|
Back to A-Forum home page |
A. If you are using Windows Explorer, make sure that files of DLL type are not hidden from the view. Go to View Options in Windows Explorer and exclude DLL file type from the list of hidden types.
A. 1. Make sure your web server is MS IIS or MS PWS running on Windows platform. Make sure it is NOT Apache, UNIX, LINUX, Free BSD, or other system.
2. Make sure the directory (folder) where you placed aforum.isa and aforum26.dll has remote access rights set for Execute, and not for Read. See further comments about directory access rights below.
3. Make sure you did NOT register aforum.isa or aforum26.dll as an application of any kind with MS IIS. No such registration is required for this script to operate.
A. By default, MS IIS 6.0 has all active server content disabled in the settings, and it may generate a "faked" HTTP error 404 in this case. Click here to see how to set permissions on MS IIS 6.0.
A. This error usually occurs if the script directory access rights are not sufficient on the LOCAL level of operating system.
When running, A-Forum application needs to write and to read data files in the data directories which it automatically creates on the server under the directory where the file aforum.isa is located. To allow this, the proper local access rights are required.
Under Windows NT/2000/XP, on the level of operating system, A-Forum is executed as a process (or thread) on behalf of some special virtual system user, associated with the particular virtual server for your domain, like IUSR_MYSERVERNAME.
Note that there may be several virtual servers running on the same physical machine, with the separate local access rights for each virtual server to ensure better security, especially in the case of commercial multi-server web hosting. The script application, and the entire MS IIS process serving the requests from remote users, are executed locally on behalf of that embedded virtual system user which is associated with your particular virtual web server, the same for all real remote users accessing this virtual web server.
It is necessary to make sure that this embedded virtual system user has file and directory access rights sufficient for creating, writing and reading files in those data directories. In addition to that, A-Forum should be able to create the proper data directory itself. Those rights are LOCAL access rights.
If local file or directory access rights are not sufficient, A-Forum will generate a text error message about its inability to read or to write data on the server. This message is shown in user's browser.
Local access rights on the level of operating system should be distinguished from network sharing rights for remote users on the level of www-server (network level).
The most "correct" configuration of MS IIS presumes that the script directory and its descendants should have "Execute-only" access rights on the level of www-server (that is, as a virtual directory, attributable to www-server, REMOTE level), and the full "Read-Write" local access rights on the level of operating system (that is, as a physical directory, attributable to the local server system, LOCAL level).
At the same time, for higher security, it is NOT recommended to have REMOTE read or write access rights for the script directory on the level of virtual directories (in MS IIS settings for the virtual directories). Otherwise, remote users might be able to read data files from the script directories directly from the browser, which should be considered as a security breach.
Click here to see how to set permissions on MS IIS 6.0.
Read (and write) access rights for the script directories should only be set on the LOCAL level, that is for physical directories. On REMOTE level, all script directories should have access rights set to "Execute-Only". Real remote users do not need to access the data files in the script directories directly, and they should NOT be able to download or upload those data files.
Note that if the REMOTE user access rights on the level of www-server are not sufficient to execute the script application in the requested virtual directory, the standard HTTP error message will be generated by the server and will be shown in user's browser (HTTP Error 403 or similar). Unlike in the case of insufficient LOCAL rights, this message is not generated by A-Forum application. In fact, in this case A-Forum will not be able to run at all.
A. Additional features are added gradually when time allows. We welcome your comments and suggestions.
If you are seriously interested in getting more feature-enhanced or custom version, or in developing other product, you may contact APD-Soft Development. We develop customized ISAPI server and client-server applications on Windows platform.
A. Password other than the principal password (that is, other than passsword for forum 1) can be reset by a principal administrator. To recover the principal administrator password, you would need to email the file custom.dat to APD-Soft support. This file is located in "forum1" subdirectory under the "data" directory on the server. Please provide as much registration information as possible, so that we could look up our registration server records to ensure that you are not an intruder attempting to break into somebody's else forum.
Back to A-Forum home page |