Subject: What guestonly for?

From: Ming Lu <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 27 Mar 1998 19:10:13 -0500 (EST)

Hi all:

Finally I came to the sense that Netscape Server does not regonize the
format "mort:*:403:400:Mortimer Snerd:/home/web/./mort/:/etc/ftponly" at
all (I would be supprised that any other web server will support thsi
either", so the URL format "http://DNS name/~user" will not work. What I
get around this by using Netscape's "Additional Documents Directories"
feature to map the URL loaction instead of using "User Documents
Directories" (URL format http://DNS name/somedir/user), so that I can
still use guest only feature of Wu-ftpd.

Here I come another question: If not for people's web account (ftp access
only), what does this feature for. One can use regular ftp access only
account by not giving web users any valid shells and by changing root mod
so they cann't really see and download anything important.

Any insight would be very appreciated.

_ming

============================================================================
Ming Lu                                         Email: [email-masked]
Network Tech Consulting Engineer                Phone: 703-689-5290 (w)
Product Engineering                                    703-855-4194 (m)
Global One Telecommunications, LLT.                    703-689-6575 (f)
============================================================================  
"Do not pay attention to every word people say, or you may hear your
 servant cursing you ---- for you know in your heart that many times you
 yourself have cursed others."

---

From: Gregory A Lundberg <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 27 Mar 1998 19:36:14 -0500 (EST)

> Any insight would be very appreciated.

First insight: Run Apache.  It costs less and works.  I use guestgroups
and have no problems at all. 

Second insight: Some customers just want to exchange files and don't want
web sites.  Guestgroups work just fine for them.

Third insight: I doubt Netscape's server is actually having a problem with
the /etc/passwd file format .. at least, if it is, nobody's mentioned it
on the wu-ftpd mailing list.  Most likely the problem is elsewhere: check
directory and file permissions .. that's my guess as to where the problem
is.  Don't forget to check permissions on every directory from '/' down to
the user's web page.  I'll bet somewhere along the way you've revoked
world-execute or world-read permissions.  If the server can't access the
directories and/or files, it can't server them.

----

Gregory A Lundberg		Senior Partner, VRnet Company
1441 Elmdale Drive              email: [email-masked] [205.133.13.8]
Kettering, OH 45409-1615 USA    voice: +1 (937) 299-7653

---

From: Ming Lu <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 28 Mar 1998 01:21:07 -0500 (EST)

Thanks for the fist two insights, but disagree with the third one. I
removed the dot, everything is fine. I even tried to make every directory
as 777, with dot, still does not work. In Netscape server, it specifies
that it reads passwd file. I would love to haer from someone tell me that
I did something wrong other than permissions (I knwo that it is not
permission problem).

Aparche is great. But that server belongs to a customer. He wanted
netscape and nothing I can do about it.

I am very gratefull for your comments.

Best Regards

_ming

On Fri, 27 Mar 1998, Gregory A Lundberg wrote:

->On Fri, 27 Mar 1998, Ming Lu wrote:
->
->> Finally I came to the sense that Netscape Server does not regonize the
->> format "mort:*:403:400:Mortimer Snerd:/home/web/./mort/:/etc/ftponly" at
->> all (I would be supprised that any other web server will support thsi
->> either", so the URL format "http://DNS name/~user" will not work. What I
->> get around this by using Netscape's "Additional Documents Directories"
->> feature to map the URL loaction instead of using "User Documents
->> Directories" (URL format http://DNS name/somedir/user), so that I can
->> still use guest only feature of Wu-ftpd.
->> 
->> Here I come another question: If not for people's web account (ftp access
->> only), what does this feature for. One can use regular ftp access only
->> account by not giving web users any valid shells and by changing root mod
->> so they cann't really see and download anything important.
->> 
->> Any insight would be very appreciated.
->
->First insight: Run Apache.  It costs less and works.  I use guestgroups
->and have no problems at all. 
->
->Second insight: Some customers just want to exchange files and don't want
->web sites.  Guestgroups work just fine for them.
->
->Third insight: I doubt Netscape's server is actually having a problem with
->the /etc/passwd file format .. at least, if it is, nobody's mentioned it
->on the wu-ftpd mailing list.  Most likely the problem is elsewhere: check
->directory and file permissions .. that's my guess as to where the problem
->is.  Don't forget to check permissions on every directory from '/' down to
->the user's web page.  I'll bet somewhere along the way you've revoked
->world-execute or world-read permissions.  If the server can't access the
->directories and/or files, it can't server them.
->
->----
->
->Gregory A Lundberg		Senior Partner, VRnet Company
->1441 Elmdale Drive              email: [email-masked] [205.133.13.8]
->Kettering, OH 45409-1615 USA    voice: +1 (937) 299-7653
->
->