User Manual version 3

You may find that some features and menu items described in this Manual are missing in your Confixx interface. This means that either these services have been restricted by your web host, or your web server configuration doesn’t support these features.

1.1 Login

You can log on once you have received your access details and URL to Confixx web interface from your web host. Call up the address from your browser, enter your username and password and confirm by clicking “Log in”. The same username and password is used to log on to your FTP account.

Note. In Confixx 3.1 it is also possible to log onto the system using one of your domain names as login. Password remains the same.

If you forgot your password, click “Get password”. If you know your Confixx username and the e-mail address which your provider stores for your account, you can retrieve your password by e-mail. Transfer of password by e-mail is not encrypted and therefore insecure. Therefore it is recommended that you change your password the next time you login.

1.2 Settings Lag

Any changes made via the Confixx web interface won’t be available immediately. Depending on your web server settings, the changes will be applied after a few minutes or even after several hours. Generally, the changes pertaining to your e-mails will be applied faster than, say, changes to your domain or subdomain settings. Therefore, if you change a password, the old password will remain valid until the server has applied the changes you have made.

2 The Sections of the Web Interface

The Confixx navigation pane is divided into four drop-down menus. Each menu is expanded by a click on a main menu item (e.g. ”General”). You can move to individual sections by clicking on the corresponding links in the menu.

3 General

3.1 Overview

By clicking “Overview” in each menu, you can see shortcuts to major features available in this menu.

Icons of the “Tools” field correspond to menu items and are provided for quick navigation. Below is the “Tools” section for the menu “General”.

Below the main toolbar you can see an overview of all services provided to you by your web host. The first value shows the actual amount of service used (e.g., storage space). The value in parentheses is the upper limit which, in most cases, cannot be exceeded.

Should you exceed a limit (provided that this is allowed); the corresponding value will be highlighted in color.

You can enable or disable two features in the list by clicking on their status icons:

“DirectoryListing”: If Directory listing is enabled your web server will display a list of your files and folders in case your home page is unavailable.

“CGI/Perl outside cgi-bin”: This feature allows to store CGI scripts outside the “cgi-bin” folder of your home directory.

If you do not see these entries in your list, you are not able to activate these features.

3.2 Change Password

In this section, you can change your User password, which you use to log onto the Confixx interface and to FTP. Here you can change the password to your “Stats” section as well.

To change your password, first enter your current password. Now enter your new password twice and confirm by clicking “Change password”. If you wish to change your stats password as well, tick the “Change for stats” box before clicking “Change password”.

Your password may only contain letters and numbers. For security reasons, your password must consist of at least 6 characters and be no longer than 12 characters.

3.3 Language

In this section, you can select the language of your web interface.

3.4 Traffic

This graphical overview displays all the traffic produced by your web site(s).

Confixx distinguishes the traffic generated by uploads/downloads of your files via FTP and the traffic produced by your Internet pages retrieval.

The monthly traffic details show each day of the month, the traffic summary shows monthly stats. Depending on your web server configuration, several hours may have passed since the last time traffic had been measured.

3.5 Access stats

In this section you can view Webalizer stats for your website(s), including: hits; visits; referrers; the visitors' countries; and the amount of data downloaded, etc. To get stats, click “Call up access stats” and enter your authorization details for Webalizer.

You can also change your Stats password in this section.

3.6 Messages

In this section you can view notices and error messages generated by the server. This can be used, for example, to diagnose and fix various system issues.

The list can be sorted by message type (Error, Notices, All); you can also set a number of records to be displayed per page.

3.7 Confixx help

Use this section in case you encounter any issues with Confixx. In most cases this page will contain contact details of your web host. The amount of other information to be displayed in this section depends on your web host.

4 E-mail

4.1 Overview

Here you can access major Confixx features concerning e-mail setup and management (see below).

4.2 POP3 Boxes

A POP3 box is similar to a mailbox. It saves the e-mails it receives. The key to this mailbox is a password that you receive from your web host during your account setup. As soon as you have set up a POP3 box, you can allocate e-mail addresses to this mailbox. If you merely want to forward e-mails to an existing e-mail address, you do not need a POP3 box. Click “POP3 boxes” to get a list of your existing mailboxes.

A mailbox can be access by clicking on mailbox name. Each POP3 box is protected by individual password, which is specified during the mailbox setup process.

In this section you can perform the following operations with POP3 mailboxes.

4.2.1 Create a POP3 Box

To create a new POP3 box, use the “Set up new POP3 box” field set. All fields are optional. If you wish to specify your own password for the new

box, enter it twice in the provided fields and tick the “Specify password” box. Alternatively, you can leave password fields blank and have Confixx

generate its own password. You have the option to enter a comment. Click “Add” to create a POP3 box.

Your username and password for this mailbox will now be displayed.

You should note down or remember these details. It will be required by your e-mail program to retrieve your e-mails.

4.2.2 Change POP3 box

If you want to change the password for your POP3 box or the comment you entered, click on the corresponding “Change” icon in the list of your POP3 boxes.

If you want to change the comment only, leave the password information blank. To change password, enter your new password twice and click “Save data”.

4.2.3 Delete POP3 Box

As soon as a POP3 box is no longer needed, you can delete it by ticking it in the list of your POP3 boxes and clicking “Delete”.

It is possible to delete a group of POP3 boxes in one click. Tick all POP3 boxes you wish to remove and click “Delete”.

All the mail stored in these mailboxes will be deleted permanently as well.

4.3 E-mail Addresses

When you set up an e-mail address, you can allocate it to a POP3 box, so that e-mails are saved in this mailbox, or have it forward your mail to an existing e-mail address.

In this window you will see a list of your e-mail addresses, and the mailboxes or e-mail addresses they point to. The list also shows the current status of address: Enabled, Disabled or Scheduled. The “Scheduled” status means that the e-mail address has been created, but the information hasn’t been updated on the main Confixx server yet.

The “A” column of the table shows whether an auto responder has been set up for e-mail. On the screenshot above, the first e-mail has an auto responder activated.

4.3.1 Create E-mail Address

As soon as you have set up a POP3 box, you can create an e-mail address, which forwards to a POP3 box. To do this, use the “Add new e-mail address” field set in the upper part of the page.

In the first field, enter the name to appear in front of ’@domain.tld’. If you have more than one domain or if you have created a subdomain, you can select the domain/subdomain to be used from the drop-down list. In the last field, select either a POP3 box which you will use to store and retrieve your mail, or an existing e-mail address which the mail will be forwarded to. Click “Save” to create the address.

4.3.2 Edit List of Recipients

After you had set up a new e-mail address, you can subscribe additional recipients to this address. Click the corresponding “Change” icon in your list of e-mail addresses. Use the form below to specify recipients who will receive copies of all e-mails you receive to this address.

For each recipient, you can choose one of the two options for receiving the incoming mail. To have mail saved in a Confixx POP3 box, select “save in” and choose a box from the drop-down list. To have mail forwarded to an external email address, select “redirect to” and specify the required e-mail address in the field. You can add up to ten additional recipients per mailbox. Click “Apply changes” to confirm input.

4.3.3 Delete E-mail Address

To delete an e-mail address, tick it the list and click ’Delete’. To delete a group of e-mail addresses, tick the ones you wish to remove and click “Delete”.

4.3.4 Catchall E-mail Addresses

The e-mail address ’*@domain.tld’ receives all e-mails that are sent to your domain unless the e-mail has been sent to one of existing e-mail addresses.

For example: Somebody sends you an e-mail to the address ’xyz@domain.tld’, which doesn’t exist in your system. If you have a catchall address, this e-mail will be received and saved in the appropriate mailbox, where it can be retrieved later. If you don’t have a catchall address, this e-mail will be ignored by your system and will bounce back to sender. It

is also possible to create a catchall address only, and to forward it to a POP3 box or to an existing e-mail address.

4.4 Autoresponders

You can set up autoresponders for e-mail address created via Confixx. If you set up an autoresponder for an e-mail address, everybody who writes to this address will automatically receive a standard reply message. Autoresponders are useful, for example, if you are unable to retrieve your e-mails for a certain period of time. All received mail will still be stored in your mailbox.

To set up an autoresponder, choose the appropriate address from the drop-down list and click “Edit/new”.

In the window that opens, input the subject, text and sender name into the appropriate data fields and click “Save”.

Follow the same steps if you wish to modify and existing autoresponder.

If you wish to delete an existing autoresponder, click “Delete now” at the bottom of the page.

After you have set up an autoresponder, the corresponding e-mail in the list of e-mail addresses will show the “autoresponder activated” icon.

4.5 Mailing lists

With mailing lists people who are on the subscribers list can communicate via e-mail. Each subscriber can send an email to the e-mail address of the mailing list, and all subscribers will receive this mail. For each mailing list there is an administrator, who creates and maintains the list. The administrator can see who is subscribed to the list, can alter global

settings for the mailing list and can dismiss individual members or even close the whole list. New members get subscribed to the list by sending an e-mail to the primary e-mail address of the mailing list.

The mailing list management in Confixx is done by the Majordomo software. The GUI by which the administrator can manage the list is called Majorcool. For more information about Majordomo please refer to

http://www.greatcircle.com/majordomo/.

You can create a new mailing list for Majordomo in Confixx interface.

Enter the name of the mailing list and select a domain from the drop-down list. With this you also set the email address of the mailing list. Specify the e-mail of the mailing list administrator (“Owner e-mail”). You can specify your own password to access the mailing list, or you can leave the password fields blank and have Confixx generate the password for you. Click “Add” to create a mailing list.

You will see your new mailing list name and password. Please keep this information, as you will need to access and manage your mailing list.

You will also see a newly created mailing list in the general list with a “Scheduled” status.

From this list you can perform the following operations: “Change password” (click the corresponding “Change” icon) and “Delete” (tick the appropriate box(es) and click “Delete”).

Administration of the mailing list is done through MajorCool. You will find the link to MajorCool interface in your list of mailing lists. To access your mailing list settings in MajorCool you need to select your mailing list name and enter your administrator password. After that you can view your subscribers list, alter global settings, etc.

You can find more detailed information on MajorCool features by clicking on “Help” in MajorCool.

5 Settings

5.1 Overview

Use the “Tools” bar for quick access to main features of the “Settings” menu.

5.2 MySQL

This section will be relevant if you run programs or CGI scripts that require a database – for example, guest books or ecommerce features. In this section, you can set up and manage databases with a click of a mouse.

5.2.1 Create New Database

You can set up a database by clicking “Create”. The comment field is optional.

After you have set up your database, you will receive your access details for this database. Please put down or remember this information.

The username for database access is the same as for Confixx interface and for FTP access. This username and password will be valid for all databases you set up in the future.

5.2.2 Change Database Password

Click the “Change password” icon to change your password for MySQL user.

In the window that opens, enter your new password twice and confirm by clicking “Change password“.

5.2.3 Delete Database

Database can be deleted by ticking them in the database list (see section 5.2) and clicking “Delete”.

You must confirm deletion of the items you selected.

5.3 Domains / Subdomains

5.3.1 Create subdomains

Subdomains refer to certain Internet pages; the content of these pages is stored in a separate folder in your Confixx home directory on the server.

To create a subdomain, enter the subdomain name (e.g., CompanyName), choose a domain from the drop-down list and specify the target folder.

The directory "/" is your main directory on the server. The directory which has the following format: "/folder" is a subdirectory in your main directory.

Note. The target directory you specify when creating a subdomain must already exist on the server.

You can also link your domain(s) to a different Internet page (http://...) by specifying the respective URL in the “Target” field.

If you need to enable SSL for the subdomain you’re setting up, tick the “SSL” box. If you want your browser to automatically switch from http:// to https:// for this subdomain, tick the “http - > https” box as well.

Note. By “SSL” here we mean the common shared SSL certificate registered for Confixx.

Having specified all details, click “Save” to create a subdomain. Depending on the web server settings, it may take several hours before the subdomain is functional.

5.3.2 Change domain settings

To link a domain/subdomain to a different directory or to forward to a specific Internet address, click on the “Change’ link for this domain in the list.

In the window that opens, specify the Internet address or the directory the domain is to point to, and confirm with

“Save”.

You can point www.domain.tld and domain.tld to different directories on the server.

5.3.3 Delete Subdomain

To delete subdomain(s), tick it (them) in the list and click ’Delete’. Subdomains for which SSL has been enabled cannot be deleted until SSL has been removed by your web host.

5.3.4 Catchall Domains

A subdomain “*.domain.tld” can transfer all callups of your domain in the format http://xxx.domain.tld (“abc.domain.tld”, “xyz.domain.tld”) to a certain directory/web page. This affects neither ’http://domain.tld’ and

’http://www.domain.tld’ nor any additionally created subdomains; the path must be entered in addition.

To create a catchall subdomain for any of your existing domains, follow the same steps as described in section 5.3.1.

Instead of a subdomain name, enter “*” in the “Subdomain” field.

5.4 Front Page

With FrontPage server extensions you can create professionally-looking web sites without extensive knowledge of HMTL, web design and other web technologies.

In this section you can change the password you use to access the server from FrontPage editor. Also refer to this section for full information about the parameters required to upload your page using FrontPage.

In this section you can specify an e-mail address to receive mail generated via forms on your web pages.

5.5 Password Protection

You can protect certain directories with a password in order to ensure that only you can access these directories.

5.5.1 Set up Password Protection

Choose the directory you wish to protect from the list and click the corresponding “Protect” link.

Note. By clicking on a directory name, you will get a full list of subdirectories contained in the directory.

In the window that opens, enter your Confixx login, enter the password you wish to specify for this directory twice and confirm by clicking “Update”.

After the directory has been protected, the link “protect” will be replaced with the link “edit” in the directory list.

5.5.2 Edit Password Protection

Use this option if you wish to:

change your password to the protected directory provide access to the directory to additional users or delete such users change password or remove password protection from this directory.

Click on the corresponding “Edit” link in the directory list.

In the upper part of the page you will find information about the protected directory.

If you wish to edit this information, make the necessary changes and confirm by clicking “Apply”.

The middle field set (below) provides a list of users who have access to this directory. You can delete users and change passwords here.

Use the form (below) to add new users. Enter a login, enter password twice and confirm by clicking “Create”.

To remove password protection from a directory, click the “Remove all users and passwords” button at the bottom of the page.

5.6 FTP Users

You can create additional FTP users besides your main FTP user, for example if you want to allow friends or colleagues to set up a web site in one of your home site’s subdirectories. You do not have to reveal the access data of your main FTP user to your friends or colleagues; each new FTP user gets his or her own username and password. The new FTP users can use these access data to log onto the Confixx web interface. In this case, of course, not all of the features are available, only “Change password” and access to WebFTP.

Each new FTP user you create gets a separate folder within your home directory. It is not possible for several FTP users to share the same folder. An FTP user can save, delete data and create new folders within his or her folder. The FTP users you create do not have access to files outside their folder.

It is especially useful to create additional FTP users in connection with subdomains pointing to this FTP user’s directory on the server.

Special considerations concerning FTP users: Your main FTP user (your access to the Confixx web interface) does not have the privileges of changing or deleting folders of additionally created FTP users. This applies to any files contained in these directories as well. You can delete folders belonging to other FTP users only after you have deleted the respective FTP user via the Confixx web interface.

5.6.1 Create FTP User

The upper filed of the section displays the number of existing FTP users and the maximum quantity of such users you may create.

Below you will find a list of FTP users currently registered in the system. Use this list to delete users and change passwords by clicking on corresponding links in the list and following further steps offered by Confixx.

In order to create a new FTP user, go to the directory list in the lower part of the page. In the list, choose any directory or subdirectory that has is not yet occupied and click “New user”.

Note. By clicking on a directory name, you will get a full list of subdirectories contained in the directory.

A user will be created automatically. In the upper part of the page you will see a notification displaying the new FTP user’s login and password.

5.6.2 Change Password

To change the password for an FTP user, click on “Change password” in the list of FTP users.

Specify a new password twice and confirm by “Change password”.

5.6.3 Delete FTP User

To delete an additional FTP user, click the corresponding “Delete user” link in the list.

5.7 Error Files

Calling up a non-existing or a forbidden page from the browser causes error pages to be displayed:

Error 404 File not found. This error message is displayed every time a nonexistent page is being called up.

Error 401 Access denied. This error file is displayed if a wrong password has been entered when calling up a password protected page.

Error 403 Access Forbidden. This message is displayed when a visitor tries to enter an area on your site that is off limits to the public.

Error 500 Internal Server Error. This error mostly occurs when you call up an incorrect CGI script.

In this section, you can create custom error pages, so that instead of seeing an ugly server message, your visitor sees a personalized note from you.

5.7.1 Create Error Files