style counter, among others.
Before Beginning
Decide on the type of counter you want: graphical or text.
Follow these steps for a graphical counter.
Decide on a number of digits for the counter.
Insert the following HTML code in your webpage at the location you'd
like your counter to appear:
Replace X with the number of digits you selected in Step 1. Replace
http://whatever.com/ with the URL of the
webpage on which you are placing this counter. This will uniquely
identify your counter data in the master logfile and is a necessary
step.
Optionally, if you'd only like to track hits without actually
displaying the counter itself, enter:
<img src="/cgi-bin/nph-count?link=http://whatever.com/&show=NO">
Replace http://whatever.com/ with the URL
of the webpage on which you are placing this counter. This form will
cause the image NOT to be displayed. You may then create a SEPARATE
HTML page with the following code on it:
Replace http://whatever.com/ with the URL
of the PREVIOUS page (the one you are tracking). This form will then
show the number of hits on that page WITHOUT increasing the number
each time this second page is shown.
Overview: A shopping cart system is, by its very nature, a fairly
complex undertaking. Numerous variables must be monitored and
accounted for during all phases of the transaction. A detailed
discussion of shopping carts is outside the scope of this guide.
The MiniVend system, however, does include over 400KB of its own
documentation, including thorough instructions and examples.
Follow these steps
Decide on a 3-10 character catalog name, with no spaces.
Email staff@netmar.com with
your selected catalog name, username, and account number.
We will create your base catalog for you, enabling the shopping
cart system on your account, and notify you by return email.
Overview: A search engine allows visitors to your site to quickly
locate the areas of your site that are the greatest interest to them.
Depending on the layout and content of your site, you will want one
of the three available search engines:
WebGlimpse - basic keyword searching of website. User enters
one or more words, and pages containing those words are listed.
Excite - concept-based searching of website. User enters one more
phrases, and pages containing identical or similar concepts are listed.
MiniWeb DB - compact, simple database search utility. User can
search a small text database and see lists of results, one page at a
time.
Before Beginning
Select the type of search engine you want to implement.
Overview: You can protect parts of your website from public viewing
by requiring users to first enter a correct username and password
before accessing them. This allows you to offer information and
access for sale, as well as to distribute sensitive or confidential
information to only certain people.
Before Beginning
Group the pages you wish to protect into a single directory (folder) in
your www directory.
Follow these steps
Login to your Netmar account through telnet (see Question 1.9)
Type:
htpasswd -c passwords.txt username
and press ENTER. Replace username with
a 3-8 character username you wish to create for a user to access your
restricted area. Create and enter a password for that user. You
will be asked to type it twice without seeing it, so type carefully.
If you wish to add additional users, type:
htpasswd passwords.txt username
and press ENTER. Replace username with
a 3-8 character username you wish to create for a user to access your
restricted area. Create and enter a password for that user. You
will be asked to type it twice without seeing it, so type carefully.
You should omit the -c from the command
this time and any other time AFTER the first user is added to the
password list.
Type:
cd www/somedir
and press ENTER. Replace somedir with
the name of the folder where your restricted files reside.
Type:
restrict "My Protected Area"
~/passwords.txt
and press ENTER. Replace "My Protected Area"
with some text you would like to appear on the login
window users will see.
Optionally, you may want to create a code 401 error document so that
users who enter an incorrect password will see your own custom message
instead of the system default. See Question
2.9 for details.
Overview: Netmar offers accessory login accounts that can be used
by others to access the system to update data. We can configure these
accounts to access certain areas of the system for your associates.
Before Beginning
Decide which directory(ies) you would like to share.
Follow these steps
Email staff@netmar.com
indicating that you would like an accessory login account to be
able to access these directories.
We will create the account and give it the appropriate access. There
is no setup fee for this services, but there is a $5 monthly fee for
the accessory account up to and including the first 10 such accounts.
The fee is $2.50/mo thereafter.
This is the simplest and smallest database to use. It
requires no prior knowledge of SQL and handles plain text databases
that can be created by exporting from virtually any database program
in use today.
This is a commercial "miniature" SQL implementation. It implements
a large part of the SQL (Standard Query Language) and includes its
own HTML scripting language, making it easy to incorporate data from
mSQL databases into
Overview: The Apache WWW server used by Netmar allows webmasters
to include, in their webpages, information that can change with
every access to the page. This information is inserted by the server
"on the fly," as the page is being served. You can include
such information as time and date, other HTML and text files, and
output from CGI scripts.
at the point in the page where you would like the script output to
appear. Replace REFERENCE with the appropriate text to reference
the CGI script from Question 2.4, if you used
a Netmar CGI script, or Question 1.8, if
you used your own CGI script.
Overview: Netmar provides instant access to your account billing
records online, through your web browser. You will need your
account username and password to access this information.
Overview: Netmar uses a system of disk quotas (or disk space
limits) to plan its resources for a given month. There is no hard
limit on disk usage, meaning you can use more than your disk quota
at any time. But there are charges for doing so. The simplest way
to avoid these charges is to simply upgrade your account prior to
the end of the current billing cycle.
Follow these steps
Determine the amount of space currently used by your account
and the current size of your quota by loggin in via telnet (see
Question 1.9).
Email us at staff@netmar.com
requesting us to upgrade your disk quota to the next increment.
BE SURE TO INCLUDE YOUR USERNAME AND ACCOUNT NUMBER IN YOUR EMAIL.
Overview: Every time Netmar prints and mails you an invoice (done
monthly on the 25th), we include a Credit Card Authorization Form,
which you can use to charge your Netmar charges to your credit card.
Follow these steps
If you don't have a Credit Card Authorization Form, you can use
the links below to download and print one:
To have the amount of a single invoice charged to your MasterCard,
Visa, American Express, or Discover card, fill out Section A of the
Credit Card Authorization Form.
To have your current, and all future invoices automatically charged
to your credit card every month, less a $2.00/month discount, fill out
Section B of the Credit Card Authorization Form.
Return the Credit Card Authorization Form to Netmar, by mail, using
the return portion of your invoice and the enclosed envelope to:
Netmar, Inc.
P.O. Box 48
Blacksburg, VA 24063-0048
Have your future invoice automatically billed to your credit card
using the Credit Card Authorization Form. (see
Question 4.3) This earns you a $2.00/mo discount for every invoice
charged without being printed and mailed.
Refer clients and friends to Netmar. This earns you a recurring credit
of 15% of each referred account's monthly fee.
YES! Netmar implements a HIGHLY aggresive and redundant backup
regimen to ensure that your files are protected not only against
factors at our site, such as equipment failures, fires, and natural
disasters, but also against possible errors on your part, like
accidentally deleting the wrong file(s).
Netmar, NIGHTLY, backs up all network servers and user data, using a
60 night rotating set of media. This means that we can recover a
snapshot of your data from ANY of the past 60 days, on request.
Additionally, at the end of every 60-day cycle, Netmar performs a
permanent, non-rotating full backup of all data. This backup is
never discarded, meaning we have snapshots of all data, in 60-day
increments, forever.
YES! Netmar protects your website with several, smaller capacity
Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS's). We find that this is a
safer option than using the cheaper approach of wiring 2 or 3
LARGE capacity UPS's to the network because, if a larger UPS
fails, it is far more difficult to replace the lost power source.
Rather, using a larger number of smaller supplies allows us to easily
adapt should a UPS fail. Netmar's UPS network is capable of
supporting the entire local area network for greater than 45 minutes.
If a power outage should last longer than 45 minutes, Netmar can
activate one of our two redundant gasoline generators, each of which
is capable of supplying more than twice the amount of power consumed
by our entire facility.
Even if the primary unit fails, Netmar can still operate totally
unhindered using our redundant secondary generator.
This wide array of power protection hardware makes your website
all but immune to power outages.
YES! Netmar uses one of the most comprehensive network monitoring systems
in place today.
Most network monitoring tools simply monitor a set of hosts by
"pinging" them to make sure they are still up and running.
The problem with that approach is that more often than not, a machine
that has some kind of problem will usually stop serving web pages
or email LONG BEFORE it stops running altogether.
This means that on other networks, your website could be down for
a very long time before the problem is detected by a network monitor.
Netmar's NIMS network monitor uses an entirely different approach,
however. Custom-written here at Netmar more than 4 years ago,
the NIMS network monitoring tools not only "ping" network
hosts to make sure they are there, but also connect to them and
performs sample transactions every 15-30 seconds to ensure that they
are fully functional. The responses to thes transaction are checked
against expected answers. If so much as a single character is
out of place or incorrect, alarms are set off.
A system administrator is instantly and automatically paged by one
of the multiple monitoring systems, allowing us to address potential
problems BEFORE they affect your website.
The following subsystems are monitored by NIMS and rechecked every
15-30 seconds:
ICMP ("ping")
All machines are checked for responsiveness.
HTTP Checksum
Sample webpages are accessed and checked for accuracy.
SMTP (email)
Sample email transmission dialogues are conducted with the
mail server and checked for proper responses.
DNS (Domain Name Service)
Sample queries are made and checked for accuracy.
Unresponsive servers can be automatically restarted
by the monitoring system itself.
Tape Backup
State of the backup system is checked to ensure that
the nightly backup will run without problems.
Disk Usage
The usage of critical filesystems is checked to ensure
that they are not approaching their capacity. This eliminates
surprises caused by unexpectedly large amounts of data storage
requirements.
Power
Facility power is monitored continuously. System
administrator is paged if an outage occurs. In case of a
prolonged outage and failure of all of our power protection
equipment, the monitoring system can execute an orderly
shutdown of the entire network so as to ensure that no data
is lost to unexpected loss of power.
If any of the above checks returns an unexpected value, a system
administrator is immediately paged and alerted as to the subsystem
involved, and the exact details of the error. This level of
monitoring usually means that if a problem SHOULD occur, we are
made aware of it long before it affects your website.
