OS2WWW FAQ

Will OS2WWW be updated with future releases?

Yes! We are committed to improving OS2WWW and fixing bugs, just so long as people out there encourage us. Our intent is to make OS2WWW on IBM's OS/2 WARP the best price-performance server available.

OS2WWW is the first of an entire family of server products that will be released for OS/2.

What is your licensing policy?

When your BETA copy of OS2WWW expires, or you download the GOLD copy of OS2WWW, you will have the opportunity to register with CompuSource. If you do not register at that time, you will be restricted to personal usage of the software for evaluation purposes only for no longer than 14 calendar days. Any other usage, regardless of whether it is for non-profit purposes, is deemed a commercial usage. Refer to the registration and pricing details.

Does OS2WWW support forms and CGI scripts?

Yes! It is fully CGI 1.1 compliant. Scripts can be written in REXX or can be compiled executables (".exe" files).

Does OS2WWW support long filenames?

Yes. HPFS filenames are much preferred - document names can be more descriptive and the filename extension can be ".html" instead of ".htm", thus being more compatible with UNIX.

This is even allowed with FAT partitions - long file names are automatically mapped through to the old "8.3" format.

What performance can I expect from OS2WWW?

OS2WWW is 4.5 times faster than Frankie Fan's OS2HTTPD server when delivering documents. Its performance relative to OS2HTTPD improves with a greater server load, because of its multi-threaded architecture and optimised TCP/IP packet transmission.

You can expect OS2WWW to serve 340 documents per minute on a 50MHz 486 machine when there are 10 simultaneous connections.

Sites with a heavy user load or those which are running other services will most appreciate the low runtime overhead of OS2WWW.

What product support can I expect?

Support for beta and unregistered copies of OS2WWW is on a best-endeavour basis as time permits. If you register you will receive a formal level of support.

Can I run multiple OS2WWW servers on one machine?

Yes. This can be accomplished in one of two ways:

The first is to allocate a different port to each server (use say 8000, 8001, etc instead of the standard port 80). Users will then connect by using a URL of the form: http://yoursite:8000

The second method requires you to set up your machine to have multiple IP addresses. You will need to check that your TCP/IP software allows this. Most packages will require that you have multiple LAN adapters in your computer. OS2WWW currently has no command line option to override its IP address setting, so contact us if you need this feature.

What are SHTTP and SSL and why should I care?

SHTTP and SSL are revised, more secure, versions of the HTTP protocol that current WWW servers and browsers implement. The security will allow for tamper-proof banking transactions and other communications of a sensitive nature to be performed across the World Wide Web. We are currently contemplating implementing the SHTTP and SSL protocols, so please contact us to express your interest.

Why does my "Redirect" spec in "srm.cnf" not work?

If you have multiple specifications, try ordering your specifications from most specific to least specific.

eg:
Redirect welcome.html http://yoursite/hello.html
Redirect welcome.htm http://yoursite/hello.html
Redirect welcome http://yoursite/hello.html

If that still doesn't help, try putting a leading '/' in front of your redirected document:

eg:
Redirect /old_dir http://yoursite/new_dir

Why do I see "OS/2 error 87 in DosSetMaxFH" when I run OS2WWW?

This is a bug in OS/2, caused by an interaction with the multimedia extensions to OS/2. OS2WWW will continue to function, but will be able to accept fewer simultaneous connections, thereby reducing its performance.

The fix: Users who have upgraded to OS/2 Warp Connect version 3.00 CSD level XR03003 no longer have this problem.

The patch: remove "\MMOS2\DLL" from your LIBPATH in your "config.sys" file.

For the technically minded: OS2WWW is attempting to increase the number of file handles available to it, but OS/2 is refusing the request. WordPerfect has the same problem when running their OS/2 software.

Why do I get "Server Error 500" messages?

The primary cause of these messages is a lack of disk space. OS2WWW requires enough space to store both the incoming request as well as the outgoing reply for each simultaneous connection. These files are written to the directory specified in your TMP environment variable.

Another common reason is that you are running a CGI script that OS/2 cannot load (caused for example by a missing DLL). Try running your .CMD or .EXE file directly from the command line. If that fails, you have found the underlying problem.

Is there an OS/2 port of htpasswd for managing user ids and passwords similarly to that found on UNIX?

There is no port of htpasswd because OS/2 is a single-user operating system that does not fully support multiple users, even when acting as a server on a LAN.

If you are patient for a short while, I will soon be posting a program named USERD which provides OS/2 with a generic user id, password and authentication service. It forms part of the POP3D mailing service for OS/2 that I will also shortly be posting.

This generic user authentication service can be accessed from CGI scripts written for OS2WWW. It provides the HTML author with the ability to customise security for each CGI script beyond what the standard NCSA server provides under UNIX.

Is there an OS/2 program to analyse the access.log file to produce statistics of OS2WWW usage?

I am not aware of one, but OS2WWW does output its log in the standard UNIX format, so a port of one of the UNIX tools is feasible. My company currently feeds its OS2WWW server access log into a relational database from which we can extract all the statistics and graphics that we need.

How do I set up imagemaps using OS2WWW?

OS2WWW provides two methods of supporting imagemaps. The old method uses a "imagemap.cnf" file contained within the "CONF" sub-directory which in turn lists all the maps. This method should be used for compatibility with old documents only.

The new method allows for direct specification within the HTML document of the map to use for each graphic. This system was first introduced in NCSA's 1.3 release of their UNIX server.

The new method places no limitations on the number or location of imagemaps. It is also faster than the old method because it is more direct.

Example of new method:
<A HREF="/cgi-bin/imagemap.exe/maps/fish.map"> <IMG SRC="fish33.gif" ISMAP></A>

This will execute the "imagemap.exe" program supplied with OS2WWW, passing it a parameter of "maps/fish.map" which is a file stored under the DocumentRoot subdirectory (typically "/os2www/docs") of your server. Additional parameters tell "imagemap.exe" where the user clicked.

An imagemap is a graphic containing hypertext "hot" regions within it, so that various documents or CGI programs can be served according to where the user clicked on the graphic.

THIS FAQ WAS COMPILED BY:

Author: CompuSource
e-Mail: source@iaccess.za

source@iaccess.za