Chapter 2 - General Features
2.1 Analyzing Traffic to Your Site
2.1.1.1. Wusage 7.0
To count accesses, there is a directory called webstats in
your www directory. To access it, just log on the Internet
and with your web browser, go to:
- http://www.yourdomain.com/webstats/
*For some customers, url may be as follows:
http://www.yourdomain.com/wusage/
You will see a web page with statistics for your domain for
the previous week. If you are a brand new domain, you won't
see any statistics there yet. If you go to the link from that
page leading to Weekly Reports, you will see a much more
detailed report, including pie charts, graphs, etc. These
reports are automatically generated for you once each week,
and are stored in one place so you can compare weekly
statistics easily. The previous week's data is erased each
Sunday. For password protecting your webstats/ directory,
please goto Password Protected Subdirectories.
2.1.1.2. Raw Log File
In your home directory, you will see a file called access-log.
You can download this file using a FTP program and open it in
any word processor to see exactly what files were accessed,
what domain the visitor came from, the dates and times of each
visit, etc. You can also download this file to be used with
your own web traffic analyzer. The previous week's data is
erased each Sunday.
2.1.1.3. Referral Log
By turning on the referral log, you will be able to view
regular domain names in your traffic report rather than IP
addresses.
2.2 Email Alias and Forwarding
You can setup email aliases and forwarding by using SiteControl
at http://YOURDOMAIN.com/cpanel
Email alias is not a real email account. Instead it's an
address that forwards all email it receives to another email
account. For example, if you establish an email alias called
info@yourdomain.com to go to john@yourdomain.com, then all
email sent to info@yourdomain.com will be automatically
forwarded to john@yourodmain.com (In this case, 'info' is
called an alias of 'johndoe'.)
You can setup email alias so that email is forwarded to an
account outside of your domain name as well. For example, you
can setup info@yourdomain.com to go to johndoe@aol.com.
This way, you can have unlimited email addresses to fit your
needs with only a handful of actual email accounts.
You can setup email aliases and forwarding by using SiteControl
at http://YOURDOMAIN.com/cpanel
2.3 Email Autoresponders
An autoresponder is a simple way of setting up an email address
which will return a message automatically when someone sends
email to it. You can setup unlimited number of autoresponders
by going to SiteControl at http://YOURDOMAIN.com/cpanel
2.4 Majordomo Mailing List
With qualifying accounts, at least one Majordomo mailing list
comes standard with the plan. You should request the mailing
list to be setup Contact Us form.
Majordomo Users Guide
Once you receive your Majordomo password, you can start using
the list. It is being served by an automated mailing list
manager that responds to commands emailed to the "Majordomo
address" listed above. This guide has all the details of how
to manage your list remotely using Majordomo.
******
There's a lot of info here, so please read this completely and
carefully, and save it for future reference.
******
Your list-owner password is shown above. Keep track of this;
you'll need it later. Instructions for changing your password
are below.
As soon as possible, please issue a "newinfo" command for your
list (see below) to create the file that someone will receive
when they join or ask about your list.
You can issue a "who" command for your list to see who's
already on your list. You may or may not already be subscribed
to your own list.
================
The Gory Details
================
Your mailing list is managed by an automated mailing list
management program called Majordomo. Majordomo should free you
from dealing with most of the administrivia usually associated
with running mailing lists (adding users, dropping users,
etc.).
To submit something to your list, you (or anybody else) should
simply mail it to the list posting address shown at the top of
this file.
To be added to your list, a user simply sends a message to
majordomo.
address-- To: majordomo@FooBar.COM
message-- subscribe ListName
Majordomo understands several commands, and is not limited to
a single command per message (it will process commands until
reaching end-of-message or the command "end"). The command
"help" will tell you about all the other commands.
Actually, it won't tell you about _all_ the other commands that
Majordomo understands. There are several commands there for
use by list owners such as yourself, which are not advertised
to the public. All of these commands are password-protected on
a list-by-list basis, but anyone with a valid list/password
combination can invoke these commands. This is not exactly
high-tech security, but it's more intended to keep annoyance
to a minimum than to be foolproof.
The "documented" commands which Majordomo understands and which
are for everyone to use are:
subscribe <list> [<address>]
unsubscribe <list> [<address>]
which [<address>]
who <list>
info <list>
index <list>
get <list>
lists
help
end
You can get detailed explanations of all of these by asking
for "help" from Majordomo (send a message containing just the
word "help" as the message text to majordomo@FooBar.COM).
The "undocumented" commands for use by list owners are:
- approve <passwd> {subscribe|unsubscribe} <list>
[<address>]
This is so that you can approve subscription or
unsubscription actions that need approval by the list
owner. Note that this is just a standard "subscribe"
or "unsubscribe" command prefixed with "approve
<password>" (where you substitute the password for
your list, which is listed above, for "<password>").
- approve <passwd> who <list>
This allows you to get the list of addresses for your
anonymous list. Without the password, even the list
owner can not see who is on the list.
- passwd <list> <old_passwd> <new_passwd>
This is so you can change the password for your list,
if you desire.
- newinfo <list> <password>
This is so that you can replace the information file
that people get when they do "info <list>" or
"subscribe <list>". It reads everything after the
"newinfo" command to end-of-message or the word "EOF"
on a line by itself as the new info for the list.
- config <list> <password>
Retrieves a self-documenting configuration file for
the list <list>. The <password> can be the password
contained in the file <list>.passwd or the
admin_password in the configuration file.
- newconfig <list> <password>
Validates and installs a new configuration file. It
reads everything after the "newconfig" command to
end-of-message or the word "EOF" on a line by itself
as the new info for the list. The config file is
expected to be a complete config file as returned by
"config". Incremental changing of the config file is
not yet supported. As soon as the config file is
validated and installed its settings are available
for use. This is useful to remember if you have
multiple commands in your mail message since they will
be subject to the settings of the new config file. If
there is an error in the config file (incorrect
value...), the config file will not be accepted and
the error message identifying the problem line(s) will
be returned to the sender. Note that only the error
messages are returned to the sender not the entire
config file, so it would be a good idea to keep a copy
of your outgoing email message.
- writeconfig <list> <password>
Write a new config file in standard form. Writeconfig
forces a rewrite of the config file with all comments
and default values in place. It is useful to use after
an upgrade of majordomo since it will add the new
keywords for people to change. It also updates the
documentation in the file if that has changed.
Configuring Your List
=====================
You should retrieve the configuration file for your list. To
do this, send an email message to the majordomo address listed
at the top of this form. The contents of this message should
be:
config <list> <List password>
Where <list> <List password> are given at the top of the form.
You will receive a config file that can be used to change the
operation of your list. If the information at the top of this
form shows that resend is being used, you want to configure
the majordomo and resend subsystems. Otherwise you only have
to configure those items that are associated with the majordomo
system.
The configuration file is meant to be self documenting. Once
you have completed all of the changes to the config file, You
should use the newconfig command (described above) to put a
new configuration file in place.
If you have a digest version of your list, you should retrieve
the config file for the digest as well using:
config <Digest List Name> <Digest list password>
and configure the parameters for the digest and majordomo
subsystems.
Approval
========
When Majordomo requests your approval for something, it sends
you a message that includes a template of the approval message;
if you concur, you simply need to replace "PASSWORD" in the
template with your list password, and send the template line
back to Majordomo.
The requests for approval that Majordomo generates all start
with "APPROVE" in the "Subject:" line.
You aren't limited to approving only things to Majordomo
requests approval for. You can approve any "subscribe" or
"unsubscribe" request, regardless of whether Majordomo has
requested this approval, with an "approve" command. Thus,
you can subscribe or unsubscribe people from your list without
them having to send anything to Majordomo; just send an
appropriate "approve PASSWORD subscribe LIST ADDRESS" or
"approve PASSWORD unsubscribe LIST ADDRESS" command off to
Majordomo.
Bounced Messages
================
Majordomo may bounce certain messages that people attempt to
post to your mailing list. These messages may be bounced
because they appear to be administrative requests (i.e.,
someone mailed a request to subscribe or unsubscribe to the
posting address rather than to Majordomo or to the -request
address), because they are too long, because they match
strings that you or the list server owner has defined as
being "taboo", or for any of a number of other reasons, many
of which may seem annoying but have been decided upon as
being useful in stopping unwanted messages from making it
onto your list. (These are often configurable, so if you
find a check to be too restrictive you can generally turn it
off.) Note also that the bounces mentioned here are not the
same as the errors that will be returned by various mail
servers when addresses or hosts are unreachable. Those are
generally referred to as bounces, also; sorry for the
confusion.
Majordomo will forward these messages to you in another
message whose subject line begins with the word "BOUNCE";
the subject line will also indicate the name of the list
the message was bounced from (in case you manage more than
one list) and the reason the message was bounced. If you
decide that the message is OK and should not have been
bounced, then you can cause Majordomo to post it anyway by
sending the message back to the posting address (NOT to the
Majordomo address) with a special "Approved: password"
header. To do so, follow the following directions
_exactly_:
- Save the original message (the body of the message
you received from Majordomo) in a file. The portion
you need will consist of the headers of the original
message, followed by a single blank line, followed by
the text of the original message. You do not need to
include any of the headers of the message which
contained the original message. Here's a quick
example:
From: majordomo@list.server \
To: your-list-approval@list.server | Don't want
these headers
Subject: BOUNCE: taboo_header found /
- Blank line
>From list-member@her.site date \
Received: some long routing info | Headers of
original message;
From: list-member@her.site | You want these. It's
OK if you
To: your-list@list.server | don't have the first
line.
Subject: Just a message /
- Blank line, you _must_ have this!
Hello. I'm just writing to
consume some bandwidth and | Message body; include
all of
take up space in your mail | this.
spool!
Basically you want everything after (and not including)
the first blank line.
- Edit the file to insert a line that says "Approved:
password" (where "password" is the password for your
list) at the top, before the original message, with
absolutely no intervening space:
Approved: sekrit
>From list-member@her.site date
Received: some long routing info
From: list-member@her.site
To: your-list@list.server
Subject: Just a message
Hello. I'm just writing to
consume some bandwidth and
take up space in your mail
spool!
- Send this edited file back to the posting address for
your list (NOT to Majordomo). You should make sure that
your mailer doesn't try to do anything like include your
prepared mail as an attachment, encode it somehow,
indent every line, or add anything extra to the
beginning or end of the message. There are mailers that
will do pretty horrible things to messages before they
are sent; you should take care that you aren't using
one or, if you are, you have it configured to pass your
text on unchanged.
This time around, Majordomo will notice the "Approved:"
line and check it against your list password. If it
matches, Majordomo will strip off the header of your
message and the "Approved:" line (leaving just the
original message), and send the original message on
through.
Even your own messages may be bounced to you for approval.
To send out your own message without server checks
(perhaps you know it contains something the list server
will complain about) you can pre-approve the message
using one of the two following ways:
If you're using a mailer that can add additional
headers, add one like the following:
It's precise location within the headers is not
important.
If your mailer does not allow you to add additional
headers, you can add the line:
as the first line of the message, followed by a blank
line (which is required for your message to be sent
properly) followed by the text of your message. The
Approved: line and one following blank line will be
deleted and the message will be passed without being
checked. The blank line is important because it is
used to differentiate between a pre-approval and the
approval of a bounced message, outlined above.
Moderation
==========
If your list is moderated, (the moderate parameter in the
config file is yes) then messages without an "Approved:"
line are bounced, just as described above. To cause them
to be posted to the list, you add a valid "Approved:" line
and send them back, just as described above.
Restricting Posting
===================
An easier alternative to moderation is to restrict who can
post to the list, which can be done with the restrict_post
configuration variable. The variable requires a file listing
the people who can post.
The most common case is to limit posting to people who are
subscribed to the list. This keeps out advertisements and
other junk mail sent by non-subscribers. Since majordomo
already has a file of subscribers, you don't need to create
and maintain a file, so it's easy to set.
Change the restrict_post line to this, where <listname> is
the name of your list:
- restrict_post = <listname>
Digest
=======
A digest version of a list is a way to reduce the number of
messages sent from Majordomo to subscribers. Normally, each
message to the list is remailed to all the subscribers, but
with a digest, several messages are collected into a batch and
then sent together as one message. This does not reduce the
total size too much, although there are fewer mail header
lines-- the main purpose is to reduce the number of separate
messages. This actually helps the mail systems at both ends,
and may help subscribers reduce clutter in their mailboxes.
A Majordomo digest is actually a separate mailing list. The
digest of ListName would normally be called ListName-digest.
People subscribe independently to ListName and ListName-digest.
Very likely no one would want to be on both lists. To change
between ListName and ListName-digest, a subscriber needs to
unsubscribe from one list and subscribe to the other. This
can be done with one message to majordomo@FooBar.COM with
two command lines in it, e.g.:
unsubscribe ListName
subscribe ListName-digest
Remember that ListName-digest will have its own information
file and configuration file. Change them, if you want to,
when you change the same files for ListName.
Majordomo will send a digest automatically when the size of
the digest exceeds the size given as max_length in the
configuration file of the digest list. The default max_length
is 40 K. Thus the interval between digests can vary, but
they will be of a predictable size.
2.5 Telnet/SSH
NOTE: GlobeInt.com customers who have signed up after July 1,
1999 do not have telnet access. Telnet will be phased out
throughout year 2000 even for the existing customer. Please
use SSH client instead. A telnet account is just another
name for Unix/Linux UserID. When you sign up with us, you
get a UserID and password. You may ask for more than one such
UserID. See the Fee Schedule for pricing. Each telnet account
for your domain has its own separate home directory, but
shares the same www and FTP directories.
You need a telnet client program to access your telnet account.
Simply put in yourdomain.com as the host, and connect to the
server. When you are connected, you will be prompted for your
UserID and password. Some of the programs available at the
shell prompt are:
mail - a primitive email program
pine - a more powerful email program
ftp - to FTP onto other sites
telnet - to telnet to other sites
pico - an easy to use text editor
vi - a not so easy to use (but standard) text editor
Joe - another easy to use text editor
lynx - a text-based world wide web browser.
In general, it's a pretty complete POSIX environment. You
access these programs by typing in their names and then
following commands relevant to each program. If you need
help with any of the programs, at the shell prompt, type man
and the name of the program to get instructions for that
program online. If your problem is not knowing the name of
the program, try apropos subject (i.e. apropos mail). It is
important to remember that Unix is case-sensitive, and that
"Index.htm" is not the same as "index.htm."
QUICK TIP: If you experience problems with your telnet program
when accessing the above programs you will need to make a
entry in your login directories .bash_profile file. Just
add the following line to the file: export TERM=vt100. This
will allow you to access all shell programs properly.
NOTE: Telnet account is provided for file manipulations such
as changing permission settings, password protecting
sub-directories, and other minor account maintenance. It is
not provided as a full-blown Unix account. Please make sure
that you not abuse your telnet previlige.
9+ Character Names
A name of anywhere from 3-16 letters is legal for email
accounts, FTP accounts, and telnet accounts. There is no
limitation for file names on the server.
SSH
SSH (Secure Shell). SSH is a secure version of telnet
application that encrypts the session so that others cannot
eavedrop on the session. This improves the security because
password is never sent in the clear. Hence, we are
transitioning away from allowing telnet sessions toward using
ssh. This means that you need to get SSH client software on
your local machine.
FAQ:
- Which SSH Version are we running?
We employ SSH v1.x.
- Where do I get SSH software for my computer?
This depends on what kind of computer you are using.
Win32 (Windows9x, Windows NT):
beos:
Java:
OS/2:
Macintosh:
UNIX:
2.6 Anonymous FTP
IMPORTANT: Your anonymous ftp account is for light use
only. Your web hosting account is not designed for heavy
anonymous ftp usage for the purposes of distribution programs
and/or multimedia files. Please contact us for special pricing
for such usage.
Your anonymous ftp site is completely different from your web
site.
When people ftp to your domain anonymously, they will see the
following directories:
bin/ dev/ etc/ incoming/ lib/ pub/
"pub" is where you should put all your anonymously accessible
files.
"incoming" is for the anonymous users to upload files.
For security the following applies
Only the incoming directory can be written to anonymously
Subdirectories are not creatable
The incoming directory is not readable by people dropping files
there
You are responsible for any "pirated" software uploaded by the
anonymous users. The anonymous ftp sites will be periodically
monitored for any abuses.
You may ignore the other directories.
Accessing the Anonymous FTP site via the Web
To access the anonymous FTP site via the web, use the following
address:
ftp://[yourdomain].com/pub/
Your HTML to download a file called mirc511s.exe from a
webpage would look like this:
You should tell your visitors that they may need to right-click on
the link if they are PC users, or if they use a Macintosh, they
need to hold down the mouse button on the link, then select the
appropriate option from the:
Pop-up menu.
Please note its possible during peak hours to receive a "to
many anonymous users error", We must restrict the number of
simultaneous anonymous users to keep the webserver and normal
FTP performance within normal limits. If you receive this
error often you may want to put you downloadable files in
your main web directory and link to them with a http call
Example:
http://[yourdomain].com/files.zip
This assumes the zip files are in the main web directory.
2.7 Password Protecting Web Directories
QUICK TIP: If you are a FrontPage user, you should use
the password protection tool that comes with Microsoft®
FrontPage® 2000 EXCEPT when password protecting your webstats
directory. More detail IMPORTANT: You will need to use both
FTP and SSH to use this feature. This means if you have
Value Plan, you wouldn't be able to use this feature.
2.7.1. Using .htaccess
(Please note that for the following, foobar.com is used as an
example. You should substitute your own domain name in
its place.)
Suppose your domain name is foobar.com and want to password
protect
http://foobar.com/members/
you would need to do the following:
- Using a text editor such as Notepad in your local PC,
create a file called ".htaccess". Note that there is a
period in front of htaccess. The file should contain
following lines:
- ---COPY EVERYTHING BELOW--------------------
- AuthUserFile /home/foobar/.htpasswd
- AuthGroupFile /dev/null
- AuthName ByPassword
- AuthType Basic
-
- require user Spock
- ---COPY UP TO THE LINE ABOVE---------------
IMPORTANT: DON'T forget to replace "foobar" with
your own domain name. Please don't include .com or .net
extensions.
- Save the file in plain text.
- Upload the file via FTP to /www/foobar/member/ Make sure
you are uploading it in ASCII (plain text) mode.
- Log onto your account on our server via SSH.
- Type following line at the command prompt and hit
return:
htpasswd -c /home/foobar/.htpasswd Spock
This will create a file named .htpasswd in your home
directory.
- you will be prompted to type in the password for Spock.
- Let's say you want to add another user called Kirk.
- Type folling line at the command prompt and hit return:
htpasswd /home/foobar/.htpasswd Kirk
- You would then add "require user Kirk" to your .htaccess.
It would look like this:
- ---COPY EVERYTHING BELOW--------------------
- AuthUserFile /home/foobar/.htpasswd
- AuthGroupFile /dev/null
- AuthName ByPassword
- AuthType Basic
- <Limit GET POST>
- require user Spock
- require user Kirk
- </Limit>
- ---COPY UP TO THE LINE ABOVE---------------
- That's it. Test it by visiting
http://foobar.com/member/
You will be prompted to enter username and password.
2.7.2 Adding Additional Users and Passwords pairs
- Again SSH to your account.
- Type following line at the command prompt and hit
return:
htpasswd /home/foobar/.htpasswd Sulu
IMPORTANT: DON'T forget to add "require user
Sulu" to your .htaccess file.
- You may reuse existing user/password combinations that
you created in your .htpasswd file to allow access
other password protected directories -- just use the
right user name in the .htaccess file.
IMPORTANT: You should store the .htpasswd file
in your home directory so it is hidden from others.
2.8 SSI (Server Side Includes)
In order for your SSI to work, the web page must have
either .sht or .shtml extensions.
Sample SSI:
<!--#exec cgi="/cgi-bin/count.cgi"-->
Please note that the url must be relative as shown above.
Following would not work:
<!--#exec.cgi="http://yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/count.cgi"-->
For more discussion on SSI, please
click
here.
2.9.1 Administering MailMan
(For information on accessing Mailman, creating your Mailman
list, or converting your majordomo list, please
click here
Mailing lists allow you to maintain contact with a wide range of
people, and help develop communities. Mailman is a fully web-based
mailing list manager, which allows you to administer your lists
and your users to subscribe and unsubscribe using only a browser.
Mailman includes other features such as message archiving, so
users can browse past messages on your list.
When you choose to administer existing accounts, then you will be
shown the General Options page for your list and will also see a
listing of the other categories of settings that are available.
For all of these categories you will be able to makechanges using
your browser, but none of the changes will go into effect until
you go to the bottom of the screen and click the Submit Your
Changes button. Changes will then be immediately put into effect
-- nothing needs to be changed or restarted on the list server
itself.
The remainder of this document will talk about each of the settings
as they appear in the configuration categories for your list. Note
that each list server is configured with different default settings,
so this document does not assume that any particular setting will
be the default when you look at your own list.
2.9.2 Mailman: Quick Reference
This document is intended to serve as a quick reference guide for
mail list managers. It will briefly outline some of the more common
tasks that are assigned to persons who "own" a list, normally a
novice list administrator who only needs to know about a few of
Mailman's features. Persons wanting a complete reference for all
of Mailman's list administration functions should read the
Administrator's Manual for
complete information.
Accessing your list management screen.
When your list was created and you were designated the "owner" by
the system administrator you should have received a welcome note
informing you that your list was active. You can now access the
administrative functions through Sitecontrol by going to the
Email Manager and then selecting Mailman lists. You will then be
able to create new lists, convert existing majordomo lists, and
administer existing lists.
Changing maximum message size.
Mailman places a limit on the size of message that it will deliver
to prevent large messages from disrupting the list server of user
mailboxes. In some cases the default value may not be large enough
to allow messages and file attachments to pass through in a manner
suitable for your list's purpose. To change the limit:
- Access your list management screen.
- In the General Options section, near the bottom, locate the
field for "Maximum length in Kb of a message body" field.
Change the limit to something suitable, or enter 0 for no
size limit.
- Click the "Submit your changes" button at the bottom of the
screen to put the changes into effect.
Removing a user from a list.
Mailman allows the list manager to remove an individual from their
mail list, but the method is not entirely intuitive.
- Access your list management screen.
- In the Membership Management section, find the line with
the e-mail address of the individual that you would like
to remove.
- The check mark in the first column by their address, labeled
"subscr" indicates that they are subscribed to your
list. Uncheck the box by the address that you would like to
remove.
- Click the "Submit your changes" button at the bottom
of the screen to put the changes into effect.
Add a member to your list
Mailman allows a list manager to add people for their mail list, but
the method is not intuitively named.
- Access your list management screen.
- In the Membership Management section, scroll down to the area
labeled "Mass Subscribe Users."
- Type the address of the individual that you would like to add
into the text box. If you would like to add more than one
person, enter each address on a separate line.
- If you would like to send a welcome message to the new members
then make sure that the "yes" button is checked.
This will send the new members their password and list
configuration instructions.
- Click the "Submit your changes" button at the bottom
of the screen to put the changes into effect.
Note: Network etiquette generally frowns on opt-out lists -- adding
unsuspecting persons to a list and then telling them that they can
leave if they want. Do not use Mailman for unconscionable activities
such as sending Spam.
Keep unwanted persons from joining
Mailman allows you to prevent persons from joining your list without
explicit approval of the administrator. To activate this feature:
- Access your list management screen.
- In the Privacy Options section look at the second field, labeled
"what steps are required for subscription."
- Set the option to "require approval" or
"confirm+approval" and click the "Submit your
changes" button at the bottom of the screen.
Future subscription requests will cause Mailman to send you an e-mail
message telling you that someone has tried to join your list. Go to
the URL in the message and then use the on-screen form to accept or
reject their request.
2.9.3. General Options
Mailman's general options allow you to specify most of the ways that
your mail list will interact with the web server and how it will
present itself to the users. The text in the "setting" should
match the different characteristics listed under General Features. The
description content provides a brief description of each setting as
well as guidelines for use when appropriate.
Setting
|
Description
|
The public name of this list (make case-changes only).
|
This is the name by which the list will be referred to in
all automatically generated messages as well as on the listing
of lists available on the server. Note that this name must match
the name of the list as it was created -- you may only change
the case of the name in this field.
|
The list admin's email address - having multiple
admins/addresses (on separate lines) is ok.
|
This field should contain the e-mail address of the list
administrator. The list administrator will receive all
administrative messages generated by the server as well as any
requests that require approval (postings to moderated lists or
requests to subscribe to non-open lists).
Note: the persons listed as administrators do not
automatically receive copies of list traffic. If they want to
participate in the list they must also add their address as a
subscriber.
|
A terse phrase identifying this list.
|
This phrase will appear in two places: on the general
listinfo page showing all of the lists hosted on the server, and
in the header of all messages sent through the list itself. This
value is best kept short.
|
An introductory description - a few paragraphs - about the
list. It will be included, as html, at the top of the listinfo
page. Carriage returns will end a paragraph.
|
This information will be included at the top of the
listinfo page for this list. In cases where the listinfo page is
used to entice people to join the list you would want to use this
setting to provide a detailed description of the purpose and
nature of the list.
|
Prefix for subject line of list postings.
|
This value will be added to the beginning of the subject
line of all list traffic in order to help members identify/filter
list traffic. By default the value is the name of the list
enclosed in [square brackets]. You may modify this value to
something other than the name of the list.
|
List-specific text prepended to new-subscriber welcome
message.
|
When new users join your list, or when they are added by
the list manager, they receive a note welcoming them to the list
and telling them about their password and list-related URLs. Text
contained in this box will be prepended to the generic technical
information so that you can let them know about specific
procedures or protocols related to their participation in the
list.
|
Text sent to people leaving the list. If empty, no special
text will be added to the unsubscribe message.
|
This is your last chance to get a word in when people
leave your list.
|
Are replies to a post directed to the original poster or
to the list? Poster is strongly recommended.
|
When poster is selected, the reply-to line will be written
by Mailman so that persons hitting reply in their mail program
will send their response back to the individual who posted the
note. When this value is set to list, the reply-to line will be
rewritten so that persons hitting reply in their mail program
will send their response back to the list itself.
While the program suggests that this be set to poster, you should
consider the purpose of the list in selecting this value. Lists
that intend to focus on discussion are best set to
"list" to encourage conversation. Lists used for
announcements are best set to poster to prevent unwanted traffic
and the inadvertent broadcast of replies.
|
(Administrative filter) Check postings and intercept ones
that seem to be administrative requests?
|
If you activate this feature Mailman will check traffic
for administrative requests that have inadvertently been sent to
the list. This will prevent the classic case of a user sending
a note to the entire list membership saying
"unsubscribe."
|
Send password reminders to, eg, "-owner" address
instead of directly to user.
|
This is a setting that Mailman refers to internally as the
"umbrella list" setting. If your list does not actually
consist of people but instead of lists (so that messages cascade
from this "umbrella" down into the constituent lists)
then you want this setting to be yes. This means that the
password and subscription information will not be sent to all of
the members of the constituent list, but instead to the list
owner alone.
|
Suffix for use when this list is an umbrella for other lists,
according to setting of previous "umbrella_list"
setting.
|
When using your list as an umbrella list as mentioned above, this
setting is what will be used to specify who the owners of the
constituent lists are. While -owner is not universal, it will
cover the conventions used by most of the mail list managers that
are used today (and will work with Mailman lists).
|
Send monthly password reminders or no? Overrides the
previous option.
|
When set to yes, list members will receive an
automatically generated monthly posting reminding them of their
password as well as the URLs to access their list configuration
options. This will save you're a lot of time as administrator as
it will let users solve a lot of their own problems.
|
Send welcome message when people subscribe?
|
When set to yes people who join the list or who are added
by the list administrator will receive an automatically generated
welcome message with information including the list address,
their password, and the URLs needed to access their list
preferences.
|
Should administrator get immediate notice of new requests,
as well as daily notices about collected ones?
|
This setting dictates the frequency with which the list
administrator is told of pending administrative requests: either
notes awaiting moderator approval or subscription request for
controlled lists. By default the server will send a daily
reminder of the pending requests. If the list owner would like
more immediate notification then they should check
"yes" here for immediate notice of each request.
The notification that you receive will include a URL that will
take you to the pending administrative requests page detailed
near the end of this document.
|
Should administrator get notices of
subscribes/unsubscribes?
|
Because list membership is checked easily through the web,
the list manager may not feel that it is necessary to know of all
of the comings and goings of list members (especially on large
lists with a lot of turnover). Saying yes here will tell Mailman
to send a short note to the list manager for each person that is
added or removed from the list.
Note: Mailman does not currently let the list manager block
persons from leaving the list. If you are running a list for
something like a course or committee, where participation is
mandatory, make sure to have this set this to "yes" so
you will be informed of unauthorized departures.
Note: If you are migrating large lists over to Mailman, or if
you are creating new lists using the mass subscribe feature, you
may want to deactivate this initially so that the manager is not
flooded with innumerable subscribe notices.
|
Send mail to poster when their posting is held for
approval?
|
Setting this option to yes will send a short "we have
your message and it is awaiting approval" note to persons
whose postings are being held for approval. This is a useful
"courtesy" and will help people on moderated lists from
wondering why their note never showed up. This message will
also be sent to non-members who attempt to post to lists that
allow posting for members only.
|
Maximum length in Kb of a message body. Use 0 for no limit.
|
This setting will allow you to specify the maximum size of
messages allowed to be passed through the list to the
subscribers. This is an important security measure as it allows
you to block a malicious poster from bombing everyone's list
with a large file and it prevents your server from being tied up
delivering inappropriately large messages.
If you do not wish to have a limit on the size of message, set
this value to 0.
|
Number of outgoing connections to open at once (expert users
only).
|
This is the number of parallel connections that Mailman will open
to deliver traffic on the list. Only system administrators should
modify this value.
|
Host name this list prefers.
|
For multi-home hosts (systems that have different aliases)
this would be the value that Mailman uses to identify itself. You
should not attempt to modify this value without consulting your
system administrator or Mailman may cease to work.
|
Base URL for Mailman web interface.
|
This is the base portion of the Mailman URL that will be
prepended to all of the pointers to specific web features. You
should not attempt to modify this value without consulting your
system administrator or Mailman may cease to work.
|
2.9.4 Membership Management
The membership management section allows you to do two things:
add/remove users from your list, or adjust the custom user settings.
Adding and Removing Members
The addition and removal of members is done thought the membership
management screen. When you access this screen you will be shown a
table listing all of your subscribers as well as their current member
settings. Through this screen Mailman allows the list manager to
remove an individual from their mail list, but the method is not
entirely intuitive.
Find the line with the e-mail address of the individual that you would
like to remove.
- The check mark in the first column by the user address, labeled
"subscr" indicates that user is subscribed to your
list. Uncheck the box by the address that you would like to
remove.
- Click the "Submit your changes" button at the bottom
of the screen to put the changes into effect.
Mailman allows a list manager to add people for their mail list through
this screen, but the method is not intuitively named.
- Scroll down to the area
labeled "Mass Subscribe Users."
- Type the e-mail address of
the individual that you would like to add into the text box. If
you would like to add more than one person then each address
should be entered on a separate line.
- If you would like to send a
welcome message to the new members then make sure that the
"yes" button is checked. This will send the new members
their passwords and list configuration instructions.
- Click the "Submit your changes" button at the bottom of
the screen to put the changes into effect.
Note: You will almost always want to send new subscribers the welcome
message so that they have their password and the information necessary
to customize their configuration.
Note: Network etiquette generally frowns on opt-out lists apart from
their common use within an organization for official communications and
notices -- adding unsuspecting persons to a list and then telling them
that they can leave if they want. Do not use Mailman for unconscionable
activities such as sending Spam.
Subscriber Options
In the main table each participants address is shown along with the
current options for that user's list settings. As list administrator
you have the capability to modify any of the options for each of your
subscribers. Modifications are made by checking or unchecking the boxes
for each feature on the row corresponding to the subscriber's settings
that you wish to change. After making the modifications you need to
click the "Submit Your Changes" button at the bottom of the
screen to put them into effect. Note that because these settings
are user configurable not all users may have the same settings when you
look at this page. Do not be alarmed, it simply means that they have
taken the time to modify their settings.
Setting
|
Values
|
subscr
|
This setting indicates whether or not the member is subscribed.
If you uncheck this box and then submit the changes on this page
the user will be removed from the list.
|
hide
|
As a privacy feature, Mailman allows subscribers to make
themselves invisible to others as part of the web-based e-mail
subscriber list. A check here indicates that the person will not
appear to others as a member of the list. This setting does not
affect the ability of the list manager to see the subscriber on
the list management page.
|
nomail
|
Users may disable mail delivery if, for example, they are going
to be away from their mail but do not want to unsubscribe.
Mailman's bounce feature may also set a user to nomail status if
mail to their address experiences delivery problems. See
the section on bounce handling for more information.
|
ack
|
Members may request that Mailman send a short acknowledgement
when a they post a message to the list. Members find this useful
for moderated lists so that they know that their posting was
delivered to the moderator successfully.
|
not metoo
|
In the event that members find their own posts annoying, thay can
tell Mailman not to include them in the delivery of their own
postings to the list.
|
digest
|
If the digest feature has been activated for the list, members
may choose to receive list traffic bundled as a single large
message as opposed to receiving individual messages. This setting
indicates whether the member will receive individual posts or
the digest.
|
plain
|
When a user opts for digest delivery, this setting indicates
whether the digest will be delivered as plain text or in MIME
format. Most users of modern, GUI-based mail clients can handle
MIME traffic with no problems. Persons using character-based
mail clients should opt for plain-text digests.
|
2.9.5 Privacy Options
Mailman was created with the privacy shortcomings of other lists in
mind. There are a number of manager-configurable settings that can help
in preventing spam, subscription abuse, and widespread disclosure of
list traffic to non-subscribers.
Subscribing
Description
|
Value
|
Advertise this list when people ask what lists are on this
machine?
|
In general, people in the outside world can see a list of
available Mailman lists by visiting
http://name.of.host/mailman/listinfo
By setting this value to "no," this list will not be
included in the directory of available lists.
|
What steps are required for subscription?
|
Confirm: when a subscription request is made a message will be
sent back to the address being added. The new member will have
to reply to the message (without having to modify anything) for
their subscription to become active. This prevents someone from
maliciously adding people against their will.
Require Approval: when a subscription request is made a note will
be sent to the list administrator letting them know that a person
is petitioning to join. The list administrator will be given a
URL to follow that will then show them the request and allow them
to approve or deny it via the web.
Confirm+Approval: includes both of the above.
|
Membership exposure
Description
|
Value
|
Who can view subscription list?
|
This setting dictates access to the subscription list via
the web.
Anyone: this allows anyone in the world to browse by and take a
look at who the members of your list are. Never ever use this
setting unless you are trying to say "I have contempt for
all of my list members and hope that they get spammed out of
their minds."
List members: this is the traditional setting for most lists,
allowing participants to see who the other people on the list
are but blocking view to the general public. This settings can
be overridden by individual users who have set the
"hide" option for their account.
List admin only: only the administrator can see the list
members.
|
Show member addrs so they're not directly recognizable as
email addrs?
|
This is a nice feature that discourages theft of lists: the
membership list does not show actually addresses but instead
shows participants as "username at foo.com". This
should block most harvesters if they manage to get through to
the listing.
|
General posting filters
Mailman allows you a good deal of control over who may and may not post
to the list. Because there is a bit of good old-fashioned logic
involved some people may be confused by these settings. Please see the
chart following the descriptions of the settings for an illustration
of how these settings work in concert.
Description
|
Value
|
Must posts be approved by an administrator?
|
This settings defines the list as "moderated" or
"unmoderated" in most people's minds. If set to yes,
postings are held and the administrator is notified of their
existence. They may then approve or reject postings via the web
interface. If set to "no," postings to the list are
immediately delivered to list membership.
|
Restrict posting privilege to list members?
(member_posting_only)
|
Under nearly all circumstances this should be set to
"yes." This restriction will cause Mailman to hold for
administrative review all posts to the list that do not
originate from a list member. Setting this to yes prevents you
from being spammed by people who manage to get a hold of your
list address.
Note: there is a use to setting this to no, see the chart
below.
|
Addresses of members accepted for posting to this list without
implicit approval requirement.
|
This settings can be used to designate posting privileges to
persons who are not subscribers to the list. It may also be used
to specify persons who are exclusively allowed to post. Please
see the chart below for explanation.
|
Posting privileges explained
The posting privileges settings outlined above actually interact with
one another. This chart will help to explain their use so that you can
optimally configure your posting privileges. Each box shows who may
post for each of the configurations.
Who is allowed to post?
|
Posting restricted to list members?
|
|
|
Are there implicitly approved people?
|
Yes
|
List members and individuals listed.
|
Only listed persons may post.
|
No
|
List members only.
|
Anyone in the universe.
|
Spam-specific posting filters
Value
|
Description
|
Must posts have list named in destination (to, cc) field
(or be among the acceptable alias names, specified below)?
|
This prevents the list from being used as part of a BCC
(Blind Carbon Copy) spam.
|
Alias names (regexps) which qualify as explicit to or cc
destination names for this list.
|
Helps Mailman make allowances for mail systems that do not
substitute the address for alias or for mail servers where list
address receives mail from an alias with a different name.
|
Ceiling on acceptable number of recipients for a posting.
|
Prevents the list from being used as part of a mass recipient
spam. Also discourages use of list as recipient of office
jokecast notes and bogus solicitations.
|
Addresses whose postings are always held for approval.
|
Allows manager to designate special special individuals whose
postings are always held for approval while when postings are
otherwise allowed through.
|
Hold posts with header value matching a specified regexp.
|
Allows you to filter out known addresses or domains that
function primarily as spambone providers.
|
Hide the sender of a message, replacing it with the list
address (Removes From, Sender and Reply-To fields)
|
This tells Mailman to rewrite the header so that traffic appears
to be coming from the list itself instead of the original poster.
Provides some added privacy for posters, but may be annoying to
some list members as mailbox headers show only the list name
instead of the actual poster.
|
2.9.6 Regular Member Options
These are options that affect the normal mail traffic that is delivered
immediately and individually to list members.
Setting
|
Description
|
Can subscribers choose to receive mail immediately, rather than
in batched digests?
|
While this seems a bit silly, it is really asking about what
options are available to list members. If you say no, then
subscription to the list will be available only as a digest.
|
Header added to mail sent to regular list members.
|
Allows you to add a uniform header to all notes passing
through the list.
|
Footer added to mail sent to regular list members.
|
Allows you to add a uniform footer to all notes passing through
the list. The default footer shows the list name, the list
address, and the URL that persons can go to in order to access
the list information and change their settings.
Note: including this footer information will cut down on the
number of times list users will have to contact the list
administrator asking for things such as their configuration
access information and the like.
|
2.9.7 Digest Options
These options affect the way that the list will process messages that
are to be delivered to subscribers in the form of a digest. Unlike
other mail list managers, the digest feature of Mailman is built into
the package and it easy to activate and configure.
Setting
|
Description
|
Can list members choose to receive list traffic bunched in
digests?
|
This setting allows you to specify whether or not users can opt
to receive mail traffic to the list in the form of a digest.
Note: There are some instances, such as a list for emergency
announcements, where you want mail to be delivered immediately
in all cases and where you would want to disable the digest
feature.
|
Which delivery mode is the default for new users?
|
This setting specifies whether new users added by the list
manager default to regular or digest delivery. Users adding
themselves to the list via the listinfo page are given the option
to choose for themselves: the options selected here is what will
be chosen for them as a default.
|
How big in Kb should a digest be before it gets sent out?
|
Mailman will collect list traffic until this threshold is
reached, then it will deliver the digest to users. This setting
is useful in preventing digests from containing so many messages
that the reader becomes disoriented.
|
Should a digest be dispatched daily when the size
threshold isn't reached?
|
When installed, Mailman is set to run a daily maintenance script.
If you check yes for this option Mailman will send a digest at
the specified time even though the size threshold has not been
reached. This is a good idea for low traffic lists that may take
some time in reaching the threshold.
Note: By default, the daily dispatch time is noon (server time).
If you want to be sure of the time that your daily dispatch goes
out ask the system administrator of your system.
|
Header added to every digest.
|
Allows you to add a uniform header to all digests passing
through the list.
|
Footer added to every digest.
|
Allows you to add a uniform footer to all digests passing
through the list. The default footer shows the list name, the
list address, and the URL that persons can go to in order to
access the list information and change their settings.
Note: including this footer information will cut down on the
number of times list users will have to contact the list
administrator asking for things such as their configuration
access information and the like.
|
2.9.8 Bounce Options
Unlike many other mail list managers, Mailman includes built-in bounce
handlers to help the list manager deal with address that have delivery
problems. If you run large lists with dynamic membership then
these settings may save you a lot of time in helping to weed out
addresses that go bad.
Value
|
Description
|
Try to figure out error messages automatically?
|
Tells Mailman whether or not to bother you with bounce messages.
Mailman does a pretty good job of figuring out error messages
generated with RFC-compliant mail agents. On large lists with a
large number of subscribers coming and going, this feature will
save you a lot of reading from MAILER-DAEMON.
|
Minimum number of days an address has been non-fatally bad
before we take action.
|
In the even that there is a problem reaching a host or domain,
this setting tells Mailman how long to hold onto the delivery
error messages before taking action. In practice, this is a good
way of preventing persons from getting bounced just because their
network is flaky and not reliably reachable.
|
Minimum number of posts to the list since members first
bounce before we consider removing them from the list.
|
This amounts to telling Mailman how many times to try
someone before giving up.
|
Maximum number of messages your list gets in an hour.
|
Mailman uses this guesstimate to help figure out some of the
characteristics of the bounce notifications that it receives.
Give this setting your best shot.
|
Action when critical or excessive bounces are detected.
|
This setting tells Mailman what to do when one of the above
conditions are met, or when a "fatal" error is recorded
attempting to deliver to an address.
Do nothing: Mailman will keep attempting to deliver to the
address despite the futility of the effort -- this setting in
effect disable automatic bounce handling.
Disable and notify: Mailman set the problem account to
"nomail" status and notifies you of the problem.
Disable and DON'T notify: sets problem account to
"nomail" status but doesn't bother you with the
details.
Remove and notify me: removes the problem account from the list
and sends a note to the list manager.
|
2.9.9 Archival Options
Unlike other mail list managers, Mailman has a built-in archival
feature that is easily activated and configured by the list manager.
Value
|
Description
|
Archive messages?
|
Setting this to "yes" will cause Mailman to
store a record of all traffic sent thorough the list.
|
Is archive file source for public or private archival?
|
If set to "private," then only list members are able
to access the contents of the list archive. They will be prompted
for their list password when the try to access the contents.
Setting this to "public" will allow anyone to access
the list archives through the listinfo page.
Note: think carefully about whether your list membership wants
their identities and postings made available to the world at
large by making the archive public. Public access means that web
spiders will be able to store and make available member's
writings outside of the context of the list to which they were
posted to the list.
|
Set date in archive to when the mail is claimed to have been
sent, or to the time we resend it?
|
Determines whether the message is stored with the time stamp of
the sender when the note was sent, or the time stamp at the time
it was approved by the moderator (when applicable).
|
How often should a new archive volume be started?
|
The main archive screen for a list breaks down the archive
content based on this setting. There is no best setting here,
only what is, most appropriate based on the list's function and
the amount of traffic that it receives.
|
2.9.10 Mail-News and News-Mail
In the event that you find it useful to gate your list traffic onto
USENET, you can use these settings to set up the service. Note that
you may need to talk to your system or network administrator to make
sure that your news server will work nicely with this list gateway.
Value
|
Description
|
The Internet address of the machine your News server is
running on.
|
This is the host name of your NNTP server. If in doubt, contact
your system administrator for this setting. Make sure to use a
host that you have permission to post to.
|
The name of the Usenet group to gateway to and/or from.
|
Make sure that this newsgroup is available on your news server.
|
Should posts to the mailing list be resent to the newsgroup?
|
Specifies whether messages sent to the list should be sent
to the news group for the entire world to see.
|
Should newsgroup posts not sent from the list be resent to
the list?
|
Specifies whether or not messages posted by people out there in
the world who are not members of the list should be gated and
distributed to list members.
|
2.9.11 Other Administrative Activities
In addition to the web-based access to list settings, Mailman provides
three links at the top of each administrative page for
"other" activities.
Tend to pending administrative requests.
There are primarily three instances when you will need to tend to
administrative requests. Whether the administrator is notified
immediately for each request or just once per day is dictated by the
switch in Mailman's general settings section. Note that if you have
multiple requests pending you can work your way down the page clicking
the appropriate action for each request before submitting them all at
once. You do not need to click on the submit action on this page after
answering individual requests.
1. When a posting is held because it was posted by a non-member. If
you are running a list on which only members can post, items that
are being held for review will appear in this section for your
review. As the list administrator you have three options.
- Accept the posting and forward it to list members.
- Deny approval: the original poster will be sent notification of
the rejected posting request along with the explanation that
appears in the message box on this screen. You may customize the
message as you see fit.
- Reject the message with no notification sent to the poster. This
is particularly useful for spam.
2. When you operate a moderated list, you will use this feature to
accept or reject postings following the same guidelines as for
non-members postings above.
3. When you operate a list where subscription requires administrator
approval, user petitions to join will be listed on this page. You
should click accept or deny as appropriate.
Go to the general list information page.
Following this link takes you to the list's "public"
information page. This is the page that your subscribers use to log in
and modify their settings, it is also the gateway to the list
archive.
Edit the HTML for the public list pages.
Mailman allows you to customize the look and feel for many of the pages
that are accessible by your list subscribers. This is nice if you want
to take the time to "brand" web pages. The following pages
can be customized:
- The general list information page
- The subscriptions results page
- The user specific options page
- The changing user options results page
- The archives index page
When you follow the link to a particular page you are shown the source
HTML in a browser window. In order to make modification you will need
to know how to write raw HTML code and insert it in the proper places
in the page source. It is important to note that within the source
there are embedded Mailman fields that are inserter on-the-fly when
the user loads the page. You can identify the Mailman fields because
they are enclosed in angle brackets and are of the form
<MM-Field-Name>
It is suggested that you not make modifications to the Mailman field
tags unless you are an advanced user who understands the implications
of modifying or removing these fields.
|