Chapter 16. Information Bays (i-bays)
16.1. i-bay Directories
Each i-bay has three directories -
html
,
files
and
cgi-bin
. (The cgi-bin directory is set aside to hold cgi scripts used for that
i-bay’s web page. CGI scripts are tools used in advanced web-site creation and do not need to be discussed here.)
•
the files directory: This directory holds files that can be accessed either locally only or publicly. It can be used for such things as a
company download site, a company-wide file sharing server, or a document sharing site for a specific customer.
•
the HTML directory: When an i-bay is accessed using a web browser (via http), the user will enter the HTML directory and the
web browser will automatically open the index.html file in that i-bay. In other words, it will display the web page associated with
that i-bay. This means you can have different web sites running on your server, each associated with a specific i-bay. This can be
very powerful and useful, as you will see in the upcoming examples.
Note: If an i-bay is set for no public access via web or anonymous ftp, users connecting to the i-bay through Windows or
Macintosh file sharing will see only the contents of the
files
directory. However, if the i-bay settings are later changed to allow
public access through web or anonymous ftp, users will then see the top-level directory of the i-bay with the three subdirectories of
html
,
files
and
cgi-bin
. The items they were used to seeing before will now be found in the
files
directory.
16.2. Accessing the i-bays
You can access the contents of an i-bay using a web browser, Windows file sharing / AppleTalk, or FTP.
•
accessing an i-bay using a web browser (via http): To view an i-bay using a browser, enter "www.yourdomain.xxx/i-bayname".
For example, the URL for Samson’s Farms i-bay is "www.tofu-dog.com/samfarms". Assuming you are entitled to access this
i-bay, you will see the index.html page in the html directory in the Samson’s Farms i-bay. If a password is required to see the
contents of the i-bay, a password dialog box will appear before the contents of the i-bay are served to the web browser.
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