Part 3. Using your server

Chapter 5. Starting to use your server

This chapter contains basic instructions for starting and stopping your server. It also describes the first tasks you will probably want to perform after installation.

Starting and stopping the server

This section describes how to start and stop your server after you have finished installing it.

• If you installed your server as an NT service, you can start it and stop it from the Services panel.

• If you installed your server as an NT application, you can start it from the IBM Internet Connection Secure Server icon and stop it from the Internet Connection Secure Server window.

Note:

If you are running a non-secure server you will see the message Security not available. wwwss.dll did not load. This message lets you know that you are not running the Internet Connection Secure Server. You do not need to do anything in response to the message.

Starting from the Services panel with Windows NT

To run your server once it is installed as an NT service, you start it as you would start any Windows NT service.

1. Double-click the Control Panel icon from the Main program group.

2. Select the Services icon from the Control Panel program group.

3. From the Services panel, highlight the Internet Connection Secure Server.

4. Click Start and the service will begin.

Starting your server automatically with Windows NT

An NT Service starts automatically when Windows NT starts. You do not have to log on in order for the service to be able to serve requests. To start your server automatically, highlight Internet Connection on the list, and then click the Startup button on the Services panel. If the Automatic radio button is selected, then the Web server will start automatically when Windows NT starts.

Note:

If you want to use a pre-existing key ring file and you have installed your server as an NT service, you must stash the key ring file password. If the password is not stashed, the server will start but you won't have any security.

Viewing the server window when it is an NT service on Windows NT

Normally NT services run without a Graphical User Interface (GUI). This is an advantage because users do not need to know about the service, and the service doesn't get in the way of anything else they might be doing.

However, if you would like to see the GUI, highlight Internet Connection on the list, and then click the Startup button on the Services panel. If you check the box next to Allow Service to Interact with Desktop, then the next time you start the service, the GUI will appear.

Note:

If the service is currently running and you click this button, the GUI will not appear until you stop the service and restart it again.

Viewing events logged by your server with Windows NT

The event log is located in the Administrative Tools program group. When you double-click on the Event Log icon, the event log will appear. To view events that are logged by your server, you must be looking at the Application log. Once you select the Application log, you will see a list of event entries. You can double-click to view any entry. The Web server entries are labeled with InternetConnectionServer. Initially the only event that is logged is the event indicating that the server has begun execution.

Starting from the Internet Connection Secure Server icon

For Windows NT:

• The Windows NT installation procedure creates an Internet Connection Secure Server group. Inside the group is an icon for the Internet Connection Secure Server. To start the server, double-click the icon.

• The server starts with the current configuration settings. If you have not changed the server configuration since installation, the current configuration is based on the information you entered during installation along with defaults.

Starting from the command prompt

You can start the server from any DOS command prompt by entering:

whttpg

(If you have not shut down and restarted Windows NT since you installed the server, you will need to give the fully qualified path name of the command, which is by default c:\WWW\bin\whttpg.exe.) This starts the server with the current configuration settings. If you have not changed the server configuration since installation, the current configuration is based on the information you entered during installation along with defaults.

If you have installed your server to run as an NT service, the server still starts as an application. You can specify the the command line option, -noservice. Starting with this option tells the server to ignore the fact that it is installed as an NT service and to run as a normal application.

The whttpg command also accepts various options for changing configuration settings at run time. For details on the whttpg command options, see the Webmaster's Guide.

Starting multiple instances of the server

You can start multiple instances of the server, but each instance must listen on a separate port. You can start all instances, other than the first, by entering the following command from a command prompt:

whttpg -noservice -r other_rule_file where other_rule_file is a configuration file that specifies the individual port.

Restarting from the Internet Connection Secure Server window

To restart your server from the Internet Connection Secure Server window, click File on the menu bar and then click Restart Server. The server reloads the configuration settings from the current configuration file.

Stopping the server

You can stop the server the same ways you stop other Windows programs. If it was not installed as an NT service, do any of the following:

• Go to the Internet Connection Secure Server window and double-click the small icon in the top left corner.

• Go to the Internet Connection Secure Server window and select Exit from the File pull-down menu on the menu bar.

• Go to the Internet Connection Secure Server window and press Alt + F4.

• Press Ctrl + Esc. From the Task List, click the Internet Connection Secure Server for Windows NT and then click End Task.

If it was installed as an NT service:

1. Go to the Services panel.

2. Highlight the Internet Connection Secure Server.

3. Click Stop.

Viewing your server's Front Page

After your server is up and running, you can use WebExplorer or any other Web browser to look at the server's Front Page.

If you started the server with the default configuration file and you have not yet created your own home page, you can view the Front Page by using your browser to open the following URL:

http://your.server.name/

Where your.server.name is the fully qualified name of your host. For example, http://www.ibm.com/.

The server's Front Page contains the following links:

• Configuration and Administration Forms. A tool that lets you configure your server by filling in a set of forms. The forms are coded with the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML).

• Sample Home Page. A sample document that demonstrates how to use many of the HTML tags.

• Internet Connection Family Web Site. From this Web site, you can download beta versions of software under development, as well as product giveaways, accessory code, demo code, and other goodies. You can also learn more about our retail products.

• Documentation. An online HTML version of the following:
  • Quick Beginnings
  • Webmaster's Guide
  • Web Programming Guide
  • Tuning Your Web Server for Better Performance

If you want to go to the Front Page after you create your own home page, just include the Front Page file name on the URL. The Front Page file name is Frntpage.html, so you would use the following URL to see it:

http://your.server.name/Frntpage.html

What's next?

Now that your server is up and running, you'll probably want to configure it to your own specifications. Your server allows you to:

• Modify the Configuration and Administration forms to easily configure the default settings.

• Change the default home page to have the server return your own home page. The home page is the document that your server returns when a client sends a request that does not point to a specific directory or file.

• Change your document root directory to serve requests that do not point to a specific directory. Your home page should always be on your home directory.

• Run your server as a caching proxy to improve response time by having the proxy server store the documents it receives from other servers in a local cache.

• Run a proxy server and standard server from the same host to have the convenience of running two different servers from one host.

• Run your server with multiple IP addresses or virtual hosts to serve different files based on the IP address of the network connection a request comes in on or the host for whom the request is made. This is especially helpful for Internet access providers who want to use one server to provide Web sites for multiple customers.

These activities are described in the Webmaster's Guide.