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CHAPTER 1:

Installing Peer Web Services


This chapter is designed to help you quickly and easily install Microsoft Peer Web Services for Windows NT Workstation version 4.0.

All you need to do is connect your Windows NT Workstation–based computer to your intranet (your local or wide area network), install Microsoft Peer Web Services software, and point the information server to your home directory. This chapter tells you how.



TOP Installation Overview

If you already have the necessary intranet connection, you can accept all of the default settings during setup and then add your HyperText Markup Language (HTML) content files to the \Wwwroot directory. Your files will be immediately available to users. The default setup configurations are suitable for many publishing scenarios without any further modifications.

This section defines the installation requirements and explains how to:

 

Installation Requirements

Microsoft Peer Web Services requires:

 

»&#nbsp;&#nbsp; To publish on an intranet, you will need:

 

Windows NT Configuration and Security Checklists

Before installing Microsoft Peer Web Services, you must configure the Windows NT Workstation networking component so that your server can operate on an intranet. You may want to also enhance the Windows NT Workstation default security settings and implement other Windows NT security measures to prevent users from tampering with your computer or network. For more information about security, see Chapter 5, “Securing Your Site Against Intruders.”

Windows NT Configuration Checklist

Use the Network applet in Control Panel for all configuration tasks mentioned in this section.

 

Windows NT Security Checklist

Several steps can be taken to enhance the security of a computer connected to your intranet. For further information on these checklist topics, see Chapter 5, “Securing Your Site Against Intruders.”

User Accounts

 

NTFS File Security

 

Running Other Network Services

 

Contents of the Compact Disc

The Windows NT Workstation compact disc contains the \Inetsrv directory. From that directory you can click Inetstp.exe to install Microsoft Peer Web Services and all components, if you do not want to install Microsoft Peer Web Services through Windows NT.


TOP Installation Notes

Before Installing the Peer Web Services

Before installing the Peer Web Services, disable any other Internet services.

If your server has another version of File Transfer Protocol (FTP), gopher, or World Wide Web (WWW) services installed (such as the FTP service included with Windows NT Workstation or the European Microsoft Windows Academic Centre [EMWAC] services included in the Windows NT Resource Kit), disable these services before you install the Microsoft Peer Web Services. For information about disabling other services, see the documentation for each service.

 

FTP Guest Account Access

During the setup process, a screen will appear, asking you whether you want to disable access by the Guest account to your FTP server.

It is recommend that you choose Yes to protect the contents of your system. If you choose the No option and enable guest access to your server, all existing files and any new files will be available to the Guest account through FTP. You will need to disable access to each file or directory individually to prevent unauthorized access. Disabling FTP access for the Guest account will not affect the IUSR_computername account that is created during Setup.

Administrator Privileges Required

To install the Peer Web Services, you must be logged on to the server with administrator privileges. Administrator privileges on the server are also required to configure the services remotely by using Internet Service Manager or HTML Administrator.

Installation Directory

By default, Peer Web Services is installed from the Windows NT Workstation compact disc to C:\Winntroot\System32\Inetsrv. If you change the default, be sure to enter a fully qualified path name, including a drive letter. Relative paths and paths without drive letters can be misinterpreted by Setup.

Installing Internet Service Manager Only

To provide for separate installation of the administration tools, Microsoft Peer Web Services includes the Internet Service Manager installation directory, \Admin. To install this component, run Setup.exe from the appropriate directory.

Remove All Button Affects Event Log Availability

If you remove Peer Web Services, you will be unable to review Peer Web Services events in the Event Log.

Remove All Button Leaves Content Directories and Files

The Remove All button in Setup removes all Peer Web Services program files but does not remove the directory structure or any content or sample files. This setting protects your content files from unintentional deletion. If you want to remove these directories and files after completing the Remove All process, use the Windows NT Explorer.

Converting 16-Bit ODBC Drivers to 32-Bit during Setup

If there are data sources referring to 16-bit Open Data Base Connectivity (ODBC) drivers on the system, Setup will detect them and ask you if you want to convert them to 32-bit. If you choose Yes, these data sources will be converted to refer to the 32-bit ODBC drivers.


TOP Installing Peer Web Services

Once you have your network connection and have configured Windows NT Workstation, you can install Microsoft Peer Web Services.

To install Peer Web Services, you must be logged on with administrator privileges. In addition, to configure Peer Web Services by using Internet Service Manager, your user account must be a member of the Administrators group on the target computer.

»&#nbsp;&#nbsp; To install Peer Web Services



Note   You can also start Peer Web Services Setup from the Windows NT Explorer. Put the Windows NT Workstation version 4.0 compact disc into the appropriate disk drive. In the Windows NT Explorer, click Inetstp.exe in the \Inetsrv subdirectory on the compact disc. Follow the instructions on the screen.

Unattended Setup When Installing from a Network Directory

If you are using Microsoft Peer Web Services on a network, you can copy the contents of the \Inetsrv directory on the Windows NT Workstation compact disc to a directory on your network and perform unattended installations over the network from that directory. (You can start an unattended setup from the compact disc itself; however, only the default configuration can be installed in this case.) This is useful for installing Peer Web Services on several servers at your site or to provide a simple over-the-network installation process for Internet Explorer users.

In the \Inetsrv directory, there is an Unattend.txt file. Unattend.txt is a sample configuration file used by the program for unattended installation. You modify the values in the file to configure setup. In general, the value 1 represents TRUE and the value 0 represents FALSE. It is suggested that you copy Unattend.txt to the directory containing the Setup.exe you will use, then modify it to meet your installation requirements.

To start unattended mode setup you must use the command prompt. Change to the directory containing both Inetstp.exe and Unattend.txt and type

inetstp -b unattend.txt

where Unattend.txt is the file you have modified. See Unattend.txt on the compact disc for more information about unattended setup.

The IUSR_computername Account

Setup automatically creates an anonymous account called IUSR_computername. This account has a randomly generated password and privilege to log on locally. On domain controllers, this account is added to the domain database. This process is fully automatic. After installation is complete, you can change the user name and password for this account from the Service property sheet in Internet Service Manager, as long as the new user name and password match the same user name and password in the Windows NT User Manager.

The WWW, FTP, and gopher services use the IUSR_computername user account by default when anonymous access is allowed. To set the rights for ISUR_computername, use User Manager. To set file permissions on NTFS drives for ISUR_computername, use the Windows NT Explorer. To change the account used for anonymous logons for any of the Internet services, select the Service Properties option from the Properties menu in Internet Service Manager.


TOP How to Publish Information

Now that Microsoft Peer Web Services is installed and running, you are ready to publish on your intranet. Providing information with Peer Web Services is easy. If your files are in HTML format, just add them to the appropriate home directory. For example, if you are using the WWW service, place the files in the \Wwwroot directory.

For more extensive information on creating and publishing content files, see Chapter 8, “Publishing Information and Applications.” Note that you can also create and publish highly interactive systems by writing programs using ISAPI.



Note   If you provide files with the gopher or File Transfer Protocol (FTP) services, you can share those files instantly. Users can navigate through the files much as they do in Windows NT Explorer or at the command prompt. With gopher, you can customize how your directories and files appear to browsers; you can also include links to other servers in your files. FTP can be used to accept files from or send files to users.

Attempting to Publish from Redirected Network Drives

The FTP, gopher, and WWW services cannot publish from redirected network drives (that is, from drive letters assigned to network shared directories). To use network drives, you must use the server and share UNC name (for example, \\Computername\Sharename\Wwwfiles). If you specify a user name and password to connect to a network drive, then to access that drive, all requests from remote users must specify the same user name and password, not the user name and password for the anonymous ISUR_computername account or for any other account you may have specified.

Consider security issues carefully when using this feature. Remote users could possibly make changes to a network drive by using the permissions of the user name specified to connect to the network drive.

Default.htm and the Peer Web Services
Home Page

By default, Peer Web Services uses a file named Default.htm as the home page for the various samples, tools, and demonstrations that come with the product. If the \Wwwroot directory of your WWW server already contains a file named Default.htm when you install Peer Web Services, your file will not be overwritten with our file. As a result, you will not have immediate access to our sample home page and the links it provides when you run Peer Web Services.

In this case, to view our version of Default.htm and the links it provides, type the following Uniform Resource Locator (URL) in the Internet Explorer.

http://computername/samples/default.htm

This command opens the file Default.htm from the \Wwwroot\Samples directory on your Peer Web Services.

You can also rename or move your version of Default.htm to a different directory and then copy the file Default.htm from \Samples. This approach will make our version of Default.htm your server’s home page.

How to Test Your Peer Web Services Installation

You can test your installation by using Internet Explorer to view the files in your home directory.  

»&#nbsp;&#nbsp; To test a server on your intranet

 


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