3. Operations
Setting the HTTP authentication method:
The Switched PDU HTTP server supports two authentication methods for security and validation of the
username-password – Basic and MD5 digest.
The Basic method utilizes Base64 encoding to encode and deliver the username-password over the network to
the HTTP server for decoding and authentication. This basic method is supported by all web browsers and
offers a minimum level of security.
NOTE: The Base64 algorithm is widely-known and susceptible to packet-sniffer attack for acquisition of the
encoded username-password string.
The MD5 digest method provides stronger protection utilizing one-way encoded hash numbers, never placing
the username-password on the network. Instead, the sending browser creates a challenge code based on the
hash algorithm, provided username-password and unique items such as the device IP address and timestamp,
which is compared against the HTTP server internal user database of valid challenge codes. The MD5 digest
method offers a higher level of security than the Basic method but at present is not supported by all browsers.
NOTE: MD5 is known to be fully supported by Internet Explorer 5.0+, Navigator 7.0+ and Firefox 1.0+.
Select
Basic
or
MD5
from the Authentication drop-down menu and press
Apply
.
Setting SSL access level
Switched PDU SSL supports configuration of SSL connections as being either optional or required. The default
access level is set to optional.
•
Optional –Both non-secure (HTTP) and SSL encrypted connections (HTTPS) are allowed access.
•
Required – ONLY SSL encrypted connections (HTTPS) are allowed access.
Select
Optional
or
Required
from the Secure Access drop-down menu and press
Apply
.
Serial Ports
The Serial Ports configuration page is used for maintenance of the serial ports.
NOTE: Pass through connections may only be initiated from the command line interface via a Telnet/SSH
session.
Setting the data-rate for the serial ports:
Select the serial port data-rate from the drop-down menu and press
Apply
.
Creating a descriptive serial port name:
Click on the
Edit
link in the Action column next to the port to be configured.
On the subsequent Serial Port Edit page, enter the descriptive name. Up to 24 alphanumeric and other typeable
characters (ASCII 33 to 126 decimal, spaces and colon characters are not allowed) are allowed. Press
Apply
.
Enabling or disabling serial port active signal checking:
Click on the
Edit
link in the Action column next to the port to be configured.
On the subsequent Serial Port Edit page, select
On
or
Off
from the DSR Check drop-down menu and press
Apply
.
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