Daxten LARA, Manual, Page: 31 / 89

5. Usage
5.1. Prerequisites
The LARA features an embedded operating system and the according applications offering a variety
of standardized interfaces. The functionality is exposed to the user via these interfaces. This chapter
will describe all of these interfaces and how to use them in detail. All the interfaces are accessed
using the TCP/IP protocol family, thus they can be used equally over the built-in Ethernet adapter,
over modem or over ISDN.
The following interfaces are supported:
1. HTTP/HTTPS: The most complete access is provided by an embedded Web server. Thus
the LARA environment can be entirely controlled by a standard Web browser. Depending
on the Web browser you can access the eRIC card using the unsecured HTTP protocol or,
in case the browser supports it, the encrypted HTTPS protocol. It is recommended to use
HTTPS whenever possible.
2. SNMP
1
: Any standard SNMP client can use this protocol. The according MIB
2
is provided
on the LARA tools CD or can be downloaded over the LARA front-end.
3. Telnet: A standard Telnet client can be used to access an arbitrary device connected to one
of LARA’s serial ports via a terminal mode.
Since the primary interface of LARA is the HTTP interface this chapter is mainly evolving around
this topic. The other two interfaces are explained in the according subtopics section
5.5.4 on page 43
and section 5.7 on page 60 .
In order to use the Remote Console window of your managed host system the browser has to come
with a Java Runtime Environment version 1.1 or higher. But even if the used browser has no Java
support, for instance on small handheld devices, you are still able to maintain your remote host
system using the administration forms displayed by the browser itself.
Peppercon recommends the following browser for an unsecured connection to LARA.
ˆ
Microsoft Internet Explorer version 5.0 or higher on Windows 98, Windows ME and Windows
2000, Windows XP
ˆ
Netscape Navigator 7.0 or Mozilla 1.0 on Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows 2000, Windows
XP, Linux and other UNIX like Operating Systems
In order to access the remote host system using a securely encrypted connection you need a browser
that supports the HTTPS protocol. Strong security is only assured by using key length of 128
Bit. Many old browser don’t have a strong 128 Bit encryption algorithm due to former export
regulations of US authorities. For instance Internet Explorer 5.0, that comes as part of Windows
1
SNMP — Simple Network Management Protocol
2
MIB — Management Information Base