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Configuring mod_roaming
=======================
1. Edit your httpd.conf file and add a line like the following:
RoamingAlias /roaming /usr/local/apache/roaming
The first argument is the uri prefix that mod_roaming will respond
to, the second argument is the directory where the roaming access
files will be stored. Make sure the webserver has write permissions
to this directory. Preferrably, no other user should have read or
write permissions to this directory to protect the privacy of the
users.
A subdirectory is automatically created for each user, e.g. the
roaming access files for user vinny will be stored under
/usr/local/apache/roaming/vinny
and can be accessed via
http://<host>/roaming/vinny/...
Multiple mod_roaming directives may be used to set up multiple
roaming uri's. You do not have to set up directories for the
individual users. These are automatically created the first
time someone uses Roaming Access.
2. Make sure that any requests made to the roaming directory are
authorized. You can do this in a number of different ways:
a. by putting a .htaccess file in the roaming directory (e.g.
/usr/local/apache/roaming). If you do this, make sure
Apache is reading the .htaccess file and the directives in it
are allowed (AllowOverride AuthConfig),
b. by putting a
<Directory /usr/local/apache/roaming>
block in httpd.conf, or
c. by putting a
<Location /roaming>
block in httpd.conf.
This file or block should contains something like this:
AuthUserFile /usr/local/apache/conf/roaming-htpasswd
AuthType Basic
AuthName "Roaming Access"
require valid-user
The roaming-htpasswd can be created by using the htpasswd program
that comes with the Apache distribution. Try accessing the URL
http://<host>/roaming/<userid>/liprefs to check whether
authentication has been configurated correctly.
These steps make sure access to the roaming files is authenticated.
However, basic authentication is very weak and passwords can be
snooped from the connection. SSL would be even better, but Netscape
Communicator 4.5 refuses to connect to https URL's when they are
entered as the Roaming URL.
If you want to use your regular Unix password for authentication
you may want to look into Howard Fear's mod_auth_sys module:
<URL:http://pageplus.com/~hsf/sources/mod_auth_sys/>
3. Stop Apache and start it again (restarting after rebuilding a DSO
module sometimes causes Apache to hang or crash).
Configuring Netscape Communicator
=================================
There are two ways roaming access can be enabled with Netscape
Communicator:
1. You can change an existing user profile to use the Roaming Access
server
2. You can create a new user profile that uses the settings on a Roaming
Access server.
Enabling Roaming Access for an existing user profile
----------------------------------------------------
1. Start Netscape Communicator.
2. Open the Preferences dialog.
3. Go to the "Roaming Access" pane.
4. Check the "Enable Roaming Access for this profile" checkbox.
5. Enter your username below and optionally check the "Remember my
roaming password" checkbox.
6. Go to the "Server Info" pane.
7. Select the "HTTP Server" radio button.
8. Enter the Roaming URL, e.g.
http://www.foo.com/roaming/vinny
You can replace the userid with the string $USERID or %USERID% to
let Netscape Communicator replace it with the userid entered in the
previous pane.
9. Go to the "File Selection" pane.
10. Select the files you want to be stored on the Roaming Access server.
Depending upon your trust of the network and the server you may or
may not want to store the Java Security or Certificates and Private
Keys file on the Roaming Access Server. Storing the History file on
the server may not be very useful and may consume valuable bandwidth.
Known problems
==============
The following known and unresolved issues exist with mod_roaming
and Roaming Access:
* Loading mod_roaming as a DSO module on Debian GNU/Linux fails with an
error message like:
Cannot load /usr/local/apache/libexec/mod_roaming.so into server:
/usr/local/apache/libexec/mod_roaming.so: undefined symbol: stat
Luc Stepniewski reported he has managed to build a DSO module with:
> gcc -DLINUX=2 -DUSE_HSREGEX -fpic -DSHARED_MODULE
-I/usr/local/apache/include -c mod_roaming.c
> ld -Bshareable -o mod_roaming.so mod_roaming.o -lc -lm -lcrypt
* There can be problems when you access the Roaming Access server
through a proxy. Roaming Access uses the non-standard HTTP MOVE
request method to atomically update the files. Some proxies
(including Squid) do not pass these requests through to the
server. One way to get around this is to add the line
user_pref("li.prefs.http.useSimplePut", true);
to your Preferences file. However, I have used before and it
gives a lot of hassle (sometimes it disappears and reverts
back to the old way of doing things).
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