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Post by Rodak on May 28, 2006 7:51:15 GMT -5
OK, many of you have noticed my "leave of absence" and I thank you for your thoughts.
It is due to my efforts to help a very dear friend get her website running properly.
Right now I am losing hair trying to secure a Members Only area of the site.
The htaccess file should work, but it winds up requiring a sign in every time you try to navigate pages within the members only folder. Interestingly, the problem only happens with Internet Explorer. I wrote it all using Firefox and have no trouble navigating, but IE requires a sign in for every page!!
The site is hosted on a Linux server. I heard that htaccess is geared for Apache servers only.
So I have two questions, the answers to which which will hasten my return to RPGMaking:
First:
Is the htaccess and htpassword combination usable on Linux Servers and if so where can I find a Complete-ish tutorial to help me understand what is going wrong? Even knowing what book to buy would help.
I am completely self taught and have HUGE gaping holes in my knowledge of the New Basics (when I learned to program I was punching cards!!)
Second:
Is php / mysql a better way to approach this on a Linux server?
I can find plenty of books on that, but it is even newer to me than html!
I think Doan or Vespuleth may be able to help here, but anyone with extensive knowledge or just ideas on where to find Complete info on htaccess stuff, please respond!
I found Many, many examples of htaccess scripts but they had no explanations of what the commands are doing or where they come from! Not even an identification of what scripting language they seem to use!
I am completely lost.
And it is keeping me from RPGM2! (I made a promise...) (I always keep my promises).
So... In brief:
HAAAAALLP!!
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Post by Doan the Nado on May 28, 2006 10:05:33 GMT -5
I think PHP/MySQL is your answer, but I myself do not have much knowledge in this area. The solution will likely have something to do with placing a cookie on someone's computer which erases itself when the person closes their browser. Then, for every HTTP request, the server checks to see if the cookie is there, and if so, it goes ahead and provides the requested information.
Like I said, though, ProBoards takes care of all that for me here, and since there are no restricted areas on the Domain website, I have not yet run into that problem.
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Post by Rodak on May 28, 2006 10:25:31 GMT -5
OK, Thanks!
I'll look into just exactly how to make and place cookies!
I never baked any digital cookies before!
Any advice on where to look for how to create them and place them in browsers?
I can do a web search for tutorials, but I find the results for such searches to be wildly inconsistent in usefulness!
As with this problem!
It seems that "Server Side" information is only partially explained.
I'll let you know how it goes!
Thanks again.
Peace.
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Post by vespuleth on May 28, 2006 14:58:51 GMT -5
first, if they are running a linux server, why arent they running apache? seems ridiculous not to... secondly: yeah, id go with php/mysql. set sessions and access (done much easier and more consistent (plus its far easier to encrypt) than htaccess, but what do i know). heres a link to some sessions related stuff at php.net us2.php.net/results.php?q=sessions&l=en&p=allagain, youll have to copy and paste, as i am lazy... if you need help knowing how to implement sessions, just ask. |
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Post by Rodak on May 29, 2006 5:42:20 GMT -5
I have no server side access, so I do not know if they are running apache or not.
I have zero experience with this aspect of web design.
I knew that the two servers were different types, but only yesterday found out that linux servers can run apache.
But that raises the question of just what the fluff apache is anyhow!
I thought it was a server type. Now I am finding out it is something that can be run on any server!
I told you I have HUGE gaping holes in the basics of this new fangled stuff!!
Gimme DOS any day!
Oy...
Still researching.
Can't even articulate a decent question yet...
Thanks for all the help!
I may be back with more questions once I can define just what I need to ask!!
Peace.
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Post by thetruecoolness on May 29, 2006 18:15:55 GMT -5
Well to clear up some of your confusion over naming, Apache is a web server program/service which can run on an operating system. It is not an operating system in itself though, like Windows Server OS or something like that. Apache usually comes standard on most Linux distos and it normally the default HTTP server program used (though for certain distros of Linux I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure it's the default on most).
So Apache is just a program that allows your computer to be a HTTP Server and runs on top of your OS (basically is just receives all traffic on port 80 (HTTP)).
As for the rest of your questions they are things I have meant to learn at some point but still haven't gotten around to. So unfortunately I can't help you there, though Ves seemed to have some pretty good suggestions on where to go. The php.org website does have tons of info and examples on the usage of it. Tonight I'll check through my setting up LAMP (Linux, MySql, Apache, PHP) book and see if it has any info on this kind of stuff.
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Post by Rodak on Jun 4, 2006 5:06:38 GMT -5
Thanks for the help! I was confused about Apache.
I am making progress, but got sidetracked setting up an rss feed!
I am really learning a lot by doing all this!
I'll be back to security next week...
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Post by Rodak on Jun 9, 2006 4:38:05 GMT -5
Problem Solved.
Sort of.
OK, Problem solved.. but it was not the htaccess file!
Every page on this site has embedded video files.
They are in rm format (Real Media Player).
For some reason I can not explain if you embed rm files, Internet Explorer will require a log in every time you navigate to such a page.
I switched to wmv files and it works Perfectly!!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!
Rassa-Frassa-Brassa-Crassa-Sassa-Lassa-Passa-Gassa-Smoka-Grassa!
Anyone have any clue WHY THE FLUFF That should be the case?
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Post by Doan the Nado on Jun 9, 2006 10:37:53 GMT -5
Well, Microsoft authored both Internet Explorer and .wmv format, so it could be some kind of attempt by them to promote their own ideas.
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Post by Rodak on Jun 9, 2006 16:27:01 GMT -5
Bill Gates should have his face sawed off.
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Post by Dungeon Warden on Jun 9, 2006 18:17:03 GMT -5
Video formate require decoding and every file type has their own codes. You can't blame Microsoft for this. It is a problem with all video types. I should know because one of the big problems we have in school right now is that everyone uses a different codex depending on what computer and software they use.
I ran into the problem myself when I tried to put all my animation files on a playable DVD and found that some file types worked and some didn't, even with the same extension (most were .avi files) Windows and PC prefer different codices as well. I have found a few formats that seem to work better then others, but it depends on how you plan to use the file.
Real player files are a special case in that I don't know any player that will run then except Real Player. .wmf can be run by other video players then Windows Media Player (as can .avi and .mov files) but .rm needs real player (and .qt files require Quicktime) to run. I not sure if that explains the problem but it might have something to do with it.
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Post by thetruecoolness on Jun 9, 2006 23:00:28 GMT -5
Well the reason for the avi extension not playing the same is because avi is just a wrapper format for other codecs, wereas realmedia (rm), windows media (wmv), and quicktime are both video formats and codecs in one, and with the exception of maybe quicktime (since it might allow for various mpeg codecs to be used) you can't use any other codec to make them. And since there are so many different codecs that can be used with AVI it gets pretty confusing at times. It would be nice to just have like 5 or less codecs, for its own purpose (size, quality, streaming) but I doubt anyone will ever agree on a standard one. I personally would stay away from realmedia as I hate RealPlayer with a passion, since it is infested with spyware, and various other annoying options, but there are much better players for avi and wmv than Windows Media Player as well (since media player doesn't even have deinterlacing). Another problem you might be having is the EMBED tag, which is pretty much IE exclusive anyway (though I think it will work in some cases on other browsers). Most people use Object tags to add in video players to their webpage, of course this requires knowing the arbitrary ID number for the video player you want to use, but I'm sure google can help with that. Also this might not work in all browsers or OSes, since I'm not sure the ID tag is the same or used in all OS. Here is an article about what the object tag is www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_object.asp, though you will need to google for specific media players (you will need the classid to make the browser be able to find the object, it can be a URL or a registry ID).. |
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Post by Rodak on Jun 11, 2006 8:02:39 GMT -5
It was just the real player being spyware!
The outgoing communications were triggering the security program somehow.
We were already using the object tag and classid# stuff.
It works flawlessly with wmv files!
Damn You, Bill Gates!!
Damn You To HELL!!
Damn You to the Gates of Hell!! (The Bill Gates of Hell?) (OBOY... the bad jokes are returning!!)
Thanks for all the info and help!
Peace.
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Post by thetruecoolness on Jul 30, 2006 5:27:09 GMT -5
Well for those interested in htaccess files which can be good for preventing hotlinking, fixing moved links, making custom error pages on shared servers, along with other things look here www.javascriptkit.com/howto/htaccess.shtmlReally good info on how to mess with all the .htaccess stuff, and also has really good comments on each page. I have been learning all the serverside stuff as well working with a friend on creating a webcomic site. I have the site completely working with PHP, and Javascript for the comic archive interface using AJAX to retrieve data interactively. I'm also wading through phpBB adding new features to it. And all my pages are valid XHtml 1.1, and actually display correctly on IE, which took a lot of headache. Feel free to check it out, only the site design is mine, the comic is my friends www.nuclearpoweredtoaster.com/ |
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Post by Rodak on Jul 30, 2006 8:31:35 GMT -5
Wow!
Thanks for the links.
The htaccess stuff is always great to see explained!
I'll check out your site later... on my way out.
Peace.
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