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Connecting
for the First Time
Connecting
for the First Time
Troubleshooting
Resources
When
you connect to your Web Crossing server for the first time (after
installation), you will have to go
through a one-time-only process of setting up a minimum amount
of needed information to run Web Crossing. You can follow along
with this section while going through this setup procedure.
In this
example, the Server and Client used were both Windows, however
the setup is exactly the same for all three platforms (Unix, Windows
and Mac OS).
After
you finish the installation process,
you will need to connect to your Web Crossing server using your
favorite browser. The URL for your Web Crossing server depends
on your domain name, script name, platform and whether you are
running in direct web service mode
or cgi mode. Also, if you are running
in cgi mode, the URL depends on which external web server you
are using.
Here
are some examples of the URL you should use for accessing your
Web Crossing server. In place of yourdomain.com you would
enter your fully-qualified server machine's domain name (example:
www.bigcollege.edu, webx.webxharbor.com, etc.) and the script
name you chose when you installed Web Crossing (typically Web
Crossing or Web Crossing).
Direct
Service Mode
| Platform |
URL |
| Unix
(Linux, Solaris, Mac OS X Server, FreeBSD, Esc) |
http://yourdomain.com/webx |
| Mac
OS PPC |
http://yourdomain.com/webx |
| Windows
(NT/98/95) |
http://yourdomain.com/webx |
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Note:
Very often, depending on your platform, you can access right
away by just entering the domain name in your browser (without
the script name) - for example, just www.bigcollege.edu.
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CGI
Mode
| Platform |
URL |
| Unix
(Linux, Solaris, Mac OS X Server, FreeBSD, Esc)
|
http://yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/webx |
| Mac
OS PPC |
http://yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/webx |
| Windows
(NT/98/95) |
http://yourdomain.com/scripts/webx.dll? |
When
you successfully connect to your Web Crossing server for the first
time, you will be greeted with the welcome page shown in figure
1.
Figure
1 - the first page you see when connecting to a new Web Crossing
server for the first time
Go on
the next page, which is the license agreement, shown in figure
2.
Figure
2 - the Web Crossing license agreement page is shown to you during
setup
For details
about the different licenses available, and a full description
about how page views are counted, see the Licensing
Section. After agreeing to the licensing terms, you will proceed
to the setup of your Images directory, as shown in figure 3.
Figure
3 - setting up the Image directory
If you
used the installer program for your server, the Images
directory should be in the proper place and you should see the
Login button. See the Troubleshooting
section below if you are having problems with this. Otherwise,
click OK to proceed with the setup.
Next,
you'll set some colors for your page background, text and link
colors, and choose the button and icon sets you want to use.
A frameset
will load with a color picker in the bottom frame (See figure
5) and a number of options in the top frame, including buttons,
icons, and text samples.
Figure
5 - color picker
To
choose a background color, click the color of your choice in the
color picker, and the top frame will reload, allowing you to preview
your chosen background color. To choose a text color, use the
Text radio button in the color picker, and then click the text
color of your choice. Again, the top of the page will reload,
allowing you a preview. See figure 6.
Figure
6 - text preview
You
can select buttons and icons and preview them against the background
color of your choice. Note that some sets are designed to be used
against dark backgrounds and others against medium or light background.
You may need to do some experimentation to find just the right
combination.
Figure
7 - button sets
Figure
8 - Icon sets
When
you're happy with how things look, click OK at the bottom
of the page. You can always come back to this page later through
the Control Panel > Customizing >
Quick Configure, or you can replace any of these button
or icon sets with images of your own. (See Custom
Images.)
The next
page lets you set up the Sysop email address, as shown in figure
9.
Figure
9 - the sysop email address
The sysop
(System Operator) is the the person in charge of maintaining the
Web Crossing server and is in ultimate control of all the features.
The address set here will be the address that people write to
to ask questions and seek help when they have problems.
After
you click on the Set E-mail Address button the next
page will be your certificate (licensing) setup page, as shown
in figure 10.
Figure
10 - Installing a Certificate
You can
read more about the different licenses available and what "1T"
means in the Section on Licensing.
After clicking the Install Certificate button you will
next see the sysop password setting form shown in figure 11.
Figure
11 - setting the sysop password
The sysop
password is your most important wall of security against unauthorized
access. Choose your password well! Don't choose a password that
somebody can guess, like your birthday, or the name of your dog,
or a hobby. The best passwords are:
- Easy
to remember
- Impossible
for somebody to guess
- Completely
unrelated to anything having to do with you or your system
In other
words, "clever" passwords based on your life are not
clever passwords at all.
What
we usually recommend for passwords is to build it up out of three
parts:
- A
random word chosen by opening a book to a random page
- A
number
- Another
random word
For example:
book2time, sky4hire, team7food, etc. These are easy to remember,
but nobody can possibly guess them, right? Anyway, choose a good
password, write it down someplace secure, enter it and click on
the Set Password button to continue.
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Warning:
If you lose your sysop password you will either have to
throw away your Web Crossing database and start from scratch,
restore from a backup or ask
Lundeen & Associates for help in retrieving your password
from the webx.db database. The latter alternative
requires sending Web Crossing, Inc. your webx.db file and
may incur charges for this special assistance. So - please
don't lose your password! (^_^)
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Finally
(!) your installation is complete and you should see the page
shown in figure 12.
Figure
12 - your Web Crossing server installation and setup is complete!
Your
next step is to click on the link (in your server, not in figure
12 ) and enter your conference. To go on and do some basic
customization, you might want to refer to the handy Web
Crossing Configuration Quick Setup Checklist section next.
Good luck, and have fun!
Troubleshooting
I am
seeing broken images instead of the login button. What should
I do?
- The
cause of this problem is that your Images folder is not
in the proper location. If the location you have specified is
Images then remember - this refers to the Images
folder in the web server's root directory.
If you are running Web Crossing under an external server (in
CGI mode), then the Images
folder should be located in the external server's root directory,
not in the Web Crossing folder itself. For example, if
you are running Apache under Linux, the Images directory
should be moved to /Esc/httpd/home/htdocs (or whatever
the root directory for your Apache server is).
If you are running in direct service
mode, then the Images folder should be located in
Web Crossing's web serving root directory - which is usually
inside the html folder (inside the Web Crossing
folder).
I am
using Mac OS PPC or Windows and I already have an images
folder in my web server's root directory. If I put Web Crossing's
Images folder in the same directory I either have to overwrite
my images directory or merge the two, because both directories
have the same name (folder names are not case sensitive in either
Mac OS or Windows). What should I do?
- Change
the name of your Web Crossing's Images folder to something
else, such as webxImages, and also change the location
of the Images Directory in the Control
Panel > General Settings.
I didn't
set up my Images Directory correctly and now I can't see any buttons
at all. How can I get into the Sysop Control
Panel to change my Images Directory location?
- Web
Crossing has URL Command Codes that
let you jump directly into Web Crossing and perform maintenance
work, such as resetting the file cache, entering the control
panel, etc.
If you need to get directly in to your Control
Panel, you can use command 59, as in http://yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/webx?59@@
- just substitute your domain and script name for the
part in red.
Resources
Refer
to the documentation included with your installer for the latest
release information.
Sysop
docs:
Web Crossing
FAQ:
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