has a tutorial on designing web sites at
http://www.msg.net/tutorial/ . You can find out more about the NCSA
server at http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu . In addition, information on Netscape
and their extensions to HTML is available at http://home.netscape.com/ .
+.# How do I choose a WWW server?
There are four basic WWW servers available for a Unix system:
(1) NCSA HTTPD. This is the original server, now greatly improved
with multiple forking for fast connections. In testing, it was
actually slightly faster than the Netscape servers.
The multi-forking feature apparently has trouble working on Linux
systems; it will work on BSD systems just fine, and is a major speed
improvement over older servers.
(2) Netscape Servers. The FastTrack server is meant for relatively
low-volume serving; the Enterprise Server is their higher volume
software. I'm not sure if there really is much difference between the
two other than price tag.
One of the few advantages of Microsoft entering the Internet market is
the reduced price of secure servers; the Netscape Commerce Server was
at one time a $ 5,000 product!
Netscape servers are all fast and well designed, although not quite as
fast as the current Apache server.
(3) CERN HTTPD. CERN is mainly of interest to you if you're using a
firewall. It can run on your firewall machine and provide access to
your internal users by passing on HTTP packets through to your system.
(4) Apache. This is a heavily patched version of the NCSA HTTPD,
hence the name. Its main advantage is improved support for
multi-homed hosts (see the next question). It should now outperform
virtually all web servers.
+.# How do I set up http://www.massive-company.com/ ?
This is a question that comes up more and more nowadays: How do you
set up a 'multi-homed' server, so you can support more than one domain
on a single computer?
That is, how can you make
http://yourisp.com/
and
http://massiveco.com/
be the same server?
The short answer is that you have to register two different domains
with two different IP addresses. Then, you set up your basic network
support software to support more than one domain, and you set up your
HTTPD daemon to recognize the multiple addresses, and point them at
different data locations.
The support for one domain is very easy under SGI Irix, the operating
system I currently use. Just type
ifconfig -alias www.massiveco.com 207.151.18.30
substituting massiveco's IP for 207.151.18.30, of course. Most modern
operating systems have similar options for ifconfig.
For SunOS 4.x, you'll need to search the web for the VIF (virtual
interface) module.
Some people will try to suggest software virtual domains; until
people stop using Netscape 2.x or older, I don't recommend the practice.
An excellent paper by Alan Barrett has been written on this subject;
you can find it at http://www.isoc.org/HMP/PAPER/131/ .
Many people find the new Apache HTTPD server to be the easiest one to
set up for muli-homed applications; others note that it's currently
slower than the newest NCSA. (This is because it's based on patches
to the older NCSA server). The developers promise to speed it up soon.
See the section above, "How do you set up a phantom domain?" for
information on setting up mail for your new domain.
+.# All About Web Browsers
You will have to offer a SLIP/PPP account to enable the use of any
graphical Web browser (other than SLIPKnot). See the section on
SLIP/PPP accounts for full details.
Mosaic was the first WWW browser to display both images and text
simutaneously. It has now been largely replaced by Netscape (see
below), which alleviates some of the speed issues that make use of
Mosaic relatively tedious, and includes extensions dearly loved by
many WWW page designers.
There is a very real irony about Mosaic and Netscape: They attract
users, because people want to see the snazzy graphics on the Web. But
they also repel users, because many sites use large graphics and image
maps that take forever to load. Because of this, about 40% of
graphical browser users actually run with images off, according to
someone's analysis of their log files. (Alas, I forgot who this
someone was. :-( ). You might think of Mosaic and Netscape as tools
ahead of their time, because the most popular uses have the hidden
poison of slowness in them. For this reason, many people are looking
forward to ISDN, which promises to provide the man on the street a 56k
or higher connection. However, I doubt that this is a panacea; the
links between machines are also heavily overburdened, and unless
that's cured, ISDN won't speed things up much.
Eric Raymond writes: Another problem with Mosaic is that it requires
the Mosaic libraries to build. This means you either have to pick it
up in binary form or pay about $140 for a Motif license. I couldn't
get the binaries to work under Linux and I'm not going to pay $140
for something I'm just experimenting with, so I found an alternative;
a package called Chimera, that works much like Mosaic but uses only
the Athena widgets. You can find it on WWW's client-software page.
Lynx, a VT-100 oriented WWW client, works very well if you don't
absolutely need graphics. The graphics can be automatically
downloaded to the client system if desired. It's worth noting that
many Web users disable the graphics because they come up very slowly
on a typical 14.4kbps SLIP connection. I have now used Lynx to download
graphics I wanted to see, and it really does work quite well.
Eric Raymond seconds this. He says "A lot of people poor-mouth Lynx, but
it's pretty useful. At CCIL, all WWW access is through Lynx, and our users
aren't complaining. That goes for the ones with Mosaic experience, too.
What good is snazzy graphics if you have to wait a decade for a simple
little logo to download?"
A newer browser, called Netscape, solves many of Mosaic's problems
and brings up a few new ones. Netscape's main advantage is that it
loads all of the image and data associated with a URL concurrently.
Because of this, you can read the text as it comes through and see
parts of the pictures, even if not everything has yet come through.
This is an incredible timesaver and makes Netscape the clear browser
of choice from the consumer point of view.
Netscape does have a few irritating problems, though. If you don't
buy their multi-thousand dollar server system, it will give users a
warning that they are not using the Netscape secure transmission
scheme every time they try to transmit something on a form. This
strikes me as a rather cruel form of extortion, even though the
software is undeniably clever and well done.
SlipKnot, a graphical browser running under Windows that's based on
using Lynx from the Unix shell comand line, is an exceptionally
clever solution that I think will increase in popularity. It's much
easier to set up than genuine SLIP, and it's not much slower.
+.# The Netscape Extensions and Designing HTML
Netscape is now best known for its proprietary extensions to HTML.
The most popular are centering, font sizes, backgrounds and tables.
Unfortunately, the use of many of these features can create pages that
are virtually unreadable on any other browser. Although it's true
that Netscape now has an overwhelming market share, 25% of net users
still use another browser - often Lynx, the non-graphical browser, and
Mosaic, the original.
Some people say that the Netscape extensions are so important that
speaking to those 25% is practically like trying to speak to people
with a different language. I must respectfully disagree with these
people; it is possible to create a good looking page that works with
all browsers, even though it will look best with Netscape.
Because I have been working more on the web in recent months,
I have come up with more up to date information on the web.
Check out my Web FAQs: http://cgi.amazing.com/web-faq/ .
Here are some comments on the Netscape extensions:
> Image Maps
Image maps are not a Netscape extension, but this seems like the best
place to cover them. Most image maps are large images that take
forever to load. ALWAYS make sure there is another way to get around
your site, or many people will just turn back at the door. I would
strongly recommend not using them at all; if your client cannot resist
the pizazz, make sure they know that an alternate method of navigation
is still needed.
> Backgrounds and Colours
Traditionally, the Web has used a solid, single-colour
black or grey background. Naturally, people from the worlds of
advertising and print publishing found this very drab and dull, and so
Netscape created backgrounds to please them.
In my explorations of the Web, I've found lots of people who use
backgrounds on their sites, and they can have a pleasing appearance.
At first. The problem is that most people don't seem to realize how
much harder it is to read text superimposed on backgrounds. I used my
IBM ThinkPad 750C computer with a NEC 5FGe monitor to view web pages;
this monitor is far superior to the unit on most consumer PCs.
Despite this, I had to strain my eyes in order to read the
overwhelming majority of pages I sampled with backgrounds.
If you must use backgrounds, please be sure to render the text in a
contrasting colour. Netscape's colour setting features fit hand in
glove with backgrounds.
You should view your document on several different computers with
different monitors before settling on a background and a colour
combination. You'll probably want to use a nice big high resolution
monitor for development, but make sure you keep an ancient 386 clone
with a .39 dot pitch monitor around, and test your pages frequently
with it. Remember, it's the only computer and monitor a lot of your
customers will have. Never release a page with images until you have
done this!
The previous text was written in 1995 or thereabouts. Now, in late
1996, many sites have gone straight back to plain white backgrounds for
readability. The use of anything but the most subtle background image
has become reserved for either amateurish or arty sites.
> Tables
In the past, tables were probematical because they were only readable
using the Netscape browser. At this point, virtually all users - including
Lynxites - can read tables - and a modern, acceptable web page cannot
be made without them. So use them as you wish.
> Blink
The Blink tag is largely discredited. For one thing, it looks
unspeakably ugly on a Windows machine; the blinking is erratic. For
another thing, blinking is just plain bad for your eyes. :-(
> Center
This is a basically harmless tag; if your browser doesn't
support it, things will just all be left aligned. Not the end of the
world for your readers. I recommend the use of this tag.
There is a big flame war between those who want to use
<p align = center> as versus <center>. The former is more standard;
the latter is easier for humans to read.
> Font sizes
Again, I think of this as pretty much harmless; when it's
not recognized, the document is rendered in a single font and size and
is still readable.
I have started to use Font Size tags on my own pages, mainly to create
better-looking headings. If you do this, I recommend that you use
this procedure:
This is a heading
This will show attractively in Netscape, but lesser browsers will
still notice the tag and create a properly rendered heading.
If you don't do this, you will find that your pages can be nearly
unreadable on non-Netscape browsers.
The main problem with Netscape extensions is that people who use other
browsers - even earlier versions of Netscape! - may find it nearly
impossible to read your pages. My best advice about the use of
netscape extensions is to make your page as pretty as possible using
Netscape, and then view it on other browsers and adjust it as
appropriate. With a little extra work, you should be able to make
your page look good no matter how people view it.
HTML is now growing up with the new HTML 3.0 spec, which implements
codes somewhat different from the Netscape extensions. Since the new
versions of Netscape also support HTML 3.0, it is preferable to code
your page using the new spec whenever possible; then it should work on
all current browsers, not just Netscape.
+.# What about Internet Relay Chat (IRC)?
Internet Relay Chat is probably the most brain-dead use of the
Internet short of downloading X-rated pictures from the binaries
groups. Of all the things you will offer on your system, it's
probably the best way to attract clueless but paying customers.
Personally, I am vaguely nauseated whenever I engage in an IRC
conversation; the atmosphere is dismally tacky, the people
uninteresting, the conversations hideously dull and the software
dreadful. (If IRC fans in the audience want to point out places
where this is not true, they should feel free to drop me a line).
After about a year or so of the above paragraph, a courageous soul
has come out to defend IRC. Andy Church (achurch@dragonfire.net)
mentions that the most prominent channels of IRC are indeed a mess,
but there are a number of semi-hidden communities there where real
conversation takes place. I had one of those myself, where the
fans of my friend Jennifer's home page got together; that, too, was
a lot of fun. So if you have a community of your own, and you want
to talk together without running up massive phone bills, IRC does
have its place. I'd recommend using the smaller but better-run Undernet
for this purpose, however; that way you get more reliable connections.
Or so I'm told, anyway.
Despite all this - and probably because of it - the average user
loves IRC, and it probably puts fewer demands on your system
than just about any other service. As I would say, you don't
have to like it to offer it.
To add a little fairness to the above, I will say that IRC
is no worse than any other multi-user chat system I've seen,
such as those offered by various TBBS and Major BBS bulletin
board systems. Still, commands such as "kick" and fearsome
creatures called "bots" do not make for a pleasantly civilized
atmosphere.
IRC works by connecting you to an IRC server. There are two IRC
networks: Eris-Free Net (EFNet) and Undernet. Because IRC is a
networked resource that uses the entire Internet for its
conversations, the two nets are the only points of difference; any
IRC server on Undernet will be identical to any other IRC server
there, and the same is true for EFNet. Choosing the closest server
will not deprive your users of anything; it will, however, decrease
loads on the Internet, and provide them with far superior
performance. Because of this, taking a few minutes to find that
server is strongly recommended before offering IRC to your users. I
would suggest offering two IRC commands - one to hook up to EFNet and
the other to attach to the Undernet. EFNet is the huge one; Undernet
seems to be run by significantly more clueful people, but there's
often nothing going on there.
IRC was designed to perform operations enjoyed by the lowest
common denominator, but since it is a typical Unix program
designed by university types, it has tons of confusing options.
I recommend that you study the Undernet's IRC FAQ, available
at [[ pointer to undernet faq ] and make it easily available
to IRC users. It should answer most of the questions that
come up. Please note that the Undernet FAQ actually covers
operation of the IRC system itself and not only Undernet.
Even if you don't want to connect to Undernet (it's much less
popular than the older Eris-Free net), you still want to
read the FAQ and make it available.
Fortunately, the Undernet people have also made it very easy to
set up an IRC client. They have prepared IRC clients for various
systems at their FTP site [[ find URL ]], and setup for them
is clearly explained and quite easy. I recommend this strongly
over trying to compile your own IRC client; I attempted that
initially and ran into errors. The pre-compiled binaries from
Undernet work just fine.
As mentioned previously, IRC client software is not terribly well
written and will very often "run away" from your users. This will
cause it to fail completely, grinding up amazing amounts of CPU time
in the process. See "Dealing with Runaway processes", below.
+.# What about other chat services?
With the increasing popularity of the World Wide Web all but eliminating
people's knowledge of the older and less flashy Internet services, web
chat systems have come to pass. Most of them are unspeakably
horrible in implementation; nonetheless, they have gotten a quite
respectable level of popularity. The newer generation web chat systems
use Java, and if Java can actually be made to work well (the jury's
still out in my opinion :-( ), this should be the chat of the future.
A chat service called ICB (International CB) was created as a clone
of the CompuServe CB simulator. It's a lot easier to understand than
IRC; it's sacrificed features for ease of use. A good trade, in my
opinion. Unfortunately, it seems to consist of the same vapid and
boring conversations as any other chat system.
You might find the idea of doing a local chat system a surprisingly
good one; get members of your system to get to know each other, and
build a community of sorts. This is especially interesting as a
scheme because people who chat usually like to get together for
meetings, something tough to arrange on the Internet as a whole.
This is something I definitely plan to do on my system - if, of
course, I can get some spare time to write the software!
+.# Where can I find some interesting scripts and patches?
Christopher X Candreva has put together a few perl
scripts and patches that you might find useful. They include:
dochk - Automatically processes checkgroups messages, and updates the
newsgroups file. This is one of the most tedious and neglected
aspects of being a news administrator.
msgdesc - Update newsgroups file from one downloaded from another
site, and/or to reflect the current active file. The newsgroups file
includes descriptions of the newsgroups on your site.
wwwpwd - Code to let users change their passwords from a web site.
You can grab these utilities and more from the URL
http://www.westnet.com/providers/ .
+ What about Fees, Terms and Conditions?
I am shortly going to be writing a separate document on condition-
related issues; hopefully I will be able to write a suggested
terms and conditions list for all providers.
+.# How much can I charge? How much do other providers charge?
Most providers, including biggies Netcom and Earthlink, charge in the
$ 19.95 a month range. Online services have fought back by also
taking the $ 19.95 price point. I've seen ISP services for as little
as $ 9.95 a month, but mostly for seriously limited access. Unlimited
access is in the $ 12 to $ 30 a month range. The higher rates are
charged by "boutique" providers that offer higher quality, more
personalized service.
Netcom has POPs in many major cities, so statistically it's the most likely
competitor for you to come up against. Earthlink and CRL are other names
you're likely to run into.
When comparing your rates to Netcom's, keep in mind that they have had
enormous service problems in the past, and will probably be
continuously erratic. See elsewhere in this FAQ for details. New
service providers seem to be charging in the range of $ 14-20/month
for full-access Shell or BBS accounts. The main action in rates is
that SLIP/PPP are now priced at within a few dollars of Shell
access, with at least 20 free hours.
Karl Denninger's MCSNet charges $ 60/3 months, or $ 240/year. If you stay
with them for a year, you get two free months, reducing your effective
cost to $ 17/month. For SLIP/PPP, the 14-month cost is $ 260, under the
same terms.
+.# How can I distinguish my service from the competition?
In the beginning, low rates, friendliness of service and lack of heavy
system load may be your best bet, at least when competing with the
national providers.
I'm using unique software I wrote myself as a lure, but I recognize that
this is not an option for many people. (See the section on BBS software,
below).
+.# Unlimited versus Metered Access
Before SLIP and PPP accounts became commonplace, most Internet
providers had a single rate for unlimited access. During the days of
the shell account, after all, if you were on the net, you generally
couldn't use your computer for anything else. As a result, people would
stay online for only as long as they needed.
Because of this tradition, many providers have continued to offer
"unlimited" SLIP/PPP access, with the important provison that this
would not be the same as "full-time, dedicated, 24x7 access".
Other providers have said that, because many people can camp online
without even knowing they're doing it, some kind of time charge is
necessary. There is a certain degree of acrimony on the Inet-Access
mailing list between the two camps, with the metered access camp saying
that the unmetered people are not able to provide high-quality service.
This debate really matters little, as virtually all Internet providers are
being forced to offer virtually unlimited access due to competition from
other Internet providers and the commercial online services.
One very important point is to be sure you define your terms correctly.
An "unlimited" account has to be separate and distinct from a "permanent,
dedicated" account. It must be made clear that you are not going to let
people keep the the connction up 24x7 to run servers or MUDs. It's
probably best to say that something like this: "There is no hard limit to
the amount of time you can spend on your account. However, this
account is /not/ to be used to run servers, and you must be on line for
no more than half the day. We will not normally enforce that requirement
unless your usage is continuously excessive for a long period of time."
Richard Stiennon notes: "I have had customers that use IRC for *eight*
hours a day. These "addicts" are usually good customers and bring in a lot
of referrals. Heavy users can be a problem if your POP has only 20 or so
modems, but once you are up to 100 modems statistics become your friend.
Not a problem."
David Graves (dgraves@netreach.net) comments:
"One of the ways to insure that there isn't abuse is to call it "unlimited
interactive usage" Which means that you will kick them out with 20 or so
minutes inactivity. For the people who set their mail to read every 15
minutes to keep on -- well just set your term server to knock anyone off
after 6 hours or so. If they're really on, they'll log right back in. If
they're not there, then your modem is free for your other users. There's
probably nothing you can do with people who have auto-relog on disconnect.
"For us it just hasn't been an issue.
"If you find someone staying on for 10 and 12 hours, you might email them and
tell them that you really don't think that they're sitting there all that
long, and would they please consider buying the 'dedicated access' package."
+.# Accounting and Billing Practices (*)
Billing by credit card has major advantages for both you and your
customer. It's definitely the best option for most providers, but it
may be exceedingly difficult to get. See below.
There are a number of services now that will set up 900 number
billing for you. Your customer calls the number and gets a code; he
then calls your system and types the code in. The system is then
unlocked for a specific period. You are paid at the end of the telco
billing cycle. This is probably one of the easiest options to
qualify for, but you only get 2/3 of the total charge; this might be
unacceptable to you. People who have used the 900 number and
received your services may also attempt to contest the charges on
their bill. Due to the sleazy reputation of 900 number vendors and
systems, this is normally granted as a matter of course by the local
telco.
Finally, you can get people to pay by check. You get 100% of the charge,
and you get it now. The bad news is that many people who will blithely
charge billions on a credit card have an amazing resistance to getting
around to sending a check in the mail. Unless you have your strongman
Guido around to collect from your customers, this might not be the best
solution. You should always accept this form of payment, since it's
the simplest type for you, but you should not count on your customers
doing it. It's generally best to offer tempting discounts for longer
terms, since it's a big hassle getting people to send in a check every
month.
+.# Credit Cards (*)
There are two issues surrounding the world of credit cards. The first
is how big a percentage they nick you, and the second is whether you
can get them to accept your company at all.
Most credit card processing companies are leery of any businesses selling
services, especially out of the home. You will find it much easier to
get their attention if you have physical business premises, instead of
your garage.
A company called Teleflora - that's right, a florist delivery service -
has made quite a nice little sideline business out of processing credit
card orders for bulletin boards and similar operations. However, they
now appear to be out of this business (as of November 7, 1994).
Ben Bradley is offering a service that appears
to fill in the gap. He represents four "banks that
specialize in granting credit card merchant accounts to ISPs and other
on-line professionals. Makes no difference if the ISP is just
starting business or operating out of their home. We can, in most
cases, get them approved if they have good personal credit. We also
offer Auto-Debit from the checking accounts of the customers of the ISP."
For more information, drop a line to bradley@lords.com .
Chris Hawkinson notes two interesting things. First,
if you charge by the hour, you are counted as a worse risk than if you
charge a flat-rate fee. To accept VISA, you must do the following if
you have an hourly rate plan:
* Pay a special annual fee
* Have the worst discount rate
* Have an 800 number which appears on credit card statements.
Second, just because you have received money, it doesn't mean you won't
have to give it back. Chargebacks can occur up to a year later with
just cause. "Further, since an online system usually doesn't have the
normal signature receipt, the customer is almost ALWAYS right."
Finally, he notes that extremely tight security is necessary for a
system that keeps credit cards information online, since crackers are
attracted to card numbers like ants are to sugar. Perhaps the best
way to do this is take the card numbers and copy them to a remote
system inaccesible to the public.
Chris Myer (cmyer@su102a.ess.harris.com) did a complete survey
of net.wisdom on this topic. He came up with the following
additional comments on how you might get accepted for a merchant
account, and what kinds of rates:
1 Get an account through a local bank. Chris says this isn't very
likely, unless you have very substantial dealings with them. "These
guys don't understand the 'net, and will simply consider you a
mail-order business. If you are home-based, forget it. Your only
hope is to get an employee of the local bank to go to bat for you--in
a big way!" Karl Denninger apparently got his own
merchant account in this manner; keep in mind, however, that his
five-digit account balances probably helped just a little.
2 Independent Service Organization. These people serve as
go-betweens, insulating you from the more stringent standards
banks require. According to Chris, "Many of these companies
charge horrendous up-front, non-refundable fees, but some are
reasonable."
The most well-known of them is Teleflora. Evidently these guys
decided that they would become ISO's, and they are big believers
in BBS's. Fairly large non-refundable application fee.
Unfortunately, they seem to be leaving the business at this
time. (800) 325-4849. (x2076?)
Card Service is another outfit that's been mentioned. Unfortunately,
little information is available about their serivces. Card Service,
(800) 944-7164, or try (800) 947-3650 (faxback, request 765.)
3 Discover Card: "Evidently, they not only provide Discover
cards, but once you get one of those they will also provide access
to Visa/MC merchant accounts. Call (800) DISCOVER (347-2683 for
the alpha-numerically challenged) and ask for Merchant Services."
Here's the information from Chris on what kind of rates you can
expect to pay:
Samples of Rates Charged:
=========================
Visa/MC: 2.20%
2.25% plus $.25 per transaction, plus $2.00 statement
charge.
2.32% plus $5.00 per month.
3.0%
3.5% plus $.30 per transaction.
4.0%
Discover: 1.9%
3.25%
AMEX: 3.25%
4.5%
Terminal: $21 per month, or $200 outright.
$600 outright, $75 for repair.
The following is copied straight from Chris' message:
Suggestions for Getting Accepted:
1 Try to avoid being labeled "home-business", "mail order" or
"telemarketer". I don't recommend lying if you fall squarely into
one of these catagories, but don't let them put you there if
you're not.
2 Minimize the amount you predict you will charge. Due to the
fact that charge-backs can be made for up to 6 months after a
transaction, the bank's amount "at risk" is 6 times the predicted
monthly amount.
3 When working with a bank be prepared to keep liquid assets in
the bank equal to or greater than their "at risk" amount. This is
usually necessary for no more than 6-12 months of good charges.
Suggestions for Protecting Yourself:
1 Try to find some way to get a signature on file. One way I
thought of was not only to have them fax in the card number and
their signature, but a photocopy of their picture ID with signa-
ture on it.
2 Make sure you have a way to verify that the ship-to address
for your product (if you are a retailer) is the same as the
billing address of the credit card holder.
+.# Billing Software
A more up to date list of billing softare is at
http://www.isp-invoicing.com .
There are a number of billing programs out there for Internet
providers. A company called Interstate has written a "thorough
billing system called 'im', or 'INC Manager'." It keeps track of
billing, pro-rating, account creation, expiration and bill and label
printing. Cost is $ 125/site license. [I have gotten several
enquiries for company contact information; unfortunately, all I know
is what I wrote here. Perhaps someone from Interstate can come
forward with something?]
A system called BATS (formerly IOU) is promising, but still under
development with some serious bugs, according to a beta tester of the
system. You can learn more about IOU http://www.astroarch.com .
Edward L Haletky , speaking for IOU's developers,
AstroArch Consulting, says, "Any problems currently referred to in the
FAQ have not existed for a very long period of time."
IOU supports BSDI 1.1 and 2.0, FreeBSD v2.0.5, AIX v4.0, HUPX v9.0.x,
IRIX 5.x, Linux, MachTen, OSF/1 v3.2, SCO, Solaris 2.4 and Solaris
x86, SunOS 4.1.3, Unixware, Digital Unix and MachTen. The current
version is 2.0.
I'd appreciate comments from other users so I can provide an impartial
update of IOU's status. So far, nobody seems to have been upset enough
to give me additional information, so I'll assume the software has overcome
its previous problems.
The name IOU has now been changed to BATS, "for various reasons".
User Tracking and Accounting from RTD has had some problems with
support, so they've thrown it into the public domain. It's a bunch of
perl scripts that runs under Unix, and includes full source code. If
you're a hacker, I'd definitely recommend that approach over using a
Windows-based program. Check out http://www.rtd.com/software/uta.html
Keven Fink has just announced the ISP billing system written in Perl.
Here's the summary he sent us:
"N2H2's User Registration, Information, and Billing System (URIBS) is a
complete user administration package for UNIX-based ISPs. It allows
non-technical staff to create and administer both shell and dial-up user
accounts. It also provides billing and accounting capabilities.
"The package is written entirely in Perl, so all source code is included to
allow easy customization. It has been tested on a variety of UNIX
variants, including SunOS, Solaris, Linux, FreeBSD, and BSDI. It was
designed to work with RADIUS for dial-up authentication and accounting."
For more information, check out http://www.n2h2.com/URIBS/ .
There is another system called IAF by Solect; more information can
be found at http://www.solect.com/
Imagen - http://www.imagen.net/ has a new billing system. Once again,
it's Windows-based, alas. However, it's worth noting that it will
read industry-standard RADIUS and web log files, which means that you
don't have to use NT servers to run the program, despite what its web
page might imply; instead, you can go to your Windows (95 or NT) box,
give it the files from your Unix servers, and it will grind away on
them. Since it's a Windows program, source code is hidden and you
cannot fool with it yourself (unlike the Perl systems mentioned
above). They use an Access database, so it's a bit of a slug, but you
can use standard query software built into Access to build your own
reports. Note that, unlike Coolworld, the database is open and can be
played with at will. Access is not required to run the product.
However, it might be a good choice for non-hackers; I did get the
impression that the people who suggested it to me were responsive. So
if you must use Windows for this crucial function, this might not be a
bad choice. One special feature it has that's worthy of note is that
you can use it to bill by the hour for applications like cyber cafes
and such.
The system called Coolworld - http://www.coolworld.com - has been
criticised heavily by its users on the Inet-Access mailing list. It's
Windows and Access-based, which in my opinion should disqualify it
from consideration by any serious ISP. Those who disagree with this
analysis should note that the database files are apparently locked, so
you cannot alter or modify the files using any kind of outside
program. Coolworld users found that it was impossible to import
historical information from other packages, and that technical support
was unhelpful.
Coolworld has threatened to sue a person who posted what they
considered to be derogatory information on their package to the
Inet-Access mailing list. I would recommend in the strongest possible
terms that you stay away from this company.
Intbill is a package originally suggested by Emil Mikhles
. Its URL is http://www.coolworld.com/intbill/ .
It, however, runs on Windows 3.1, Windows 95 or Windows NT, so
Windowsphobic people (like me!) may not care for it. It requires 16MB
of RAM. Emil reports that he no longer recommends Intbill; he now
uses a custom package written in Access, linking the data to PC-Charge
(a Windows equivalent to IC Verify).
Kevin Fink of n2h2 (see above) has created his own list of every ISP
billing program on the market: http://www.n2h2.com/URIBS/others.html .
On 12 September 1997, James B Hrdy posted the following list of billing packages
to inet-access, unfortunately without any commentary. This should give you
some more help with your quest:
http://www.cyberacs.com/ ISP Trak
http://www.xpert.com/ X Acct
http://www.digidyne.ca/iapplications.html Tips
http://www.cybertimesoftware.com Cybertimes
http://n2h2.com/URIBS// Uribs
http://www.mcmsoft.com/isovr.html MCM REAL TIME Accounting
Systems
http://www.interbiller.com/ InterBiller
http://www.pacnet.com/pacnet/wcube/screens.html WebCube Infinite Patience
You are going to be dealing with unreliable software being used by
largely clueless Microsoft Windows users. You will need to give high
quality phone support to these people, or they will never manage to
figure out how things work. This is probably the most severe problem
with offering SLIP
> A starter kit
With the advent of Windows95, it's gotten a lot easier to hook up
to the Internet. Windows95 includes a functional TCP/IP stack,
functional (albiet not graphical) ftp, telnet and traceroute (tracert)
commands, and a fairly straightforward setup. For the setup that
even an elementary school kid could use, just add the Plus Pack,
which also includes an obsolete copy of their Internet Explorer
browser.
Because of this, your Internet starter kit would appear to be far
less important than it was in the past. However, competitive pressure
has appeared since most large providers offer a licensed copy of
Netscape with their service. Smaller ones, however, find it difficult
to afford Netscape because you can only get good price breaks on
it in quantities around 1,000 or more. Inking a five-figure contract
with Netscape is not most small ISP's idea of fun.
Michael Dillon has an update on this; apparently the dust has cleared
and you can now get quite decent terms from Netscape resellers such as
Intercon. "I have in front of me a price sheet from Intercon that
includes Netscape, Eudora, ftp client, news client etc... for $14.95
in quantities of 100 and up. Even the smallest ISP should be able to
commit to buying 100 units and $14.95 is low enough that you should be
able to easily pass this cost on to customers as an account setup
fee. And it is available for Windows and Mac. Send email to
randall@intercon.com for details and maybe he will send you the demo
kit that was being handed out at ISPCON." This seems to me like an
excellent idea.
One of the big questions floating around the Internet provider world,
then, is whether you make a deal with the devil. Microsoft will give
you a free license to distribute Internet Explorer, their browser, and
all they ask is that you add a smattering of their extensions to your
home page, stick on a "Best Viewed with Internet Explorer" label, and
not recommend any other browsers to your customers. Those who
are not virulent Microsoft haters have taken a hard look at this package,
although there don't seem to be many defections from Netscape; it's
mainly people who didn't have a browser deal before.
In truth, Netscape has been remarkably insensitive to the needs of
the small ISP market, and this may hurt them badly in the long run.
MSIE is now said to be quite a decent program; it actually pioneered
some very useful extensions, such as <table background> and
popping up the document text before the background loaded.
Netscape has since copied these, and since then it's been a wild battle
to the death between the two companies.
I have very mixed feelings about all this. I don't like what Netscape's
done to the small ISPs, but I don't trust Microsoft any further than I
could throw them. If it was my call, I'd provide no software and have
my customers FTP Netscape. The problem is that Netscape is very,
very slow to download, so this can be a very annoying option for many
people, especially those just starting out.
This dilemma may well be resolved, but not in a way I'll necessarily
like: Soon, Internet Explorer will be included within every release of
Windows95. We'll like that, because we'll finally be liberated from the
need to wrestle with troublesome installation disks. But it may well mean
the final victory of Microsoft in the browser wars -- strictly by default.
Unfortunately, Windows 3.1 customers are probably still the majority,
due to the unfortunate reputation of Windows95 in many quarters.
As a result, a Windows 3.1 setup kit is still needed, and Microsoft has
attempted to provide one. Early reports, however, state that the TCP
stack is riddled with problems, which might well make you think twice
about signing that Microsoft deal.
So support for Windows 3.x is still probematical, and the following
older section of this document describes what's usually done.
SLIP/PPP software is complex. In order to offer SLIP, you have to
supply your users with a disk or disks containing software to install
on their computers. (Since I first wrote this, PPP has largely replaced
SLIP, mainly due to its inclusion in Windows95).
Most of this software is shareware, and there are some complex
distribution conditions. For the most part, you cannot distribute
SLIP software pre-configured for people's systems without paying a
license fee to the software's owner. Some of the software, including
Netscape, cannot be legally distributed on a disk without a license -
and licenses for Netscape are expensive: $ 17/copy with a minimum buy
of 500 copies.
What most people do is distribute a rather minimalist startup kit,
normally including Trumpet Winsock (said to be the least bad of the
available TCP stacks) and public domain FTP, Gopher, mail and WWW
clients. Customers are then given instructions to set up the disk,
and can then download Netscape from the main Netscape www site.
Note that the version of Netscape sold on a retail level has startup
access for various commercial Internet providers such as Netcom and
CompuServe; its configuration procedure is apparently severely biased
against local ISPs. This might be worth keeping in mind when deciding
whether to use those Netscape extensions ...
Microsoft is providing a free startup disk kit called the IETK. People
who have used it seem to be having almost constant problems setting it
up and trying to get it functional. It's free, but you have to use at
least one of Microsoft's IE extensions on your web page and state that
your site is bets viewed with MSIE. On balance, I'd rather go with
Netscape despite the cost.
Due to the ever-increasing size of this software, it's increasingly
cost-effective to burn startup CD ROMs instead of disks. The IETK,
for example, takes five disks. At a cost of $ 0.35 per disk, that's
$ 1.75. Pressing a CD ROM is not only less trouble for the user, it's
also a lot cheaper; you can do it for less than $ 1 per CD.
+.# Do any companies offer starter kits, or do I have to roll my own?
Soorena Salari offers InetMgr, an installer
package that makes the connection easy. It creates the proper
directories, installs the files, and asks the needed questions. Cost
is $ 2/disk, quantity 1,000+.
A test drive version is available for your trial at
http://www.ccsweb.com/inetmgr .
Emil Mikhles recommends Better Internet
Starter Kits at http://www.talon.net/iqcdemo .
+.# How has Windows95 changed the SLIP/PPP picture?
Windows95 includes dial-up networking out of the box. As a result,
configuring new PPP users (Windows95 doesn't use SLIP) is quite a bit
less difficult than it's been in the past. A site called
Windows95.com [ http://www.windows95.com/ ] has an excellent set of
instructions which I believe you can provide to your customers.
They'll save you hours of hideously boring technical support.
The Windows95 setup wizard included with the Plus Pack makes setup a
nearly brainless experience. All you need to do is type in the IP
numbers of your various servers and you're all set. You can talk new
subscribers through this over the phone in about five minutes. If you
don't get the Plus Pack, the instructions on http://www.windows95.com/
are worth their weight in gold; you can still do it, but it requires
wandering through a whole bunch of tabbed dialogue boxes.
If your users are currently using Windows 3.1 and upgrade to
Windows95, they will find that their existing Windows software almost
certainly will not work. To fix this, they can either set up
Windows95 dial-up networking, or find their old winsock.dll file
(which I believe is renamed to winsock.old) and overwrite the
Windows95 driver with it.
If your users presently have Trumpet, I strongly recommend Windows95.
Its dial-up networking is significantly easier to set up than Trumpet,
and it seems quite a bit more reliable as well.
+.# What about proprietary GUIs, such as the Pipeline?
The Pipeline, a NYC-based Internet provider, took a different approach.
They wrote their own customized terminal program that basically makes
their system look like SLIP/PPP without all the headaches. It's clever
and works well. Unfortunately, as of last writing, they were asking
a rather massive price for it. You can try it free of charge on their
demo line; telnet to pipeline.com.
At one time, I was planning to write a similar GUI front end for
my own customized software. However, the stampede towards Netscape
and PPP connections has made this look like a fairly poor idea at this
time.
The Pipeline was sold to PSI and is now, alas, out of business.
+.# What about BBS Interfaces?
I wrote and ran a customized BBS between March 1994 and June 1996.
Unfortunately, the market for the type of system I had pretty much
vanished after people started selling SLIP/PPP connections for $ 9.95
a month. Because of that, and due to a hardware failure that made the
system uneconomic to keep up, the system is now down. Shed a tear;
it's been completely replaced by my Web provider. A spiritual
successor to my BBS can be found in my web personals pages, at
http://cgi.amazing.com/personals/ .
The rest of the information in this section is from 1994 and is probably
very much out of date. The BBS world as a whole seems to be dying
with the dominance of the Internet.
For those who still care, esoft, makers of TBBS, now no longer sells or
supports the product, so we can't recommend it anymore even if you just
want to run a BBS. Pity since it had the easiest and best customizability
of any commercial BBS software.
Bulletin board systems, such as TBBS and Major BBS, are rushing into
the Internet bandwagon. Traditionally, the interfaces used by both
these programs are far too clunky for efficient newsreading, and
that is virtually the only service they've been able to offer. How
much this changes will determine how much influence BBS vendors finally
have on the Internet world.
Eric S Raymond has been working on some
similar projects. Like many projects of its kind, this was inspired
by dissatisfaction with existing systems:
"I know of three major projects to produce a UNIX BBS interface suitable
for use by ISPs -- FreePort, InterLink, and Chebucto Suite.
"FreePort is the BBS interface used by NPTN, the National Public
Telecomputing Network, and its affiliated Free-Nets. Despite its
name, it costs $850 to license from Case Western Reserve University.
And it is an utterly awful implementation of a clumsy, stupid design.
Most of the traffic on its lists, freenet-tech and freenet-admin, is
disgruntled Free-Netters wishing desperately they had something
better. To see for yourself, rlogin as `visitor' at freenet.fsu.edu
or yfn2.ysu.edu."
I - the FAQ maintainer - wanted to check out this claim, so I did
exactly as Eric suggested. Sure enough, the Free-Net software is
awfully clunky for an $ 895 program. It's inarguably simple, but
the user interface is far from the best. It looks a lot like a
stripped down version of Galacticomm's Major BBS; unfortunately,
that's not a compliment.
Eric again: "InterLink is the interface I wrote out of complete disgust
with FreePort. It combines the ease of use of a menu-based system
with the feel of a MUD (multi-user dungeon) game; it has unique
features for decentralized administration; and the code is simple,
flexible, and easily extensible. This software is production-quality,
supporting more than 1000 users as of November 1994, and is far superior
to FreePort in every respect, but I have not yet released it; I'm in
the midst of a redesign for better integration with WWW. To check it
out, telnet to locke.ccil.org."
I checked it out, and it is indeed a slick, nicely designed and
easy to understand program. It has a much more modern look and
feel than the FreeNet software, and it's considerably easier to
figure out.
The David's Amazing Internet Services software - otherwise known
as my own - is very different from either program. Anyone interested
in checking out the state of the Internet BBS art should definitely
take a look at all three systems. Which one is better? I'd say
it depends on your own personal taste.
Eric continues:
"There is a project called `Chebucto Suite' under development in
Canada, with goals similar to those of InterLink. From their
prospectus, it appears that they already have full WWW integration
(the Chebucto browser is a souped-up version of the WWW lynx client).
They appear to be behind InterLink in some other areas, notably
administration tools. I don't know where Chebucto Suite is actually
running; contact David Trueman for information.
Earlier, Eric was quite keen on integrating his project with Chebucto
Suite. However, he recently wrote the following: "The Chebucto
people seem to have fallen into a hole. They're not answering mail,
and I've heard nothing about them on any of the FreeNet lists."
Lasse Morkhagen tells us that BBBS is a European
BBS program from Finland, which supports News, Email, telnet, rlogin,
flexible accounting, Fido-Net and a C-like scripting language for
customization. To try it, you can telnet to fix.no .
+.# What about menu interfaces?
Many people are now using a World Wide Web browser, such as Lynx, as
their main menuing system. This is easy for most people to use, and
can take them to all sorts of interesting places.
Some people have trouble with this because Lynx won't work properly
unless your VT-100 emulation is exactly perfect. However, the
flexibility and ease of use are certainly there.
A company called Interstate has written a menu shell in Perl that
features complete full-screen operation. A site license for it costs
$ 75. Unfortunately, I lost the message with further information.
+.# Is there an easy, painless way to provide Internet services?
Possibly. Draper Kauffman has a beguilingly simple
business idea to share with potential providers in underserved regions
of the world: sell telnet-only accounts to his system. This way, he
notes, you lose a lot of headaches. No need for gigabyte drives;
use his. No need to offer shell accounts and stay up all night worrying
about infamous security holes; he'll offer them for you. No need to
contract with credit card companies; he knows how tiresome that is to
new businesses and takes all of it out of your hands. You charge what
you want and it all goes through his accounting system. Anything over
a $ 15/month flat fee is given to you as a nice convenient check you
can deposit right into your account.
The main advantage of this idea is that you have 24 hour a day 7 day
a week monitoring and support by his already-existant ops center. This
would be horribly expensive for you to do yourself.
The main disadvantage of this idea is that you have no control over
your own system; in reality, you're selling someone else's product and
not your own. If you (like me) are starting a provider to put your
own personal stamp on the world, this is definitely not for you.
However, if you want money and you're in a market with low
competition, you could probably charge $ 25/month and pocket the $ 10
difference without doing anything more strenuous than maintaining
your modems and router.
Note that, since this would be a telnet only situation, you would
almost certainly require a T1 connection, since 100% of your users'
time would be using the Internet itself quite intensely. The high
bandwidth required might offset some of the administrative savings
of the proposed plan.
However, it can be an effective way to build a strong customer base
at the start, where cash for hardware, software and customer support
staff is hard to come by. You also have more time for marketing your
service, and it's easier to sell a full-service account for $ 25
than a semi-reliable account on a start-up system for $ 18.
Draper suggests that your initial goal should be to build up your
system in stages to handle 750 to 1,000 customers using 64 lines and
modems and a T-1 line. If you charge $ 25 per customer and pay
about $ 30/line and $ 2,000 for your T-1, you net somewhere around
$ 4,500 to $ 6,000 per month with no payroll. Then, with this kind
of strong cash flow, you can easily add the drives, CPUs and staff
you need for complete services, and gradually bring your customers
back to your system full-time.
A Phoenix, AZ company called Primenet is now selling Internet
franchises, which work in a very similar way to Draper's plan. I
have seen their franchise agreement, and it appears to be incredibly
slanted against the franchisee. I urge anyone interested in that
franchise (or any other) to read the agreement carefully before
deciding to invest.
Another company called Internet Online Services (IOS) has also
been forming cooperative agreements with users; unfortunately,
their very low rates and massive national advertising has resulted
in horribly poor service (see http://www.thelist.com and look them
up for the gory details).
Draper Kauffman himself seems to have disappeared, and I have
heard from some io.com users that service has deteriorated
significantly in recent months.
+ What sorts of technical problems should I expect?
Thanks to Tony Sanders for contributing this list
of some of the many problems Internet connectivity is heir to:
Internet connection line failures (dealing with telco and provider)
Routing problems
General network problems (site x.y.z is down and the user complains to you)
Catastrophic Disk failure (make sure you have backups)
Users deleting files and then wanting them back (backups again)
Modem problems all of sorts (parity mismatch, hung modems, flow control,
not disconnecting properly, not connecting properly)
System crashes and hangs
Configuring ftp, telnet, shell accounts, nntp, www, smtp/sendmail, nfs
Bug tracking (a potentially big problem)
Billing
+.# What can be done about System Crashes?
Ideally, there should be someone around 24 hours a day to make sure the
system is put back up when it dies. A reasonable compromise for companies
that aren't large enough to do this is to be sure someone's on the system
during peak usage hours, to make sure the system is reset when it goes down.
(Information on devices to reset the system automatically upon a crash
should be given here).
You may be able to prevent many system crashes - or at least minimize
their effect - by purchasing an Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS) and
a mechanism to automatically shut the system down gracefully upon power
failure. Unfortunately, this is another issue I'm not that familiar with;
expertise from those who know would be appreciated.
Walter Vose Jeffries has an interesting
suggestion that I'm surprised UPS companies don't try packaging. He
writes:
"What we did with our systems here is bought cheap ($ 500) but
reasonably good UPSs and then replaced their batteries with deep cycle
marine/truck batteries. This gives us 8 to 16 horus of run time on
the battery (which then takes 4 days to recharge completely). This
works well and is cheap; the batteries cost $ 60 to $ 100 or so.
That's much less than the cost of a big UPS and by having several that
each give long power protection we are even better off than with one
central unit. In seven years, our longest outage was 7 hours with
three others at about 4 hours and most 5 minutes to one hour. This
way, we don't worry about having to shut down since we know we'll
outlast even the worst power outages we've had in seven years. (Of
course we still program in graceful shut down - but better to never
have it happen)."
I would have loved to have had such a thing during our 1994
earthquake, where power was out in many places for as much as a day or
two. Judicious manipulation of multiple deep cycle batteries probably
would have kept my system going after switching off all non-essential
equipment. For example, if I'd had a news machine at the time, I
could have deactivated it and used its separate UPS when the main
system was almost out of power. Walter tells me that you can also
charge batteries during long outages by just sticking them in a car,
or you can start your car by "borrowing" one of the UPS batteries!
During my current business trip, when I've had to be away from the system
for almost two weeks, I asked my roommate's girlfriend to check the
system and reset it when "nothing appears when you hit the
key on the console." Apparently, she's already done this once, and
it's worked fine. If you can explain the care of your system easily
enough, just about anyone who likes you should be able to help.
(I wouldn't recommend handing this off to an enemy, since it's all
too easy to destroy your system this way! :-( )
+.# What can be done about Network Outages?
When part of your network link fails, you're dead in the water.
If you're using a SLIP connection for your network link, you will find
yourself disconnected occasionally. I have written a program to automatically
reconnect myself when this happens. It runs every 15 minutes (through
cron) and checks to see if there is a DIP process running. If there is
no DIP running, it starts one up. This lets my system automatically reconnect
even when I'm not there to tend it. Here's the program:
/* dipcheck.c -- check to see if DIP is running
By David H Dennis * david@amazing.amazing.com
This program is hereby placed in the public domain; no warranty
exists, expressed or implied.
*/
#include
#include
#define FN "/tmp/dipps"
#define LEN 100
main()
{
char s[LEN];
int ct = 0;
FILE *fp;
system("ps -aux | grep dip >/tmp/dipps");
fp = fopen(FN, "r");
while (fgets(s, LEN, fp)) {
ct++;
}
fclose(fp);
/* The PS and DIPCHECK commands also contain the word 'dip', so
if there are less than 3 uses of the word found by grep, we're not
connected, and an attempt should be made to reattach ourselves */
if (ct < 3) {
printf("Executing DIP ...\n");
system("/user/dip/dip /user/dip/sample.dip >/tmp/dipout");
/* Note: Hollywood is the name of my network connection */
system("route add hollywood");
system("route add default gw hollywood");
}
}
Someone will probably flame me for writing this in C, when it would
have been more elegant as perl or even a shell script, but who has
time to learn them? :-(
According to Tony Sanders , "Perl is a godsend for
ISP's willing to learn it. It is the swiss army knife of the system
administrator, a real survival tool." I finally broke down and learned
it to write the "kill runaway processes" program, which will be presented
later.
If a 56k or T1 connect fails, Tony Sanders says
that you first reset everything on your end. The CSU/DSU (at least
the ones I've seen, cheap models might not have it) has various local
and remote loopback tests it can perform, do those. If those fail
you call your provider and/or the telco.
+.# Hung Modems
Rackmount modems really score here; as mentioned previously, there are
complex diagnostics and re-routing systems built into the modems. If,
as seems more likely, you have a bunch of tangled wires leading to
heaps of external modems, you will have to find out which one is causing
the problem and reset it. This can usually be done easily enough by
switching it off and on.
If you are calling the system from a remote site, and find it rings and
rings thanks to a bum modem, you can transfer to the next line by calling
the main number on your voice line, and then calling the same number on
your data line. You should then get the next line on the rotary, which
is (hopefully) active. Then, it's a fairly simple matter to inspect ps,
find the runaway job, and kill it. Usually that will reset the modem,
and the system will once again work. (Again, Walter Vose Jeffries
notes that the Call Forward on No Answer
solution would work even better, since users would never be
inconvenienced).
If you still can't get on, it's recommended that you dial up a backup
account you have on a competing provider and telnet to your system.
I have such an account on both Netcom and Smartdocs (the latter being
a small local provider). This also helps me test customer complaints
about reachability, and problems I may have with my WWW pages and
other services.
+.# Killing Runaway Processes
As we discussed in the sections on IRC or Lynx, these programs have
some interesting bugs that cause them to "run away", making CPU
usage zoom to no great use. I have devised a Perl script to scan
PS in search of these evil jobs. It consists of two parts: RCHECK
runs RUNCHECK repeatedly.
Because I am still testing and refining the performance of these
programs, I run rcheck from a virtual console, and occasionally
watch its work. Once you're satisfied with it, you can put
rcheck's single pipeline (the first 'system' command) in your crontab
and run it every 15 minutes or so.
Note that this has two separate code segments, (A) and (B). (A)
kills any process that exceeds the CPU time listed that is not
being used by administrative users (remember to put your own name
on the list!). (B) kills any irc or lynx processes that are not
being used by an administrative account. (B) is recommended if
you sell shell accounts. NOTE! You must select one and only one
of (A) or (B) - comment out the other by putting "#"s in front of
its lines.
You may want to run runcheck with the killing parts commented out
to see what tasks it actually kills before using it.
These are my first perl programs, so be gentle with criticism. In
particular, I'm sure rcheck could have been written better without
the system commands.
As always, these programs are freely given to the public domain,
although it would be nice if you kept the credit lines in. Since
I didn't sell these programs for billions of dollars, of course I
accept no responsibility for the consequences of trying 'em out.
rcheck:
#/usr/bin/perl
# rcheck - run runcheck perl script forever
# By David H Dennis ;
# from the inet-access FAQ
while (1) {
system("ps -aux | perl runcheck");
system("sleep 15m");
}
runcheck:
#/usr/bin/perl
# Perl program to process output of PS
# By David H Dennis ;
# from the inet-access FAQ
system("uptime");
system("date");
while () {
chop;
@ps = split;
if ($ps[2] > 15) {
print($_, "\n");
print("Excessive CPU usage - candidate for killing\n");
if (($ps[0] eq "news") || ($ps[0] eq "root")) {
print("... but news or root process, so ok\n");
}
# You can exempt other commands in a similar way ...
elsif ($ps[10] eq "bbs") {
print("... but BBS process, so ok\n");
# and users as well
} elsif ($ps[0] eq "david") {
print("... but David's process, so ok\n");
}
# Pick either (A) or (B), not both
# (A) Kill any high-CPU process - use only if you run BBS accounts only
else {
$x = $ps[1];
print("kill -9 $x\n");
system("kill -9 $x\n");
}
# End (A)
# (B) Kill only IRC or Lynx processes - use if you sell shell accounts
# Note: This has not been tested and is for your information only
elsif ($ps[10] eq "lynx" || $ps[10] eq "irc") {
$x = $ps[1];
print("kill -9 $x\n");
system("kill -9 $x\n");
}
else {
print("Process not killed - not in list of killable commands\n");
}
# End (B)
}
}
+.# The Dreaded Disk Space Crunch
Even mighty Netcom, with Reiger-knows-how-many gigabytes of disk,
has run out of space on occasion. So it's not just you. (Bob
Reiger is the owner of Netcom).
Don't let that make you feel complacent, though. There's little you
can do to your users to make them more unhappy about you and your
system.
Bryant Durrell writes us as follows: "When you
enable FTP, you too will discover the joys of people downloading the
entire Linux distribution. Urk! Disk space is always going to be a
problem, whether for this reason or another. You'll need to keep an
eye on it, and decide what to do when it gets low. (Users will want
you to buy more disk space)."
I might add that you'd better check up on your i-nodes as well as
your overall disk space. Because I didn't, I've lost mail on my
system. Don't let that happen to you!
+.# DNS Blues
Domain Name Service (DNS) software runs invisibly on your
machine and normally gives little trouble once you have it set
up. It is recommended, however, that you ditch your vendor-provided
copy of BIND (the DNS software) and go with the latest versions,
which can be found somewhere on ftp.vix.com .
The InterNIC, however, is another story. Some people have received
excellent service from the NIC, while others report unanswered mail,
unreturned phone calls and unseely delays. In the last six months
or so, the InterNIC seems to have cleaned up its act pretty well.
Now most domain registrations get accepted within 24 hours, a tremendous
improvement over past NIC behaviour.
There have been significant discussions of adding new Top Level
Domains (TLDs), such as .bus, ,biz, .web, etc. An organization
called the AlterNIC (http://www.alternic.net) has been formed
to support additional TLDs. Unfortunately, this rather chaotic
effort isn't connected to the standard root name servers, so users
have to connect to the domains by either using special root
server tables, or by typing in the IP addresses manually. So
far, this service has met with big yawns from those who manage
such things, so I don't recommend you do business with them.
It has been widely rumoured that a new policy on additional
TLDs will be announced, and hopefully at that time there will
be room for competing registries.
+.# What would be a good backup policy
Off the top of my head (another section that needs to be fleshed out
with some real-world opinions), you should back up your system and
user files daily, probably with a seven-day rotating backup
procedure. I wouldn't be worried about news; lost news tends to be a
self-correcting problem.
Recommendations on backup equipment and procedures would be appreciated
here.
+.# What services are particulary hard on performance?
What should I do about them?
My thanks to Alicia Salomon for reminding me to
ask this question, and supplying part of the answer.
Most providers will start with a single computer performing all functions,
including mail, news, ftp, www serving and user processing.
Because news flows into the system constantly, and since its processing
can put a significant burden on the system's disks, this is normally
one of the first functions to be transferred to a separate machine. Since
the advent of INN, this is not nearly as much of a problem as it once
was, but this is still sound advice.
Tony Sanders notes that news is *very* hard on
your network link unless you have T1. It's about 25% of a 56K line.
Tony recommends PageSat, as shown elsewhere in the FAQ. PageSat,
however, has many dissatisfied customers. The most common reference
to PageSat is that service is poor, but the service definitely does
save bandwidth. Rain obscures the signal, so on rainy days or during
other unfavorable times, you'll still need to get news through the
Internet. The bottom line is that it's very worthwhile on a 56k,
because bandwidth is at a premium. You're not likely to need or want
it if you have a T1.
For an impartial view of PageSat, check out Nick's PageSat web page at
http://www.kfu.com/~nsayer/pagesat/ . This page was created by a
PageSat user and clearly explains the pros and cons of the package.
My thanks to annette@acm.org (Annette Thompson) for pointing this out.
An update on PageSat was provided by Kevin Kadow .
"While it used to be a good deal at $ 1,000 setup and $ 300/year for a
full feed, they only have a 9600 baud channel, so even with
compression it's been falling behind. Now the company wants to switch
to a 115kbps connection, forcing all the customers to buy a new $ 800+
receiver and probably a terminal server as well, since few PC or
workstation serial ports can keep up with a compressed 115k stream!"
Tragically, PageSat now appears to be out of business. I guess we
can call this one an excellent idea gone sour.
Other processes often put on dedicated machines include FTP, Gopher
and WWW. FTP in particular can put an enormous strain on system
disks, especially if users are allowed to place popular files in their
own directories. There was an enormous stink created on Netcom when
it was discovered that some users' FTP directories had X-rated
pictures in them, and that they constituted some 60% of the total
bytes downloaded from all of Netcom, causing vast overloads on Netcom's
machines. It might be a very good idea to devote a machine with a
large local disk to the user directories and transfer all the load off
the main system. Unfortunately, this doesn't help ease the strain on
your net connection.
Potential load from Gopher and WWW could be immense, particulary
if massive image files are involved. It would probably be a good
idea to use the FTP machine for user Web and Gopher pages as well.
Tony Sanders notes the following: "Well, the real point of load comes
from how popular the information is. The servers of the
Shoemaker-Levey comet photos got creamed as thousands and thousands
of people requested the pictures. The good news is that you can
charge some serious money to local business to put up information on
WWW. That alone could probably pay for a T1 line."
Multi-User Dungeons, or MUDs, are "virtual world" games that account
for a large percentage of the Internet's popularity. Karl Denninger
allows them on his system because he had a spare SPARC
10 sitting around with nothing better to do. If you are not so lucky,
MUDs could devour your system memory and effectively kill performance
totally. Here is another case where a dedicated machine would seem
almost a necessity.
Note that telnetting TO MUDs is a very easy thing to do; operating
one on your system is the complex and compute-intensive burden Karl's
taking about here.
--stopping point--
+.# What sort of hardware should I use for my news system?
This section is now laughably out of date. People who are serious
about news are now using 30 gigabyte or more RAID arrays. Yikes.
Karl Denninger gives a frightning vision: He uses a P90
with 64MB RAM and around 10 gigabytes of storage. Some people on the
Inet-Access mailing list now (August 1996) go further; many run whole
SUN SPARC 20s with multi-gigabyte RAID systems.
Most of us, of course, would like nothing more than to follow that
example; the only problem is that our checking accounts are
suspiciously bare.
Craig Warner notes that Clark net, an
Internet provider, uses a SS20 with 192MB of RAM and a massive amount
of disk.
Most of us don't have that kind of money, either.
The key to having a cut-rate news server is short expiration times.
Craig tells me a SS1 with 32MB RAM and 2-2GB drives would do fine, if
you expire your news in about 2-3 days and have a reasonable number of
readers. If you have about 5 or so readers (which would be
appropriate for up to 20 lines, most likely), you could get away with
that system and a 14 day expiration time (although you might need more
disk space than that).
Once you get more readers, you need a more powerful news machine.
The best idea by far, though, is to run news off your provider's machine
or someone else's. News saps a tremendous amount of your bandwidth,
and most newer net users are interested primarily in surfing the web.
So having your users individually read news from your upstream provider's
server would be a better way to get started - and you could be spared
an enormous administrative burden.
If your provider doesn't want to do this for you, there are at least
two companies that will provide this service:
alt.net : Contact Chris Caputo (ccaputo@alt.net) for information. (This
service has been closed to new users for some time).
texas.net: Contact barron@texas.net (Jonah Yokubaitis). $ 50/month,
$ 0.20/user.
dgs.dgsys.com: Justin Newton , (703) 749-2884.,
$ 50 flat rate for small ISPs.
inquo.net: Contact info@inquo.net. News hosting: $ 100/month + $ 1/user.
Full (10k+newsgroups) newsfeed or hosting on a *very* fast server with
a T1 line for high speed news access. A full newsfeed is also offered
for $ 70/month.
dbtech.net: Contact dbrass@dbtech.net. News hosting $ 40/month + $
0.20/user, $ 0.44/user for Clarinet. Carries alt, rec, talk and sci
groups minus "questionable" ones [in Alabama] including alt.binaries
and probably most of the sex stuff. This might be good for people who
are strongly anti-porn or believe the Exon stuff is the wave of the
future. Note, however, that no newsfeed service can guarantee
fully filtered content.
+.# What can be done about users who spam?
See my separate document,
http://amazing.freelink.net/internet/spam.html .
+.# What can be done about users who walk away from the keyboard?
Write or obtain an idle timeout program. Usually the archives for
your operating system will have something that will do. For Linux,
ftp to Sunsite.unc.edu and get /pub/Linux/system/Admin/idleout.tar.Z.
There is a certain degree of controversy over how long the idle timeout
should be. Netcom uses 10 minutes, which many people find too short.
MCS uses 20 minutes, which is probably about right.
I think it would be a good idea to vary the idle timeout depending on
the number of lines in use. During an extremely light load time, it
might be ok to make it as much as an hour. This can help users who
have to go to the bathroom or who got engaged in a long conversation,
and it doesn't much hurt the system. However, I have not yet
experimented with the idle timeout software.
Tony Sanders agrees with this idea, and suggests
that you might want to involve users in the process. Explain to them
why an idle timeout is necessary, and get their input. It is, after
all, trivial to defeat; just write a program that automatically sends
a space or two to hold the line. Another way to handle the idle
question is to disable the idle timer until nearly all the modem
lines are in use. Always remember to treat your users with courtesy.
"If you explain things to them the most of time they will go out of
their way to make things right."
+.# What can be done about users who never log out?
What about users who seem to be on the system 24 hours a day, 7 days
a week? This leads us to the controversial question of pricing.
Historically, Internet service providers have charged a fixed fee
per month, regardless of the amount of use made on the system. This
has almost always been the best model for customers; all but the
lightest users pay less than they would under the non-fixed schemes.
Unless they have unique offerings like the slick graphical interface
of NYC's Pipeline, new providers are not going to be able to come in
at higher fees than (say) Netcom or CRL. This pretty much eliminates
the idea of hourly fees for most.
Well, maybe. Draper Kauffman (draperk@io.com) notes that Netcom is in
his area at their normal rates. Despite having higher rates, his
system and other local competitors have not suffered; the reason, of
course, is Netcom's infamously terrible service. He suggests that
excellent service can still get $ 25/month or more.
Hourly fees are mandatory, of course, if you offer continental
US toll-free access. This can often be arranged at very competitive
hourly cost as compared to a toll call to your site.
Some services, particulary bulletin boards, undercut the typical
ISP monthly rate but restrict access to a certain amount of time
each day. The Pipeline offers a set number of "free" hours and
charges for any longer period of time spent online.
+.# What about people who stay on their SLIP account forever?
Unfortunately for those of us who want to provide unlimited accounts,
the growing popularity of SLIP/PPP makes it very difficult to stick to
our guns. SLIP/PPP accounts are unobtrusively there; the customer's
computer is part of the Internet, and the most natural thing in the
world for many users is to just dial in to the system and forget it;
use their computer normally and access the Internet when they feel
like it. SLIP email programs can be told to check for mail every five
minutes; that's way below what any sensible idle timeout would be, so
the effect is for the SLIP user to be on the system 24 hours a day, 7
days a week.
There are three basic approaches to dealing with this problem:
* Have a very long time limit on the account, usually around 150 hours
a month. This forces people to keep track of the time they spend on
the system.
* Have a policy that says that you monitor excessive usage, defined as
being online and not doing anything actively other than routine mail
checks. People who have used this policy report that most people who
are told that they need a dedicated (circa $ 100-175/month) account
will get one.
* Charge by the minute from the first second of use on. Most users
hate this idea.
+.# Monitoring Your System
If you're a single individual, how can you hope to deal with system
problems in an expeditious manner? Bryant Durrell
has an answer:
"Since you probably won't have someone monitoring 24 hours a day,
you'll need some sort of notification of urgent problems short of
users calling you in the middle of the night. One solution is a
beeper. If you have a spare modem and a beeper, it's possible to
write a simple syscheck script that beeps you whenever something goes
critically wrong."
+.# Trouble Ticket Systems (*)
This is an issue for providers that presently have employees, so
I will let someone answer this who is in a better financial condition
than me. :-)
+ Who needs and wants Internet Services? How can we reach them?
This is definitely an incomplete and imperfect section; additions are
especially appreciated here.
+.# Graduating College Students
Students graduating from college have already gotten addicted to the net
and will pay reasonable money to gain it through a commercial provider.
Reach them through advertisements in alt.internet.access.wanted and
similar newsgroups. Postings on free college bulletin boards are also
likely targets.
+.# Parents of College Students
Jason Goldberg <newleaf@attmail.com> has this fine suggestion. Mom
and Dad can keep in better touch with their children while they're
away by purchasing an Internet account. "CIS and AOL do a very
healthy business among people who just need e-mail access. Consider
offering an e-mail only account in order to beat the commercial
services on price." Jason suggests that you contact high schools
about running ads in graduation programs and yearbooks; emphasize the
cheap lifeline this offers between parents and children. "E-mail has
proven to be a very effective way for people to stay in touch who
would never call or write via US mail."
+.# Special Interest Groups
The Internet has many wonderful discussion groups on issues ranging
from sex to Unix. Jason Goldberg suggests contacting local groups,
from chess clubs to dog breeders, and showing them a pre-researched
set of resources that can be obtained on the net. For example,
chess enthusiasts would enjoy reading rec.games.chess and the ICS (an
Internet chess server that lets you battle real-time opponents from
around the globe).
+.# People with Internet access at work
There are many people who would like to use the Internet outside of
work. They will pay for an account that gives them privacy from their
employers, allowing them to participate in the "forbbidden" sections
of the net without fear of sanctions.
The internet access wanted newsgroups are probably the best ways to
find these people.
+.# Current callers to computer bulletin boards (BBSs)
Bulletin boards are getting hooked up to the Internet in massive numbers,
but the culture clash between them and people with "real" Internet access
is very strong. Most bulletin board systems don't offer newsreaders with
killfile or threading capabilities, and as a result the quality of access
tends to be very low. In addition, direct services like Gopher, FTP,
etc, tends to be either non-existant or available at substantial extra
cost. Although this situation is bound to change somewhat, my experience
is that BBS software vendors are remarkably clueless in this regard.
BBS callers are used to paying fairly minimal amounts of money for access,
but this seems to be changing; I know of several large systems that charge
around $ 15/month, which would get you a shell account from a number of
small providers.
The best way to compete with BBSs is to ask to be added to major BBS lists.
A good guest account or new user routine is a must; BBS callers are used
to getting a good taste of what they're getting before they have to pony
up the cash.
+.# The General Public
They are obviously intrigued, if you look at the sales figures of Internet
books and information. Certainly there has been a massive flood of Internet
stuff, such as the Time cover story, and that has no doubt piqued a
significant amount of interest.
However, it may be quite difficult to reach them. Flyers posted around
bookstores might be a good approach, since people who find Internet books
are undeniably interested in access. I'd love a few more ideas to add to
this section of the FAQ. :-)
+.# Some low-cost marketing ideas (*)
The cheapest way to market your services is via the World Wide Web
(WWW). With the commercial online services rapidly getting Web page
access, more of your potential customers than ever can see your
message. And, since people tend to seek out Internet providers in
their area, the WWW is an ideal marketing medium.
B J Herbison advises that you do the
following when designing a web site to promote your system. (I have
added some of my own comments to his remarks, so you can consider the
following jointly authored).
* Find (via Yahoo or B J's own list of ISP listings) all the ISP
listing pages you can. See
http://www.herbison.com/herbison/iap_meta_list.html .
* List the services you are willing to provide in clear, concise
language.
* Keep your entry up to date. Nothing's duller than a stale Web page.
* Review your competition's entries and make sure you measure up.
Don't forget any special services you provide that differentiate
yourself from your competitors.
* Make your own Web page. Don't make it dependant on Netscape; people
in need of an Internet provider will call you from AOL, Prodigy, or
even text only sites.
* Remember that the most important thing about an Internet provider to
your customers is whether it's local to you. You might be impressed
by MCS in Chicago, IL, but if you're in San Diego, CA, you're not
going to be able to use their service! Be sure it's easy for people
to know that you're local to them. B J suggests you check out
http://www.iii.net/iii-info/local-di.html for a clear presentation of
the cold, cruel phone company facts.
Draper Kauffman suggests that we contact our local public
television station and donate 10-odd subscriptions for auction during pledge
week. "They were auctioned off two per night for five nights, got a lot
of comment because of the novelty, and went for good prices (i.e. more than
we charge). They also generated 30 to 40 paid subscriptions and excellent
name recognition in a good demographiccross-section of markets, including
some groups we would normally have trouble reaching.
"On a guess, if you cound referrals from these new customers, we'll probably
get 60 to 100 paid subscribers for the cost of supporting 10 customers
for a year. Most important for a startup: there's no actual cash outlay!
Compare that to thecost of producing a 60-second TV spot and having it
aired 10 times during prime time."
He adds that this gambit may be effective exactly once, since his
competitors are also going to be doing it next year, and the novelty
value will be gone. But for the virtually zero cost, it's a
phenomenal return. I might add that public radio might do nearly as
well, and many markets have more than one public radio station. So
even if this has been done already by another provider, you may want
to see if there are stations or outlets they've forgotten.
Alicia Salomon recommends the Guerilla
Marketing series of books (Guerilla Marketing, Guerilla Marketing
Attack, Guerilla Marketing Weapons, etc), which include a number of
great marketing tips and tricks. Many of them apply only to
storefront businesses, but a healthy percentage of them will work just
fine for providers. I have read the books and wholeheartedly endorse
her recommendation.
Chris Hawkinson added two interesting ideas:
> Offer "a low level of free access" to local libraries and schools.
"The publicity and good will alone can make it worthwhile. Further,
since it isn't full access (let's say just to Gopher), users can
quickly get hooked. Lastly, you can use the libraries as an
'information provider' to add more value at the local level.
> Offer a reward for new users. Everyone who gets a new user to join
Chris' system gets $ 5 for each $ 55 (yearly) BBS account.
Jason Goldberg has the following excellent
suggestions:
* The Internet is one of the hottest things in the world right now,
but few know how to use it. Offer and package your expertise by
offering one-day Internet seminars to your local colleges, high
schools or adult education centres. You'll get a few customers,
and you'll also be paid as a teacher as well. Don't miss out on
this negative cost marketing opportunity!
* Produce an Internet newsletter. Write articles about the latest
trends in the net, and the latest hot sites and IRC channels. Include
information about your service and a special offer (introductory
rates, waived set-up fees, etc) to get people interested. This is,
incidentally, also an excellent way to retain customers who might
otherwise lose interest in the net; give them something interesting
to check out every month, and your renewals should soar!
* Produce an Internet column for your local newspaper, free weekly
or computer publication. This could have basically the same content
as your newsletter. Be sure to include your company name and phone
number in the author section. (Example: "David H Dennis is owner
and CEO of David's Amazing Internet Services; modem (818) 997-7500").
* Bundle your service, including free setup or a free month, with
the purchase of a new computer or modem from local computer stores,
or membership in local computer clubs. Present your service at a
local computer users' group meeting and raffle off a free year.
Here are some general suggestions, also from Jason:
Distinguish yourself from the competition; don't make the mistake of
focusing solely on price. The more value-added services you can
offer, such as an Internet newsletter or seminars, the more likely you
are to prosper in this hotly competitive world. Offer monthly
seminars, a newsletter, and/or value-added software. Include Internet
books, videos or software with membership. Make sure people
understand your unique advantages - T1 vs inferior competitors'
options, faster computers, more disk space, etc. Focus on
differentiating yourself, not on raw price!
Set specific goals for your service, and work towards them. "I
would like to add 50 new accounts a month." Is it easier (and
cheaper) to upgrade existing accounts to SLIP than to beat the
bushes for new customers? If you have a lot of former customers,
it might be very cost-effective to lure them back with a mailing
of a special offer. This is especially true if you can show how
you've improved during the time they've been gone. Offer special
deals for customers with accounts on other services - CIS, AOL,
Prodigy, Netcom, etc. Sell additional Internet products - books,
videos, software, other services. Rent or trade your mailing list
to local computer stores or other businesses. Consider a co-op
ad, where you team up with other local businesses to buy a large ad
instead of purchasing multiple small ones.
Encourage your customers to call or write mail when they have a
problem. The "silent majority" of customers don't complain - they
just move to another provider. Be sure you treat the people who
do send you mail with genuine concern, and they will award you
with loyalty, even if you don't manage to fix their problems.
(I [the FAQ maintainer] know this one from personal experience!)
Send them a holiday card, thanking them for their business. Give
them rewards for referring business your way - i.e. a $ 10 discount
on their next subscription per paying subscriber referred.
(Jason Goldberg is a sales and marketing
consultant specializing in interactive, entertainment and technology
businesses. Former Senior Director of Sales and Marketing for
Blockbuster Entertainment, and General Manager for an IBM/Blockbuster
Technology Joint Venture. He welcomes e-mail with your questions,
comments and success stories. He sells a 90-minute video on the
Internet for new users; contact him for details and pricing
information.).
+ Internet Marketing
A great deal of interest has started to appear about marketing via the
Internet and the World Wide Web (WWW). Ever since the first graphical
browser hit the streets, the public has been fascinated and the advertising
community intrigued.
"Internet Malls" have sprung up all over the country offering
merchants a low-cost way to display their wares to a massive audience
of people all over the world. Members of the Internet Marketing
mailing list have debated long and hard over this trend, mostly
bemoaning the opportunistic nature of many of these ventures. I've
visited a few low-rent Internet malls, and they remind me of a
moldering central business district of an insignificant city. A
curious stew of products, none particulary distinguished sounding,
sold at not particulary good prices. From what I understand, they
haven't done much business. Creating a mall similar to them would be
good for short-term profits, but don't count on your new 'tenants'
staying long.
Remember that people are on the Internet for information, preferably
interesting, detailed and timely information that changes rapidly. If
you want to do an Internet marketing site that people will keep coming
back to, here are a few suggestions gleaned from the Inet-Marketing
mailing list:
* Choose your prospects well. Sell your services to people who really
have information to contribute as well as a desire to buck up their
sales. The best prospects for Internet marketing are companies whose
customers are passionate about their products. A Harley-Davidson
motorcycle web site, for example, would work great, because people who
use them are very passionate about them and are always eager for more
information. A web site for Crest Toothpaste would probably be a flop,
because people don't want to devote much energy thinking about toothpaste.
Sure, they want good toothpaste, but it's not what they want to spend
time reading about.
| An excellent example of this is HotHotHot, a Pasadena hot sauce
| shop that substantially increased their sales through their Web
| Presence.
* Change the site often. Make sure people want to revisit it. Having
a 'magazine' with weekly or monthly issues is an excellent idea. But
remember, the more often your site changes, the more likely people
will remember it and come back. So a weekly change is strongly
recommended if it's possible. It might work to refresh parts of the
sites on a rolling weekly basis, as long as the last change date for each
section is made clear.
* People are unlikely to visit your site without a strong campaign in
other media. The best medium to advertise a Web site in is probably
USENET Newsgroups corresponding to its subject. However, it's not
generally a good idea to write messages doing nothing but advertising
the web site. People are most likely to come to the web site if you
are an active participant on the newsgroup, asking questions and
sharing your expertise with others. Just put your URL in your signature
line, and people will come. Like this:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
David H Dennis * Author, Inet-Access FAQ * http://www.amazing.com
Remember that this person isn't necessarily responsible for what he says.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Don't rely only on the World Wide Web. It's flashy, sure, but many
people have email-only access to the net. You should have an email
address for information and comments, as well as a "mailbot" that
automatically sends information to anyone who sends a message to a
dummy user on your system.
* Get on the major WWW indexes, such as Yahoo. Most of them will
either have a form you can fill in to add your listing, or a Webmaster
you can mail to asking to be added. To increase your chances of being
added, be sure to give some details on you, your organization and your
relationship to the subject matter.
To get on the Inet-Marketing list, send the message "sub
inet-marketing" to listproc@einet.net. For information, send the
message "info inet-marketing" to the same address.
+ Now that I have users, how should I deal with them?
NOTE: I AM NOT THE WORLD'S GREATEST EXPERT ON THESE ISSUES OR ANYTHING.
IF YOU WANT TO STAY OUT OF TROUBLE, BE SURE TO ASK A LAWYER ABOUT ANY
DISPUTABLE PROVISIONS HERE.
+.# How should I introduce my users to the unique Internet culture?
This is really a matter of USENET, electronic mail and mailing lists,
since most other resources are purely read-only. I had some long
conversations with a number of people heavily involved in net
administration, and they asked me to convey the following to new users
of the Internet:
* Tell them not to post for about two weeks to a month. It takes a while
to understand what's going on in the unique Internet culture. Absorb
what's going on before beginning to speak.
* Read Frequently Asked Questions files (FAQs) before asking for help.
There's a wealth of information there.
* Read the messages on news.announce.newusers. They give you a lot of
great information on how to pose questions properly and how to get
the most out of your access.
It should also be emphasized that, although the guidelines on mailing
lists are very much dependent on the list itself, generally users
should conduct themselves therein by following the same basic rules as
on USENET. Because mailing lists generally attract many fewer posters
than newsgroups, and since the software used to read them is usually
more primitive, "flaming" and other anti-social practices can cause
considerably more harm to a list than a newsgroup.
+.# What sort of disclaimers do I need to protect myself?
[legal matter - our legal advisor should answer this]
+.# How should I deal with Netiquitte violations?
There are as many different opinions on this issue as there are system
administrators. The general rule, however, is quite simple: a single
complaint can probably be safely ignored as a dispute between users
and not true wrongdoing on the part of your user. Multiple complaints
should be investigated, and proper warnings given. Only after a user
has received complaints about multiple incidents should his account
be in true danger.
As a general rule, your user is innocent until proven guilty. Many
obnoxious groups, such as the infamous alt.syntax.tactical crowd,
will complain to you about a perfectly innocuous user in an effort to
get her or him kicked off.
The law firm of Canter & Seigel was kind enough to tell us all about
their Immigration Law services a few months back. Many of us appreciated
their help so much that we wrote to thank them personally for the
information. :-) Unfortunately, so many people were so effusive in
their thanks that they filled up the entire mail disk of C&S' service
provider!
With the kind of blatant nastiness of C&S, there is really no excuse
not to drop them straight away. Indirect did basically all the right
things in their response to the C&S incident:
* Yanked the C&S account instantly.
* Posted messages to news.admin.misc and other appropriate groups telling
the world about their response. This helped stop the mail bombs and
other attempted punishments of Indirect.
* Set up a gopher server with fuller information about the incident.
(I welcome additional information on dealing with problem users and such)
+.# How should I deal with disputes between users?
Unless it looks like they are going to physical blows, you should
ignore most of these disputes. Dealing with physical threats is a
more serious matter. I have actually had that problem on a BBS I
operated, and my course was to ignore them. What I actually should
have done is open to debate, and I'd like to hear opinions from
others who have faced similar problems.
+ Wanton Women and Straightlaced Crusaders: Pornography on the Net
+.# Introduction: Where pornography and the Net collide.
On the television every night, people watch other people shooting at
yet other people and those people fall down and ooze blood and often
never get up again.
A couple making slow gentle love by candlelight is an x-rated movie,
condemned by all and sundry, and yet we see more and more people being
killed and wounded and hurt on the tv with little moral condemnation.
Our world is messed up, and Internet providers are affected, oh yes
we are. And it all begins with one disturbing fact: People get on
the Internet because they want to take a peek at the dirty pictures,
because they want to read about Tammy, the 14 year old horny teenage
slut, because they want to express their sexual fantasies and read
those of others.
So we start with a big gain: All those great Internet services, all
the access we make available to museums and research facilities, all
that great hobby information and social chatting and Kibology and
what-not is subsidized by the legions of people who do nothing more
enlightening or inspirational than downloading dirty pictures.
The same forces that make the Net useful for getting sexual materials
are the same ones that make people fear the net. Normally, you'll get
sex stuff by visiting your local porno shop, a place filled with high
prices and rather dubious looking people. You wouldn't want your best
friend to catch you there, would you? With
alt.binaries.pictures.erotica and similar groups, you can see those
same pictures in the comfort of your own home, without paying a
frightful lot of money, and without much chance of embarassment. In
this way, pornography is destigmatized in a way that dramatically
increases its consumption.
So people flock to their Internet provider because it provides the fun
stuff they want, in the most uncensored way. They're having their
fun, and we're taking their money, and you'd think it was just another
example of good ol' American ingenuity at work, eh?
Perhaps not. For one thing, the transmission of obscene material
across state lines is illegal in the US, and much of USENET and FTP
site material and WWW sites qualifies easily as that. There have been
some truly ugly cases. For example, a California BBS operator was
sentenced to jail for accepting a subscription for his adult BBS from
a Southern state, and thereby allowing the subscriber to download an
adult image judged illegal in that state.
The situation of alt.binaries.pictures.erotica and other USENET
newsgroups dealing with porn is rather different and very unusual.
The California BBS operator's system was dedicated exclusively to the
distribution of adult images. An Internet provider offers so much
material that the intent is much less clear. The provider can use
what is called the Common Carrier defence - meaning that he just
distributes stuff without looking at it, and so he is not responsible
for the material.
The common carrier defense is used by the phone company and post
office; they say that, since they don't listen in to your phone
conversations or read your mail, they cannot be responsible for any
material you send via phone or mail, even if they're making money off
it. (900 numbers are a primary example of this). This could be
logically extended to USENET news; nobody has enough time to monitor
every news article written or every e-mail message sent.
In the case of the net, though, there have been no court tests of this
argument. It might come to pass that we're not responsible , or it
might not. In the case of alt.binaries.pictures.erotica, after all,
we make a decision to carry it as part of our newsfeed, and we
certainly have a reasonable idea of what it contains. I certainly
know perfectly well that I am carrying this material on my system, and
that it is of an adult nature. I especially know that people sign on
to my system for the purpose of reading it!
Matthew B Landry was kind enough to dig up at
least one precedent that appears to be in our favour. I'm collecting
a bit more information on this, and I will issue a revised report soon.
Some people have considered all this and put forth the argument that
the safest course of action is not to carry the adult material at all.
Remove all alt.sex.*; remove all alt.binaries.pictures.*; read through
the active file and eliminate anything even vaguely resembling sex.
Others note that this violates the classic big company principle of
denying responsibility. If you remove alt.sex and its friends from
your feed, you are effectively accepting responsibility for what
remains; you are saying that you are not a common carrier who just
distributes everything received regardless of content. This could be
a very dangerous thing to do, because lawsuits will seek the easiest
targets, those systems for which this does not apply. So if you
remove alt.sex but don't remove news.answers, and if an obscene
message (such as the alt.sex FAQ!) appears on the latter, you might
get in trouble for it.
The worst thing to do is to remove the sex stuff and announce that you
have a "child proof" system. Inventive children are rather
frightfully good at finding ways around it, especially when USENET is
on their side, not yours. (There is a document called "The Reading
Banned Newsgroups FAQ", which explicitly lists the ways this can be
done).
Most people who run USENET sites are very much against censorship of
ANY material, whether adult or not. We aren't going to remove
alt.binaries.pictures.erotica unless we're forced to do so. It has to
be said that this is a fight about money, as well as principle; a
large number of our subscribers would quit if they didn't have the
binaries and the sex.stories to play around with. For once, principle
and making money stand together, on the same side.
The Christian Right, unfortunately, are rather unhappy at this state
of affairs. Certainly it's a very tough problem from their point of
view. They believe sexual material to be abnormal, perverted and just
plain wrong. Just as many of us believe in free speech as an
absolute, they believe in respect for God and his anti-porn will.
And, thanks to the Republican takeover of Congress (which I otherwise
support), they have a good chance of winning some kind of tough
penalties for the distribution of pornography on the Internet.
+.# S.314, Senator Exon's bill
There has been a lot of fear and loathing surrounding Senator Exon's
new bill, S.314. I was able to get a copy of the actual bill itself,
together with reviews of the bill from various sources.
A superficial look at the bill's contents might make one wonder what
the fuss is all about. The bill's actual content takes existing law
on telephone harassment as its base, strikes out the word "telephone"
and substitutes the words "telecommunications device". In short, it
seems to bring laws on telephone harassment into the
telecommunications era. If you are a woman, and I call you and
terrorize you with obnoxious sexual expressions, that's against the
law. If you are a woman, and I email you with similar expressions, it's
not presently against the law. Senator Exon's bill changes that so
that use of a computer is basically equivalent to use of a telephone.
He also increases the penalties for such violations substantially,
from $ 10k to $ 100k.
So far, this sounds pretty darn non-controversial. (Well, maybe the
new penalties are a shade over-the-top, depending on the exact nature
of the communication, but the goal of the bill is surely not
unreasonable).
The most important question is the definition of "obscene or harassing
communications". Does this refer to electronic mail, sent to a single
party without her or his consent, or does it refer to someone reading
messages on a random newsgroup? Certainly it would be quite easy to
think of the contents of some newsgroups as obscene; indeed, they were
meant to be that way. Does this group refer to them, or only to
communications directed towards a single individual? Certainly the
name of the bill, the "Communications Decency Act of 1995", does not
inspire confidence on the part of the civil libertarian; it seems to
imply that it's cleaning up a lot more than the online equivalent of
harassing phone calls.
Some people have felt that this bill requires the operator to take a
pro-active stance against harassment. This doesn't sound right to me.
The full text of the bill does not mention telephone companies or
on-line service providers even once; its provisions are aimed at those who
initiate the communications. So one of your users might become liable
under its provisions, but you as the service provider would not be.
Indeed, since the bill equates telephones and "telecommunications
devices" by subjecting them to the same laws, it might be a good
piece of evidence for the "common carrier" defense mentioned above.
I would suspect that the obligations of the service provider would be
similar to the obligations of the phone company in a similar matter;
you would have to identify the perpetrator by checking your records,
or cooperating with another site in doing so. This is something sites
already do on a volentary basis, so I doubt that it would mark much of
a change.
Walter Vose Jeffries points out that S.314 as
written does include transmission. "makes, transmits or otherwise
makes available any comment, request, suggestion, proposal, image or
other communication." He tells me that the bill has since been
reworded to exclude common carriers, thus changing some of the most
objectionable aspects of the bill. It wasn't clear from his remark,
however, whether ISPs and BBSs are considered common carriers and thus
outside the bill's reach.
However, a vital point is that the bill is completely silent on the
question of precisely what an online service provider's duties are in
this regard. In theory, they could extend to anything, as little as
nothing, and as much as putting together a whole bureaucracy to
monitor e-mail. Its job is merely to say that there are substantial
penalties to the originators of obscene messages; it says nothing
else, including whether it includes public messages as well as
private.
One of the major questions here is what would happen to the operators
of systems running anonymous remailers. They might be required to
disclose the identity of people who used their service in good faith
to broadcast controversial views. How can the rights of those people
be reconciled with those of the victims on the other end? This is
particulary interesting in view of the recent Church of Scientology
case, where they are trying to prevent anonymous remailers from
re-broadcasting CoS material.
S.314 is likely to be strongly opposed by the cable industry, since it
requires the re-working of set-top boxes to fully scramble the audio
(as well as the video) portions of pornographic material sent through
cable systems. This is certainly its most clearly understandable
provision.
If the bill is construed to apply to public as well as private
communications, it may face significant hurdles in the courts.
Traditionally, the courts have treated issues of nudity, indecency and
obscenity separately; this bill attempts to combine them in a way that
may fall foul of the First Amendment. The issues of Community
Standards, at the heart of US law on pornography, are definitely
thorny when applied to the Internet, which has global reach. What is
legal in Los Angeles, California is not legal in Fargo, North Dakota;
what standard can be used for a worldwide communications medium? At
present, there are no guidelines, only guesses.
This bill has some valid ideas; surely we can all agree that people
who harass others via email should be subject to the same penalties as
those who harass by telephone. However, its provisions on electronic
communications are murky to say the least. On the whole, it seems
like a bill well worth opposing despite its innocuous surface.
However, the industry might be able to support a bill that was less
vaguely worded.
To check out a copy of the bill itself, visit the URL
http://thomas.loc.gov/home/c104query.html and ask for bill S 314 by
number. This is a very nice search system and is an excellent way to
get copies of any legislation that might affect you.
For another analysis of the bill, check out
gopher://gopher.panix.com/vtw/exon . This analysis echoes most of the
my concerns, but has a somewhat more unfriendly view of the proposed
legislation. You can also obtain additional information by sending a
message to s314-info@cdt.org.
+.# Porn and you: The bottom line
I think you can tell that this is an amazingly controversial issue,
with opinions literally all over the map. Some people think your
safest course is to give everyone complete access to everything;
others think a good faith effort to prevent minors from accessing porn
is needed, and still others think porn is horribly immoral and should
be removed from the net entirely. I think most Internet providers
believe in their heart of hearts that "information should be free";
most of them would also rather not have their equipment seized by a
rapacious Federal government.
I suspect the bottom line is something like this:
- Someone's going to become a test case on this. Unless you're a big
system, worthy of an expensive lawsuit, it probably won't be you.
Once the test case has been fought and won (or lost), everyone will no
doubt change their system (or not change it) to conform to the
result.
- The safest and most probable course is probably to do whatever other
providers in your area are doing. In my experience, most of them
offer a full newsfeed, including the sexual stuff, and require
potential users to sign a paper saying they're of legal age or have
permission of their parent or guardian to sign on. If you do the
same, it's pretty unlikely you'll become a test case. There are
juicier targets.
- Watch out if you promote your service heavily as having these
pictures or stories. People who want them will ask or root around the
system until they find them. If you promote your system or make it
clear that the binaries groups are a major reason for its existance,
I'd anticipate a legal problems, on either the obscenity or the
copyright issue (see below for more on that). . As another example,
you probably want to make UUDECODE available in your libraries, and
make sure people know how to get to the FAQ, but it's not recommended
to do the decoding for the customer; that would give you a higher
level of responsibility for the images. (As long as you offer
UUDECODE and carry image groups other than the sexual ones, you can
say with reasonable legitimacy that this is a service to help people
decode all pictures, not just pornographic ones).
- Stories are safer than pictures; verbal representations of things
don't seem to scare off the morality police in the way pictures do.
There seems to be a legal presumption that favors printed text as
protected speech, even if the text is about things that would be
distinctly illegal if done and photographed. So kiddie porn stories
are OK (which is good, since alt.sex.stories is filled with them), but
kiddie porn photographs are most definitely NOT OK at all.
More information on this would be appreciated from the legal folks on
the list and elsewhere.
+.# Copyright Issues
If the issues above sounded too confusing to you, you're not going to
like this next section, either.
You may have wondered where the images on
alt.binaries.pictures.erotica come from. "Surely," you must have
thought, "there aren't too many teenage nymphomaniacs begging to show
off their hot bodies on the net for free, when they could pose for
Penthouse and make big bucks.""
Sadly, you are right. Most of the images showcased in the binaries
group are scanned from commercial adult publications, or uploaded from
adult CD ROMs, many of which are copyrighted.
As a result, virtually every post on alt.binaries.pictures.erotica is
a copyright violation.
Karl Denninger has mounted a holy crusade against these
images, mentioning the copyright issue as the basic reason. I don't
have any quotes from him handy, but his arguments have the hefty force
of a loaded bulldozer, or a COBRA Attack Helicopter. He says that,
thanks to various clear court decisions he cites, the alt.binaries.etc
images are clearly illegal and you're risking your site and your
financial viability as a human being by letting the images appear.
And, of course, the common carrier defence can hardly be valid, since
these groups are labelled in the "official" group description list as
"Gigabytes of copyright violations." It is your moral responsibility,
says Karl, to take these groups off your system - as he has himself.
Counter-arguments bring up the common carrier defence, as well as a
few other interesting facts.
(1) By removing alt.binaries.etc as copywrited material, you are
risking that people will see other copyright violations on your system
and be more inclined to think you took responsibility for them.
Copyright violations occur every day in news, with people posting
things such as Canter & Seigel articles in news.admin.misc.
(2) No copyright holder of sexually oriented materials has yet come
forward and attempted to enforce their rights to a USENET poster or
site. In one particulary fascinating example, a user of CRL posted a
scanned image from a Playboy video to the net. Despite his admission
of having done the dirty deed, and his willingness to act as a test
case, I don't believe he was ever prosecuted. Megabytes of discussion
were created, of course, but hey, that's USENET for you. T Kurt Bond
did drop me a line saying that TSR Games has
made such an effort. For more information, check out this URL:
http://www.amazing.com/internet/tsr-licensing.html . In addition,
there has been a concerted effort by some publishers to crack down on
people using copyrighted illustrations from the Winnie the Pooh books
in their Pooh-related homepages. In all cases, however, it would
appear that copyright holders are trying to strike a delicate balance
between protecting their works and antagonizing the creators of game
or Pooh-related resources; these people, after all, are usually the
company's most fanatical customers. For that reason, I suspect adult
materials are especially vunerable; if Playboy or some other adult
publication cracked down, the loyalty of many of their customers would
be substantially eroded. This doesn't seem like a risk Playboy wants
to take. Considering that most of the material posted is from back
issues whose marginal value is quite low, I can see why Playboy and
others would make a deliberate decision not to prosecute.
In theory, the First Amendment should support our right to read porn.
However, in the copyright issue, I don't think the law is on our side.
Practicality may be, however; as long as it is basically the
responsibility of individual posters to stay within copyright law,
it's unlikely it would be worth Playboy's time to go after them. In
the widely cited court cases involving Playboy and BBSs, the BBS had
an active role in the creation of the site, in particular doing the
actual scans of the images. However, if Playboy could somehow find an
Internet provider liable, they'd probably do it.
Summary: Although the alt.binaries.etc groups are blatant copyright
violations, it's quite unlikely that they'd choose your own site as a
test case. As a result, I think it's fairly safe from a legal point
of view to carry alt.binaries.pictures etc. The moral issue is rather
more interesting.
+.# Can minors be allowed to use unrestricted accounts?
With all the spicy stuff on TV, in movies and in books, all of which can
be easily accessed by minors, it rather surprises me that there's so much
fuss about a few pictures. But there is.
The answer appears to be, "Only if they have a note from their parents."
But I'd like to hear all views on this issue.
Note that this is not confined to picture files; newsgroups like
alt.sex and alt.sex.stories also contain questionable material. Even
such a tame sounding group as news.answers is a time bomb; eventually
that alt.sex.bondage FAQ is going to find its way in there.
+.# How can I prevent minors from seeing the sex stuff?
Software has been created that attempts to prevent minors from seeing
sexual material. With one exception - Bess, the Internet Retriever -
this software resides on your customer's PC and is supposedly
controlled by parents. The main problem with this software is that a
clever kid can disable it all too easily; instructions on how to do so
for popular blocking programs are freely available on the net.
The most important argument against this software is that it attempts
to codefy parental responsibilities, which are more a matter of
personal taste and judgement than impartial, solid and standard.
For example, Solid Oak Software's CyberSitter [
http://www.solidoak.com ] was heavily criticised in many circles for
blocking phrases such as "homosexual", "safe sex", and so on. Critics
said that this could prevent people who need it most from reading
information on safe sex that could potentially save their lives.
Solid Oak responds by saying that this information is about immoral
topics that should be suppressed. Unfortunately, this is the very
nature of the beast; this kind of software is going to be bought by
people wanting restrictive controls. But they should be warned that
many perfectly innocuous sites can be banned. For example, if they
find that Jennifer's home page on my server is not suitable for kids,
their recourse is to block the entire amazing.com domain, not just
Jennifer's page. Because of that, CyberSitter users wouldn't be able
to read this FAQ, which seems like a bit of a pity.
I would not advise users to buy this kind of software, because I think
the cure is worse than the disease. If you must get into this
particular business, I would look at CyberPatrol instead; they seem to
have the most reasonable policies towards site blocking.
In the case of your USENET news feed, you can certainly restrict a lot
of it, but I doubt that you'll get it all. In particular,
news.answers contains some sexual material. It would be possible to
put together an automated kill-file mechanism that would put any group
with the name 'sex' in its title, and hide messages with the name
'sex' in their subject lines.
My BBS-like software has an interface that gives another possible answer to
this question. With my system, you can effectively lock people in to a
specific list of newsgroups selected by the operator. Since there's no
shell account, there's no way to fool with the active file or read the
groups from the news spool.
A normal newsreader has so many security holes that it's not going to
prevent the determined 13-year old from getting the access s/he wants.
I am very much afraid that protecting minors from sexual material on
the net is just as hard as protecting them from sexual material in
real life. That is to say, impossible. Even with my BBS-like
software, they could still telnet to a site that has those groups. It
is a great pity this opens up so many potential legal problems.
+ Legal Issues
THIS SECTION WAS NOT CREATED BY A LAWYER, AND THEREFORE DOES NOT CONTAIN
LEGAL ADVICE. YOU SHOULD CHECK WITH YOUR LAWYER BEFORE PROCEEDING.
INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS SECTION IS BASED ON MY REASONABLE KNOWLEDGE
AND BELIEF BUT IS NOT INTENDED TO BE COMPLETE.
That said, here are some of the legal issues currently facing providers:
COPYRIGHT: Many newsgroups contain blatant violations of copyright
law. The most prominent among these are the
alt.binaries.pictures.erotica* groups, which often include scans from
Playboy magazine and other copyrighted material. Karl Denninger
(Karl@MCS.COM) avoids potential liability by not carrying these groups
at all, and strongly urges other providers to do the same. Others
note that there are frequent equally blatant copyright violations on a
large percentage of groups, including the full text of newspaper and
magazine articles often typed into news.admin.misc. A CRL user
proposed to create a test case of this by bragging about his post of a
specific copyright violation to alt.binaries.pictures.erotica,
including his PGP signature for verification. As far as I know, no
action has been taken against him for this. Certainly, there has
been no recorded incident of any action taken against Internet providers
or their users for copyright violations against Playboy or anyone else.
Playboy did win a case against a bulletin board operator who scanned in
images from Playboy and sold them via subscription.
SLANDER, LIBEL ET AL: Someone more knowledgeable than I will have to
write this section.
THE COMMON CARRIER ISSUE: This one likewise.
+ Books and other Resources
Linux Documentation Project (LDP). These are a series of on-line
books which can be obtained via FTP and printed. An excellent
argument for getting a PostScript printer, since that's the
only format that really works well. You can also buy copies
of these books and other Linux information as the Linux Bible,
which is carried by some bookstores.
ORA (O'Reilly & Associates). A publishing company that puts out
a number of helpful books on network administration. They are
clear and well written, with plenty of clear illustrations and
helpful explanations. Unfortunately, since versions of Unix
differ a great deal, they may not be completely accurate for
your system. They are one excellent argument for using Sun
workstations or BSDI Unix, since their examples should conform
to thoe systems with almost complete precision.
USENET FAQs and newsgroups. This is probably the best source
of information on administrating a Unix or Linux site -
especially if you're using Linux. The traffic on the
Linux newsgroups has to be experienced to be believed, and
most Linuxers are eager to help. I'm not sure how good th
net support is for Sun or BSDI; I know BSDI's technical
support is known to be excellent.
+ Glossary of Common Terms and Acronyms
Note: The idea for a glossary was suggested by Tony Sanders
. At present, it's woefully incomplete and
additions will be warmly appreciated.
+.# Glossary of Internet Service Terms
These are words, phrases and acronyms dealing with Internet Services
issues. There is a second glossary below for words dealing with
Internetworking wholesale issues such as CIDR blocks and what-not.
Bandwidth. (1) The maximum amount of information that can be
transmitted at any given time. A 56k leased line connection, for
example, has 56k of bandwidth. (2) An abstract unit of measure
of the load something puts on an Internet connection. "Multimedia
through the Internet uses too much bandwidth for a 56k connection."
Often used in Usenet to refer to stupid questions or wasteful flames,
i.e. "this is all a waste of bandwidth".
Client. A program that is run by users on their machine. It issues
requests to a server, which is generally located on another system.
For example, here's how a Gopher conversation might work:
#html
| Client Program | Server Program | Connection Active
|
Send me your menu
|
Here it is (sends menu)
|
| |
|
Receives menu from server
|
|
|
|
|
Displays the menu on the screen
|
|
Lets client choose an option
|
|
Client chooses option
|
|
Client finds out what machine
to connect to and asks server on
that machine for the data
|
|
| |
|
Client receives data |
Server sends data |
| |
|
Client displays data to user
|
##
As you can see from this rough sketch, this off-loads a great deal of
stuff from the server program, so that it can process client requests
more efficiently. This also makes the system appear very fast, since
requests to page through the document can be handled by the client
and run as fast as the client can. This is dramatically different
from connecting to the remote system and retrieving the file from the
remote system screen by screen; depending on the remote system's
response time, this could appear many times slower than the
client/server approach.
For example, the FTP client takes the user commands to transfer
files and passes them to th FTP server. The server then sends the
file to the client, which then passes it on to the user as
appropriate.
Note that in the case of Gopher and WWW, the actual connections are
very brief. In the example above, the connection is only active
when there is a "|" in the "Connection Active" column. This makes
use of the server much more efficient then under protocols such as
Telnet, where a connection is established for the length of the
session.
CSLIP (Compressed SLIP). SLIP with compression for a more efficient
connection. See SLIP.
ECPA (Electronic Communications Privacy Act). A law passed a few
years back that says that all electronic mail cannot be read by the
people running the system. Its main concrete achievement seems to
have been the placing of a notice on all BBSs saying that there is no
private mail function on their systems, despite the continued
existance of same on the menu.
Flame. An insulting message, normally with little real content.
A Flame War is a seemingly endless exchange of such messages.
FTP. File Transfer Protocol. This refers to a protocol describing
the way files can be transferred over a TCP/IP network, such as
the Internet. The program used to implement this protocol is also
called FTP. Normally, a FTP program is included with your basic
networking software, and little needs to be done to make it work
on your system. However, if you want to offer anonymous FTP,
which lets users on the Internet obtain files from your system,
you are urged to consult a book on such as the O'Reilly TCP book.
GOPHER. A relatively simple-minded menu interface to the net,
Gopher presents a list of menu options. Each option can refer
to a resource in a different location on the Internet. Due to its
rather dull look and feel, Gopher has been virtually replaced;
you almost never see it anymore. Check out the World Wide
Web (WWW) for its replacement.
HTML. (HyperText Markup Language). This is the scheme used to
design World Wide Web pages. Raw HTML is strikingly similar to
the text formatters of old, while lamentably incompatible with
any text formatter language I know of. Fortunately, there are
numerous tools that can help you write HTML with reasonable
efficiency; check out WWW page [[ www page where this stuff
is ]] To do well as an Internet provider, you'll probably need
to learn how to deal with HTML, since you'll almost certainly
want to design your own WWW page to promote your system.
HTTP. (HyperText Transfer Protocol). This is the protocol
used for information transmitted over the World Wide Web (WWW).
InterNIC. The government-funded service, run by a company called
Network Solutions, that parcels out IP addresses and domain names.
Complaints about slow service have been heard quite loudly in recent
months.
IRC (Internet Relay Chat). This is a direct interactive way
for people to hold conversations using the computer. The level of
conversation tends to be pretty low, and rather on the dull side, but
many users love it. See the IRC section, earlier in this FAQ.
Java. This is a programming language created by Sun. It was originally
designed for the development of proprietary information appliances, but
with that idea looking less and less plausible by the day, the development
team discovered its potential for the WWW. So far, few really compelling
Java applications have been created; however, the technology looks truly
fascinating. Check out http://java.sun.com for details.
LYNX. A non-graphical WWW client suitable for shell or BBS
account users. See WWW (World Wide Web).
Microsoft Internet Explorer. MSIE is the new kid on the block. To be
honest, if Microsoft didn't do it, I would say it's a promising challenge to
Netscape. As it is, I really don't want MS to be taking over the Internet
like they've taken over other aspects of our lives :-(. Use Netscape. 2.0
blows MSIE away.
MOSAIC. A World Wide Web graphical client program, usable only
under SLIP connections. See Netscape and WWW.
MUD or Multi-User Domain or Multi-user Dungeon. These are
'virtual worlds' created by your fellow users. They resemble the old
text adventures, such as Zork, but they are populated by people who
telnet into them. People who use them swear by them; people who
attempt to casually use them are either hopelessly bewildered or
sucked into an all-consuming vortex. See the section on Muds elsewhere
in the FAQ.
Netscape. The One True Web Browser, this program has a virtual
monopoly on the web browser market. The story is well-known: Marc
Andressen, stuck at a dead-end $ 8 an hour job coding Mosaic, decided
he could do better, got some venture funding, and became the technical
God behind Netscape. Marc knows what he's doing; Netscape is the
easiest and slickest graphical interface platform I've ever seen.
Now, Marc is a wealthy guy; I think he makes something like $ 8 a
second nowadays. Some people have said that Netscape's proprietary
extensions to HTML are the kiss of death for the language; most people
just check out the extensions, mutter an occasional, "Hey, cool!" and
use them. After all, anyone can download Netscape, and few people
who have switch to any other browser. Netscape's a great product,
it works exceptionally well, and what bugs there are rarely matter.
An excellent challenge to Microsoft's hegemony over life itself.
News, aka NetNews, USENET News, Internet News, etc. This is a
messaging system that is one of the most famous and popular parts
of the net. See the detailed FAQ section on news for details.
PPP. Point-to-Point Protocol. A newer and supposedly better way to
connect your site to the Internet via a single serial line. Windows95
has greatly expanded its popularity, since it supports PPP instead of
the older SLIP. See SLIP.
RFC. Request for Comment. This is an informal system for proposing
Internet standards. The technical people who work on the Internet
upload RFCs to the NIC, where they are given a number and published.
Many of them are later adopted as Internet standards.
Search Engine. As the World Wide Web has grown bigger and bigger,
programs have been created that wander the web, looking for resources
of interest. They then put them in enormous keyword dictionaries and
let you search for what you'd like to find. The best search engines are
Digital's Altavista [ http://altavista.digital.com ], Lycox [ http://www.lycos.com/ ]
and Webcrawler [ http://www.webcrawler.com/ ]. In practice, Webcrawler
is best if you're searching for something fairly general; if you're looking for
an obscure or difficult topic, Lycos and Altavista are both excellent. See
also Yahoo, which is really a directory, not a search engine.
Server. A program running on a remote system that provides
information to a client. See Client for a detailed explanation.
SLIP. Serial In-Line Protocol. This is one of several ways to
attach a computer to the Internet via a simple (and cheap) modem
connection. See the earlier discussion on connecting your system to
the Internet for additional information.
TCP/IP. Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. The
protocol used to send information through the Internet
TELNET. Telnet is a program that lets you remotely log in to
any other system on the Internet (assuming you have access). In
the olden days, university systems used to give guest accounts
on their mainfame computers so members of the public who could
afford a modem and computr could take a peek. Unfortunately,
due to the higher level of obnoxiousness of current Internet
denizens, this has become far less common. People can, however,
use Telnet to connect to various bulletin boards, MUDs and special
interest systems hooked up to the Internet.
Trumpet Winsock. A truly ghastly program, it's also one of the few
ways to get graphical SLIP/PPP connections to work under Microsoft
Windows. The user interface, however, leaves something to be desired.
Something? I should say, "Everything." Ugh. But it does apparently
work better than its competitors, if you can ever get it set up right.
Windows95. If you've been living in a cave for the last year, you
might not know that Windows95 is Microsoft's long-awaited successor to
the painfully horrid Windows 3.1. Windows95 is not the be all and
end-all of operating systems; Macintosh users should stick with their
Macs, and Unix users are going to laugh out loud behind their 21"
monitors. However, it's a lot better than Windows 3.1, and setting up
an Internet connection is far easier than under Trumpet Winsock (which
see). If you need to give people assistance in configuring a Windows95
system, the advice from http://www.windows95.com/ is invaluable.
WWW (World Wide Web). This is probably the best Internet browsing
system - certainly the most fun one to use. It's not as simple to
use as Gopher, but it provides many more interesting options,
including integrated graphics if you use the Mosaic browser. See
the detailed section on the Web earlier in this document.
Yahoo is a comprehensive directory of WWW resources. It's different
from the search engines in that you submit a listing to them and a human
being checks it out and categorizes it for you. Because of this, a search thorugh
Yahoo will almost always find resources relevent to your topic of interest;
however, it's less all-encompassing than the automated search engines (which
see).
+.# Glossary of Internetworking (Wholesaler) Terms
You will see these terms a lot, but for the most part you won't need
to deal with the actual concepts behind them.
IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT THIS SECTION: This is one of the most horribly
confusing things about being an Internet provider. Unless you're
wildly successful, you'll never have to deal with any of this stuff.
This section is not necessarily accurate; I recieved some
contradictory answers to my questions and had to rely on gut instinct
to figure out what was what. Corrections and amplifications are
warmly encouraged.
ASN. Autonomous system number, used in BGP4 routing. If you're just
starting out with a single connection through a single provider, your
provider will take care of all your routing for you. Once you decide
to get multiple redundant connections (i.e. a T1 through Net-99 and
another T1 through ISI Network Associates), your system will have to
decide which provider you want to route through. This is done via
the BGP4 protocol. What this means in practice is that you need to
get a lot of memory on your router, and you'll really have to
understand how routing works.
The ASN itself is a unique identifier for your network, which can be
used to direct requests thereto. Once the requests are in your
network, your own network software takes over and delivers the
request to the proper machine.
ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) is one of the most confusing
concepts presently on the net. I've sifted through about a dozen
conflicting explanations in an effort to get the truth to you, our
loyal readers.
So first, relax: If you don't understand it, you're not alone. Many
actual experts don't understand it.
ATM is a datalink-level protocol. This means that it's a way that
multiple switches can communicate with each other, regardless of the
actual data being transmitted. Think of a regular IP packet as a
letter within an envelope. ATM is a process where that letter gets
put in a bigger envelope, more stuff gets scribbled on the side of
it, and it goes its merry way to the end. Once it's at the end, the
original IP packet is removed from the envelope and sent to the IP
host on the other end. So the hosts think everything's being done in
IP, even though it isn't.
Why would one do such a silly-sounding thing? Because IP itself is
not well suited to applications like full-motion video, which need a
steady stream of small packets and reserved bandwidth in which to run
them steadily. ATM will work very well with full motion video, and
it encapsulates IP (a fancy term for putting it in the bigger
envelope), so it can push around IP packets without knowing what they
really are. According to Ehud Gavron , "It's
greatest strength is supposed to be its use of fixed-size cells (48
bytes). Fixed sized cells are easier to fast-switch than variable
length packets due to inherent efficiencies in DMA buffer transfers.
However, the less than ideal size was achieved by mixing the European
recommendation for voice usage (32 bytes) with the US recommendation
for digital data (64 bytes). As it is, 48 bytes carries a
non-compressed IP header, TCP header and up to 8 bytes of data.
Extra processing work is done to squeeze more data in."
As you might guess, ATM is really suited only to extremely high speed
links - 45MBPS or greater. In fact, many ATM systems are planned for
connections more than three times this speed!
CIDR () Block. In the old days, where men were men, women were
women, and the Internet was just a little baby, you would go to an
organization called the InterNIC to get your IP addresses. The
InterNIC would look in its collection, dig up an address, and send it
back to you.
There were two problems with this approach as the Internet got
bigger. First, each address did not carry any indication of its
location with it, which meant that each Internet provider and major
gateway had to have an entry in its routers for it. Second, as the
Internet got bigger and bigger, issuance of addresses from the
InterNIC got slower and slower.
Thus, the CIDR Block, a group of consecutive IP Numbers handed over
to a single provider. Let's say you used Net-99 as your provider.
Net-99 has a CIDR block obtained from the InterNIC. They issue you
an IP number from the block immediately, so there's no delay to get
your number from the InterNIC. When someone wants to get your
address, it looks up it in its master list, containing CIDR blocks,
and finds that you're a part of Net-99's. It then knows to speed the
packets to Net-99 without any further processing. Net-99 then
handles delivery of the packets to you.
If we didn't have CIDR blocks, the first site would have to look up
your full IP number in the list, which would require a large list
containing every IP number on the planet. Because Net-99 does the
final resolution of the address, that would be needless lookups and
thus slower network operation.
What would happen if I changed my provider from Net-99 to ISI Network
Associates? ISI has another CIDR block, so the easiest step from
their point of view is to give you a different IP number within their
CIDR block. This might create considerable confusion as you were
switching providers, because some people would know you as a Net-99
client and route you to the wrong place. Eventually, the information
would filter through all the net's name servers, and all would be
well.
What if you wanted to keep your original IP number? There are ways
to bypass the CIDR block system in that particular case, although the
providers on both sides would rather you not use them.
In all these cases, your site itself doesn't need to know anything
about routing, other than how to get from your system to your
provider. Let's say you grew to a large size and could afford
multiple T1 connections to the Internet. Say you got an ISI
connection and a Net-99 connection, thus giving you two redundant
paths to the Internet. This is called a "Multi-Homed" connection,
and requires that you get an IP number from the InterNIC, since you
are not in the CIDR block of any single provider. [I'm not positive
of that last statement; elaborations would be helpful]. A
multi-homed connection requires that you run BGP4 (see its separate
entry), which lets you manage all routing yourself. Running BGP4 on
a multi-homed connection requires a router on the level of a CISCO
4000-series or better, so it's not for the faint of heart or light of
wallet. But then again, neither is getting multiple T1 connections.
IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force). They are responsible for
Internet standard creating and engineering/design issues. For
example, they are working on IPng (Internet Protocol/Next Generation).
Not part of the Internet Society.
ISOC (The Internet Society). According to Ehud Gavron
, "The Internet Society is a private for-profit
organization which has nothing to do with the running of the
Internet. You might consider it as one big Internet glee club or fan
club. Its actions are purely advisory and it is merely coincidental
that any of its members are also members of the IETF and other
organizations that really do promulgate Internet standards." Their
WWW server lists a lot of papers and symposia they're responsible
for. See http://www.isoc.org for more information.
MAE-East. An interchange point for network providers where they can
peer together, run by Metropolitan Fiber Systems (MFS) in Washington,
DC. Highly successful; pretty much everyone seems to be on it. It's
located on the East Coast, creating the odd West Coast phenomenon of
packets that start in Los Angeles, head off across the country to
MAE-East and the cross the country again to land in the Bay Area.
Some people consider this revenge on the CIX router in the West
coast, where traffic from the East coast would whiz over to the CIX
router, go through it, and then go back East to its destination.
Absurdities like these are amazingly common in routing.
MAE-East+ is coming; hopefully it will ease congestion problems
currently affecting the present MAE-East. MAE-West+ is also on its
way. If the NAPs ever amount to anything, their ultra-high speed
connections may eventually eclipse MAE-East.
Multi-Homed Connection. This means you use more than one wholesaler
for your Internet connections. The good news is that you get greater
reliability this way, since you can route through your second provider
if the first fails. The bad news is that you open up a big can of
worms in dealing with things like CIDR blocks and BGP4 routing. For
more information on this, see the CIDR Block section, above.
Multiple Interconnection Points. National providers such as Sprint,
MCI and Net-99 are encouraged by the NSF to have multiple
interconnection points across the country and around the world. This
lets them provide more reliable service; if one of the points goes
down, packets are re-routed through the other available paths. This
way, the Internet can continue to operate, even if there was (say) a
nuclear attack on Washington, DC.
NAP. Interchange points for network providers set up by the
government to replace the NSF backbone. According to Steven N
Goldstein , "NSF set them up to ensure that the
network service providers (NSPs) that provide national transit for
the NSF regionals would be multiply interconnected. That much was
required or NSF [decreasing] subsidy to the Regionals ... In
addition, the NAPs were intended to be open to other service
providers, *at their option*, or interconnection. There are plenty
of other interconnect alternatives for those who are adverse to
NAPs."
Well, that was the intent, anyway. According to Ehud Gavron
, "The NAPs are better than MAE-East because they
interconnect using the vBNS (very high speed backbone network
service) at OC-3 rates (156GBPS over SONET). The NAPs are worse than
MAE-East because they aren't up, the interconnections aren't up,
there is no vBNS and it's not running yet."
NACR. Network Address Change Request. A Network Add or Change
request form, used by ISPs to request MERIT to update its Policy
Routing Database (PRDB). NCARs have to be acknowledged by the ASs
listd as routing from the backbone to the home AS hosting the
network.
SWAB. Another interconnect, this one between AlterNet and PSI.
+ Resources
+.# Internet Mailing Lists
inet-access@earth.com (Email inet-access-request@earth.com)
This mailing list is a way to exchange tips, information and questions
with other ISPs. This FAQ was compiled with assistance from inet-access
members.
small-providers@netheaven.com (Email small-providers-request@netheaven.com)
This list is a low-volume list that's meant to fulfull basically the
same function as inet-access.
linuxisp@lightning.com (Email linuxisp-request@lightning.com)
This list is for people using Linux as the basis for their Internet
provider.
freebsd-isp@irbs.com (majordomo@irbs.com)
This list is for people using FreeBSD as the basis for their Internet provider.
com-priv@psi.com (Email com-priv-request@psi.com)
The name's supposed to stand for Commercialization and Privatization
of the Internet, but it's really the battle of the titans. Watch in
awe as the CIX self-destructs and hear paranoid (but often accurate!)
speculations about what the telephone companies will do next. "Just
because you're paranoid doesn't really mean they're not out to get
you." Monitor the paranoid world by subscribing to com-priv. Or
don't, and get a good night's sleep.
WARNING: This is an extremely high volume list. I have been told
it's virtually impossible to get off of once you're added.
[Walter Vose Jeffries was kind enough to provide
a correction of my quote and an attribution. "Quote from Henry
Kissinger: 'Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean everyone's not out
to get me.' (I think that is the original source of this in case you
want to attribute it)."]
+.# Internet Newsgroups
alt.bbs.internet Newsgroup
This newsgroup occasionally contains discussion of similar issues
to com-priv and inet-access, but it's mostly people advertising
their Internet sites or looking for same. This is a good way
to advertise and/or scope out the competition.
alt.internet.access.wanted Newsgroup
Pleas for Internet access. Once your provider is set up, you should
monitor this group to find people who might be interested in its
services.
alt.internet.services Newsgroup
Still more pleas for access and advertisements of access providers.
alt.culture.internet Newsgroup
Assorted discussions of Internet related issues. Alas, not as interesting
as it sounds.
alt.internet.media-coverage Newsgroup
Interesting discussions of media coverage of the Internet. Low-
traffic.
alt.internet.talk-radio Newsgroup
Internet talk radio and sound bytes.
+.# USENET Oriented News Groups
news.admin.*
alt.current-events.net-abuse
These newsgroups contain information about the current flood of
"spamming", e-mail abuse and other topics relating to net
administration.
news.answers
This is a repository for all FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) lists.
A fascinating place to browse; be sure to make it easy for your
users to access it.
news.announce.newusers
This contains information all new users should read, especially if
you haven't produced your own versions of it personalized for your
system.
+.# FTP and World Wide Web Sites
Inet-Access Mailing List FTP Site
FTP to: earth.com:pub/archive/inet-access
This is the official home of the latest Inet-Access FAQ - this
document. It also contains archives of the inet-access mailing
list.
WWW Service Providers List
URL: ftp://ftp.einet.net/pub/INET-MARKETING/www-svc-providers
This document contains a list of known WWW service providers, and is
an excellent way to scope out the competition. It was compiled by
Mary Morris
+.# Books
The O'Reilly and Associates "Zoo" - the books with the funny animal
engravings on the covers - are universally popular, and with good
reason. Some of the information, however, is specific to Unix
environments the authors are familiar with. "System Performance
Tuning", for example, goes into detail about BSD and System V
performance measuring utilities, but little seems applicable towards
Linux.
Expecially recommended among the "Zoo" is the book 'Sendmail' by Brian
Costales et al. Although the Unix-Haters Handbook gulps at its size
and its incredible level of detail (it explains concepts anyone
running a Unix system should already be familiar with), it's
definitely a first-rate introduction to an otherwise confusing beast.
The Unix-Haters' Handbook, by Simson Garfinkel, Daniel Weise and
Steven Strassman, is excellent comic relief for any Unix system
administrator. It tells us very clearly why we should have all
bought LISP machines. Or VMS. Or ITS. Or TOPS-20. Only one caveat:
Before taking their idea (that "Unix must die") seriously, realize
that a similar listing of botched design decisions could have been
written for any operating system currently in existance. Don't start
me on DOS, Windows or Windows NT!
For Linuxers, the books produced by the Linux Documentation Project
are first-rate. Fortunately, O'Reilly is apparently going to publish
some of them, hopefully giving them a wider distribution. You
should definitely look for the Linux Network Administration Guide,
which was far more helpful than any other book I've seen in teaching
me how to set up my two-station network (Sun 3/60 to Linux PC) and,
later, my SLIP connection. If you're cheap and have a fast PostScript
printer, they are also available for anonymous FTP from sunsite.unc.edu.
Check out the directory (if I recall correctly) pub/Linux/docs/ldp.
I don't recommend trying to read the documents in TROFF or TeX format,
a true exercise for the machochist!
+ Conclusion
We're in an exciting world here, the emerging world of global
communications some call "Cyberspace". Those of us who work to shape
this world in our own image are called Internet Service Providers.
It's an awesome responsibility. Let's try to make it work.
I hope you have found the information in this FAQ to be helpful and
of interest. However, to make this document truly useful, I need
your contributions, which will be credited as requested.
David Dennis
david@amazing.com
APPENDIX A: Simulating a Router
Kevin Smith was kind enough to forward a message
he saw on USENET about using BSDI as a router. I hope this will help
those who have this problem in the future.
This information is reprinted through kind permission of the author,
Michael Galassi . I dropped him a follow-up line
asking permission to reprint, and asking for a price for the
RISCom/N1. He tells me it's "under $ 500 but I don't remember how
much." You can contact SDL Communications at (508) 238-4490 for more
information and current pricing.
Tony Sanders offers the following as an update:
"These days you will probably be getting a RISCom/N2 card from SDL, they
come in single- and dual-port versions (very nice for setting up a hub).
You'll need a driver from BSDI for it as it has a different interface
from the N1 card (just ask support@bsdi.com for the N2 driver).
Everything else is pretty much the same."
This is the last item in the FAQ due to its incredible length (over
400 lines). If you are not interested in this specific subject, you
can stop reading now.
From: nerd@percy.rain.com (Michael Galassi)
Newsgroups: info.bsdi.users
Subject: RISCom/N1 summary of experience
Date: 18 Jul 94 22:13:34 GMT
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Lines: 404
Approved: Usenet@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu
Message-ID:
Reply-To: nerd@percy.rain.com
NNTP-Posting-Host: ux1.cso.uiuc.edu
Originator: daemon@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu
Hi,
A week or so ago I requested tips & experience of the list to help me
in an impending conversion from a MorningStar Express to a BSDI box
containing a RISCom/N1. I've received several requests for this info
and two people have provided me with some help. Additionaly, when I
ran into hardware problems the people at BSDI were as usual quick to
respond, very competent, and nice to deal with (they didn't even sneer
at me for not recognizing my hardware problem for what it was). Great
bunch.
The end result is quite nice, performance is great, the interface to the
router is what I'm used to in my normal syadmin chores rather than some
vendor's idea of what is best, and the machine is truly flexible, I
want more ports I go to any PC store, buy the board, build the kernel
and I'm off and running.
For starters, the responses I received pointed me at a document available
on world.std.com (now ftp.std.com?), I failed to locate the doc there but
both people were kind enough to provide me with a copy of this document.
I've attached a copy of it at the end of this message.
First off, the pitfalls I ran into.
o My motherboard (noname vlb 486/33) which appeared to work nicely in
an enviroment including 3 ethernets and a DigiBoard routing SLIP did
not work well with the RISCom/N1, the symptoms were that within no
more than an hour of starting the rn0 interface would lock up, all
else seemed OK.
o The weather out there was nice and I would have rather have been on
my motorcycle.
o getting the IRQs, I/O addresses, and memory mappings right for
all the boards was hellish.
The solutions involved replacing the motherboard, buying a new bike
the next day as a consolation prize, and taking very carefull notes
*ON A MACHINE THAT DOES NOT RELY ON THE ROUTER*.
The basic steps involved:
Create a config file rn0 defined. CAREFULLY pick IRQs, memory & I/O
locations that don't clash and update your config file. At this point
you need to know if your IP provider supports CISCO's HDLC or PPP,
the later is more likely. Add a line that reads "options CISCO_HDLC"
or "options PPP" as needed. Build your new kernel and install it. At
this stage DON"T change any files in /etc such as netstart, rc.local,
hosts, or DNS configuration, you'll get that later.
Configure the switches on your N1 to match what you've set in the kernel
Shut down your machine and put the N1 in it.
Boot up ms-dog and run the diagnostics for the N1, the program is called
n1.exe and is in \dos on the floppy you got with your N1. There is
aparently more than one version of this program for mine did not match
the documentation that came with the N1. The program is close enough
to "self documenting" that you should be able to wing it. One pot-hole
I fell into, I configured my N1 for IRQ 10, same for my kernel, but,
the diagnostics won't let you use that interupt. Since I wanted my
board to run with the same config as the diagnostics had tested I
changed my config a bit. I would guess the longer you run the diagnostics
the better, I lost patience at about 30 minutes .
When you are bored with watching the diagnostics, power down and attach
the cable from the db25 on your N1 to whatever DSU you have, this should
cause some LED activity, diferent DSUs will work diferently. Punch reset
and watch the boot message carefully, you should see a line looking
somewhat like:
rn0 at isa0 iobase 0x220 irq 3 maddr 0xe0000-0xeffff
Obviously your numbers may be diferent from mine.
If you don't see this run strings -a /bsd | grep "rn%d", if you get no
output you messed up building the kernel. If you do get output cd to
your build directory and look at ioconf.c, make shure the numbers on the
line that ends in /* rn0 */ match what you gave in your configuration,
if they don't rerun config, redo your make depend & your make, reboot
and try again. If they do match they you have a hardware conflict or
an incorrectly configured board. Fix and repeat as needed.
Once you are up in multiuser mode log in as root, and manualy ifconfig
your board with the local and remote addresses, netmask and link flag,
I use:
ifconfig rn0 inet 199.2.108.234 199.2.108.233 netmask 255.255.255.240 link0
that is, the local side is at 234, the remote end is at 233, the netmask
is 0xfffffff0. The link0 means I run PPP on this link, its absence would
indicate CISCO's variant of HDLC framing.
You should now be able to ping the remote end of your link, in my case
"ping 199.2.108.233", if this is the case, you can add a line identical
to the one you typed above to your /etc/netstart and you are done!
This leavs a *small* matter of routing. If you are a leaf node you
can get away with "route add default ", otherwise
you will need to configure gated to do the "right thing", this is
left as an excercise for the reader.
Hope this has helped some, writing it down certainly helped me see
what I had done and realize what I'll do diferently next time.
If you run into problems doing any of this, drop me a line, I'll
be happy to review config files and other similar things to help
you out.
-michael
---cut here---
> Using BSDI as an Internet Router
This document describes the basic procedure for using the SDL N1 board in a
BSDI machine to implement Internet routing functionality. This includes useful
general information such as N1 setup which should be applicable in many
proprietary (non-Internet) network connections.
> Introduction
The good news is that getting the N1 to work is almost as simple as plug'n
play. Additionally, my own tests and from talking to BSDI folks, confirm that
even a 20mhz 386 BSDI machine has more enough cpu power to move lotta packets;
I get better consistent thruput using BSDI/N1 than I did using a NAT router
(and no longer have to deal with a number of connection killing bugs that
plague the NAT router).
Note that typically when you dedicate a machine to something as important as
routing (and other site services such as mail forwarding, POP account, DNS,
proxy ftp) don't give people login shell accounts on that machine. Also, for
security reasons it might be a good idea to chmod 400 on the /dev/bpf* devices
(or disable access to those devices completely once you've debugged the setup).
> The Environment
The Internet connection is through a 56kbs leased line (PacBell ADN -
California) terminated using a Dowty DCP3080 CSU/DSU. The N1 board connects
to the CSU/DSU throught a V.35 interface using the cable supplied by SDL.
The host with the N1 board then gateways to other machines connected via
ethernet.
Installing The N1
An overview of the steps involved:
o Determine available base I/O, interrupt, dual port ram of your
bsdi machine
o Figure out if you have to do anything special about caching
o Test the N1 to verify setup
o Build a new kernel
o Boot new kernel; basic N1 test
> Setting base I/O, etc.
The default BSDI N1 setup requires that the board's base I/O be set to 0x220,
uses interrupt 5, and assumes dual-port usage at 0xe0000; these are very
reasonable defaults but check your config to see if they will work for you.
Note that since the N1 is a 16-bit device, it requires a 128kb segment of
dual-port ram (see N1 manual).
To check for suitability of preceding defaults, execute the 'dmesg'
command to display your machines config. The dmesg command will list all
devices base I/O (iobase), interrupts (irq), and dual-port RAM use (maddr).
If there are no conflicts, set the boards S1 switch to use base I/O 0x0220 and
interrupt 5. The maddr range is set in the BSDI kernel config (as described
shortly). Install the board in selected machine.
> Setting up for Caching
Now determine if the machine with the N1 uses an external cache; if it does,
determince if it's a write-thru or write-back. Check your motherboard manual.
Higher quality and most newer motherboards use the write-back cache; with this
type of cache you do NOT have to configure the dual-port RAM area as non-cachable.
Older and cheaper mother boards use the write-thru cache; with this type of
cache you MUST configure the N1's dual port range as non-cachable. Depending on
other boards you have installed (ethernet), it is possible to run out of
non-cachable regions in which case you'll have to turn off the caching.
Some motherboards support both type of cache; determine which is enabled on
your board and act as needed.
> Testing the N1
Boot the machine with DOS and run the N1.EXE test program (provided by SDL).
This program will verify basic functionality such as base I/O settings and
interrupt. The most important thing this program will do is verify that the
desirable dual port ram range works on your machine.
The default 0xe0000 address should work fine with most newer MBs using
write-back cache; however, older boards might have problems. For example,
the machine I installed my N1 in would only pass the dma test at address
range 0xa0000.
Address range 0xa0000 is also used by vga driver; since I don't run X/have
a vga card on this machine, when I rebuilt the kernel, I deleted the vga
driver. If you use an older board, be aware of special situations like this.
Bottom line is, the N1 must pass the dma test at the memory range you plan
on using. If it doesn't pass - don't go any further; things will not work.
> Building the Kernel
In configuring the kernel for the N1 you should disable any devices you don't
need since adding the rn0 device could result in a kernel that breaks
certain mem size limits. When you enable the rn0 device, be sure to also
change (if needed) its port and iomem parameters.
In addition to enabling the rn0 device, be sure you also do the following:
o Enable the network option GATEWAY (this enables IP forwarding as
needed by an Internet gateway machine).
o Talk to your Internet service provider and find out what type
of protocol their routers expect. Almost 100% certain that they
will say PPP. If so, enable the PPP option; in this case you do
NOT need the CISCO_HDLC option (use this option only if you need it).
Follow the BSDI instructions and build a new kernel with the rn0 device
enabled.
> Boot New Kernel; Basic Testing
Prior to booting with the new kernel, you should connect the N1 to the
termination equipment you plan on using, and turn on that termination
equipment.
Reboot the machine; you should see rn0 in the device list. If you miss it, use
dmesg to verify that the kernel found the N1 at the desired base I/O,
interrupt, and maddr range.
Once the machine reboots, the CSU/DSU RX data light should be on. Now use
ifconfig to enable the rn0 interface. Note that if the N1 isn't connected to
line termination device (CSU/DSU), or if cable is bad/incorrect, you'll get
"rn0 timeout" messages displayed on the console.
Use the following basic ifconfig line to enable the interface:
ifconfig rn0 inet Host_IP_Address RemotePort_IP_address
At this point the TX data light on the CSU/DSU should come on. If it does,
basic functionality is OK, but don't try much else until you read the following
sections. At this point you can use two IP addrs from your assigned block,
however, the CSU/DSU should NOT be connected to the leased line.
I used a Dowty DCP3080 CSU/DSU; the only setting I had to change was to enable
the V.35 interface (instead of the serial interface). Note that in making this
type of change, you'll probably have to power cycle/reset the CSU/DSU.
Note that the rn0 driver doesn't seem to support DTR, so the CSU/DSU DTR light
doesn't come on (and neither the DSR light if CSU/DSU configed so that DSR
follows DTR). This is not a problem; things will work just fine (at least with
my equipment).
Setting Up BSDI as Router
=========================
The basics steps are as follows:
o configure the rn0 interface using ifconfig
o test connection to rn0 interface
o probably want to get gated as IP router daemon
o set default route on other hosts
> Ifconfig/Basic Test
To configure the rn0 interface using ifconfig, you'll need the following Internet
connection parameters:
+ the IP address for the rn0 interface
+ the IP address of the interface at the service provider's end
+ the netmask and broadcast values for the rn0 interface
The IP addresses, netmask, and broadcast values you get from the Internet
service provider, or if you have an existing Internet connection, you can login
to your site's router (if you have the passwords) and dump the config data.
If you have no idea what this means, get the info from your Internet provider.
The above parameter's are crucial to proper connection function. Don't try
anything until you have them; things will not work.
For example, my ifconfig (in /etc/netstart) looks as follows (NOTE link0!):
ifconfig rn0 inet 131.119.67.134 131.119.67.133 link0 \
netmask 255.255.255.252
The first IP address is the IP address of the rn0 interface (mentioned as
$hostname in template form in /etc/netstart); the second IP address is the
remote port (of a Cisco router in this case); in /etc/netstart rn0 template
this is the __remotehost__. Though it might be nice to use names instead
of IP addrs, you'll probably have trouble with names (known bsdi isssue).
If the connection is PPP, you MUST specify the "link0" interface option!
If the connection is CISCO_HDLC, you don't need link0.
Netmask is per service provider instructions; broadcast uses default
131.119.255.255 which is fine, again per service provider info (see
ifconfig man page).
Before editing /etc/netstart, enter the ifconfig command manually. Verify
TX data light goes on in the CSU/DSU. Don't be to anxious; if routed or other
router daemon is running, kill them before entering the ifconfig command
and verify that your routing table is minimal (netstat -r or -nr).
Now create a default route (route add default IP_addr); use the IP address
of the machine with the N1.
Once the default route is created, you should have connectivity. Test DNS
resolution, etc. Things should work fine. If not, use tcpdump to view
activity (tcpdump -i rn0). Note that from this point on exactly what happens
depends a lot on you Internet service provider. At a minimum I would hope that
tcpdump would show RIP requests, and maybe SNMP requests. This would indicate
that your connection is functioning and accepting packets. Outbound packets
can be verified with something as simple as a ping; this will show that IP
forwarding is working.
See next section for some Internet related details. If things worked, you
can edit your /etc/netstart file and add the ifconfig line. However, at this
point, you should comment out any 'route add default' command; see next
section.
> Router Software
To turn the BSDI/N1 machine into a router, you probably need router software.
Check with your service provider. They might be willing to set static routes
for your site (though don't count on it).
If they require true router capability, find out what protocal they want to
use. BSDI comes equiped with routed. Routed supports RIP; a very common PPP
link router protocol. However, I was not able to get routed to work for my
site, and at the suggestion of my service provider, I was told to use gated.
There's good and bad news about gated. The bad news is that it don't come
with BSDI 1.0; the good news is that it's easy to get and compiles totally
clean and simple. Also basic config is trivial, and gated supports a wealth of
router protocols.
I initially tried routed. The problem was that routed would not respond to
RIP requests from my service providers router. Hence, packets from my site
would go out, but responses never came back. Specifically, packets originating
on the gateway machine (the machine with the N1) would have the correct source
IP address and everything worked fine from that machine. The problem was with
the other hosts using the gateway machine as the default route. Other hosts
packets went out; replies never made it back. Fun to verify this using
traceroute and tcpdump.
My service provider would not help with routed; they are familar with gated
and basically said "use it".
Here's my most favorable experience with gated:
1. ftp to gated.cornell.edu; cd pub/gated
2. get gated-R3_0_2.tar.Z (make sure set transfer mode to bin!)
3. Uncompress/untar; read README; follow instructions to build
4. Use the minimal gated.conf file that says "rip yes ;"
5. Install gated.conf in /etc; gated binary in /sbin (NOTE: as built gated is
HUGE; might not fit in /sbin on root partition. Do a 'strip gated' to
remove symbolic info and reduce to reasonable size.)
6. Edit /etc/netstart to say NO to routed
7. Edit /etc/rc to enable gated
Once I rebooted with gated; everything worked!
NOTE: Gated README file cautions that for RIP to work, kernel must support
UDP checksums. By default, the BSDI 1.0 kernel does support UDP checksums; its
all set to work.
To finish up, set the default route on all other hosts to point to the gateway
machine. Note that if you're switching from a router to a bsdi machine, you
could use the IP addr of the router's ethernet interface as the IP address
of the bsdi machine. I did not this this so I coauld bounce back and forth
between router connection and bsdi connection until things were debugged.
> Summary
Hopefully the basic steps in this document are useful, however they are not
a susbstitute for common sense. Be creative, especially in initial stage.
For example, as long as CSU/DSU not connected to Internet line, and ifconfig
with junk IP addrs could show that things are basically functional by causing
the TX data light to go on.
Also keep in mind a cooperative Internet service provider is needed. Good
luck in this sense.
-michael
--
Michael Galassi nerd@percy.rain.com
