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About Internet Services
What is Internet Services?
Internet Services is the module that connects your FirstClass Server to the outside world (Internet) and supports a wide variety of protocols, such as SMTP, HTTP, FTP, POP3, and IMAP4. Internet Services also supports webserver extensions, such as ISAPI and CGI.
 NoteAlthough Internet Services is a separate module in the FirstClass architecture, it does not act independently. The FirstClass server and Internet Services are strongly interdependent, so what you do with Internet Services may have an impact on the FirstClass server. The same holds true in reverse.
For Internet Services system requirements and installation procedures, see the instructions located on your FirstClass Desktop.
For advanced information such as script variables, see Conferences/Peer to Peer Support/FirstClass Webmasters/FAQs on our own server, FCOL.
What you should already know
This online help is intended for FirstClass administrators responsible for supporting Internet Services on Mac, Windows® or Linux platforms.
You should be familiar with the capabilities and terminology of your:
• FirstClass server
• FirstClass administrator’s Desktop
• FirstClass client software
• operating system.
You should also have a general understanding of Internet protocols and domain name servers, and be familiar with basic Internet concepts.
How Internet Services works
Internet Services converts data from FirstClass format, FirstClass protocol (FCP), into the appropriate Internet format and sends it out to the Internet. In turn, Internet Services takes incoming information from the Internet and converts it back into FCP. All FirstClass content can be sent out to the Internet including messages, conferences, documents, server-parsed files, and web pages. FCP is the language the FirstClass server speaks and is used to access the core services of FirstClass. FCP can be thought of as the conduit that connects FirstClass clients,
gateways, and core servers together.
Internet Services bi-directionally translates FirstClass formatted data from the server into the appropriate protocol for the Internet and back again. The diagram below shows this relationship:
 Let’s use an analogy to explain the role of Internet Services. You can think of a FirstClass system as a United Nations (UN) meeting, where Internet Services acts as a team of UN translators. The FirstClass server represents the UN speaker standing on a podium giving a speech in one language to delegates speaking different languages. This speech must be translated into several different languages that each delegate can understand. In turn, if the delegates respond, their respective languages must be translated back to the speaker into the one language he understands. This translation is handled by Internet Services.
Just as a team of translators must make sure the multiple languages are translated between the UN speaker and the delegates, so must Internet Services make sure data is translated between the Internet and the FirstClass server.
You can think of the multiple languages as different Internet protocols. These protocols must be translated into the one language the server understands (FCP). Internet Services must then translate FCP back into Internet-friendly protocols. The traffic moves in both directions simultaneously, and many conversations can occur at once. There is no place to store missed conversation, so it is important for everything to get translated on the fly. The translation must happen quickly, accurately, and without fail.
Basic Internet Services administration
By default, Internet Services is installed with a great deal of functionality. If all you want to do is support a basic web server on your site (for example, run SMTP mail only, allow web client accessibility for your users, and monitor your site's daily activities) these are the tasks you need to do:
• add SMTP information to your MX records in your Domain Name Server (DNS) to allow users to send and receive mail
You must already know how to do this task on your operating system.
• add your default web site (set up when you install FirstClass) address in the MX records in your DNS
You must already know how to do this task on your operating system.
• enable or disable third-party email capabilities (for example, POP3 and IMAP4) on the Mail tab on the Basic Internet Setup form
• disable outside Directory access (LDAP) on the Directory tab on the Basic Internet Setup form
• set your Internet Services gateway password
• configure your Internet Services connection schedule
• edit the default home page, located in the Internet Services/WWW/Main Site folder on the administrator's Desktop
If you are not running a customized web site, you can use the default home page. However, we recommend that, at the very least, you add your site name and logo to orient users when they access your site.
• create filter documents to trust or block specific individuals or sites (manage spam)
 Note If you wish to use filter documents to block addresses, you must enable "Reject connections based on Filters" on the Connections tab on the Basic Internet Setup form.
• add words and attachment extensions to the rules.SubjectBlock and rules.AttachmentBlock filter documents you wish to block from your users
Filter documents are enabled automatically if they reside in the Filters container.
• configure the Real Blackhole Lookup (RBL) subtab on the Basic Internet Setup form to control spam
• configure the MailRules subtab on the Basic Internet Setup form to control how Internet Services mail rules handle and score spam, and to set the number of SMTP crosspostings on your site
• provide your users with additional email aliases and configure how mail is delivered to a user's Mailbox based on his aliases (optional)
• monitor Internet Services on a daily basis to check spam and unwanted connections, and maintain the health and viability of your FirstClass site
Beyond the basics
There are various ways to enhance your FirstClass site and make it more robust and sophisticated. To expand your site's basic functionality, you can:
• use browser steering to steer users logging in through different platforms to your site or to different sites you support
• support separate protocols and domains on different Internet Services clusters
• change the appearance of your web site using the .sitepref form
• create web sites or multiple web sites and languages
• publish web site content
• customize your site structure using FirstClass templates, which use FirstClass Internet Services script
• make your site more dynamic using CGI and ISAPI scripting applications
• extend how your site handles external attachments using the MIME Types file
• edit the InetSvcs.cf file and work with file logging, debugging, and task lists
• manage your FirstClass Internet Services system security
• configure advanced SMTP mail rules.
Internet Services protocols
Although Internet Services is implemented as a single protocol module, it actually comprises multiple protocol services.
Gateway services
Gateway services moves bulk content in and out of FirstClass using:
• Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)
• Internet Mail Application Protocol (IMAP4)
• Post Office Protocol 3 (POP3) importer
• Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) for web servers.
NoteNNTP is no longer supported.
Client services
Client services renders FirstClass Network Store content to alternative clients using:
• HTTP
• File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
• POP3 client
• IMAP4 client.
Directory services
Directory services renders Directory content to alternate clients using Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP).
File services
File services lets you access FirstClass and non-FirstClass documents with Internet Services acting as a file server using:
• File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
• Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV).
Protocol definitions
The definitions described in this section are general in scope and follow basic industry standards.
Mail delivery
Mail delivery refers to sending and retrieving email between different accounts and is handled differently by different mail protocols (for example, SMTP, POP3, and IMAP4). The diagram below shows the path of delivery for mail sent from one account to another through the Internet:
 SMTP
SMTP is a protocol for sending email messages between servers. Most email systems that send mail over the Internet use SMTP to send messages from one server to another; the messages can then be retrieved with an email client such as FirstClass. In addition, SMTP is used to send messages from a mail client to a mail server but not to retrieve messages from a mail server to a mail client. This is why you need to specify both the POP or IMAP server and the SMTP server when you configure your email application.
POP3
POP is a protocol used to retrieve email from a POP3 mail server. Most email applications use the POP protocol.
IMAP4
IMAP is a protocol used to retrieve email messages from an IMAP4 mail server. IMAP4 is similar to POP3 but supports some additional features. For example, with IMAP4, you can search through your email messages for keywords while the messages are still on the mail server. You can then choose which messages to download to your machine.
RSS
RSS is a protocol used to retrieve items from Internet RSS feeds. Containers and communities can contain a rule that causes Internet Services to send new RSS feed items to them as messages with embedded links to the items.
Web browsing
Web browsing refers to searching for and accessing content on the World Wide Web (WWW).
HTTP
HTTP defines how messages are formatted and transmitted, and what actions web servers and browsers should take in response to various commands. For example, when you enter a URL in your browser, this actually sends an HTTP command to the web server directing it to fetch and transmit the requested web page.
HTTPS
HTTPS defines how data is transmitted securely over the web. Messages are transmitted and accessed in a secure environment using Secure Socket Layer (SSL). Web pages that require an SSL connection start with HTTPS, instead of HTTP.
File transfer
File transfer refers to uploading and downloading server files.
FTP
FTP is a protocol used on the Internet for accessing files. Some organizations have a designated FTP server used only for uploading and downloading files for their users.
File sharing
File sharing refers to collaboratively editing and managing files on remote World Wide Web servers.
WebDAV
WebDAV is a set of extensions to the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) that allows users to collaboratively create, change and move non-FirstClass documents (Word, PowerPoint, etc) on a remote server.
Directory search
Directory search refers to accessing user accounts in an information directory.
LDAP
LDAP is a directory access protocol used to search, read, and write directory information over a network. LDAP supports TCP/IP, which is necessary for any type of Internet access.
FirstClass LDAP support consists of Internet Services listening on the LDAP TCP port (389) and servicing lookup requests. Using any LDAP client (for example, Outlook Express), you can access your FirstClass Directory including your network Address Book. FirstClass LDAP support includes both authenticated and unauthenticated access but does not support using LDAP to update the FirstClass Directory (no Dir Sync) or credentials lookup. If you access a name in FirstClass using LDAP these are the information fields you get:
• Name
• Email address
• Company
• Department
• Web page.
You can set what your users can view in the Directory (accessed through LDAP or any other protocol) using FirstClass Directory filtering. For example, you can configure your system to prevent unauthenticated users from accessing your system's Directory, while authenticated users can continue to have full access to the Directory including their network Address Book. To configure the LDAP protocol for your system, use the Directory tab of the Basic Internet Setup form.
Domain names and IP addresses
You can think of domain names as the user-friendly form of an IP address. Users find it easier to remember addresses such as www.huskyplanes.com, as opposed to numbers, such as 192.166.0.0. A domain name identifies one or more IP addresses.
An IP address is a unique number that identifies a specific machine (for example, your mail server, web server, FTP server (if any), or an end user computer).
If you are using Windows, you can define multiple IP addresses (that is, you can define multiple servers) on your network interface card (NIC). If you choose not to define multiple IP addresses, you should list your default domain IP address on the Multiple Sites & Languages form. You can also register multiple domain names and point them to one IP address using this form.
Domain names are used in both URLs and email addresses to identify particular web pages and email recipients respectively. For example, the Husky Planes web site address is www.huskyplanes.com. The domain name is huskyplanes.com and represents one IP address, 192.166.0.0. Roy Allen’s email address on Husky Planes is roy_allen@huskyplanes.com, where roy_allen signifies the recipient’s unique user name.
NoteEach user on your system must have a unique email address. Otherwise, you may find your server unable to distinguish between two recipients and, thus, unable to properly deliver mail.
Every domain name has a suffix that indicates which top level domain (TLD) it belongs to. There are only a limited number of these domains, such as
• gov – Government agencies
• edu – Educational institutions
• org – Organizations (nonprofit).
The Domain Name Server
The Domain Name Server (DNS) tells a web or mail server where to deliver SMTP mail by translating domain addresses into IP addresses and verifying that both are the same.
The DNS only does a lookup on the incoming IP addresses from the SMTP mail server that attempts to connect to your site. This may not be the address of the original server. For example, if SMTP server A routes a message to SMTP server B that tries to connect to your system, Internet Services will try to resolve the IP address of SMTP server B.
When a FirstClass user sends an email message to a recipient, Internet Services sends it out using the SMTP mail protocol. This message then finds its way to the recipient’s machine through the recipient’s mail server, where the recipient’s system performs its own DNS server verification on the email address and then delivers it.
A DNS keeps a list of all domain names registered worldwide and their corresponding IP addresses.
Gateways
Gateways are a bridge between your system and other devices or systems. There are two major types of gateways: server-to-server and third-party. The purpose of either gateway is to transfer mail, conference content, and Directory information to another messaging server.
Server-to-server gateways connect two FirstClass systems directly, while third-party gateways allow FirstClass servers to exchange mail and synchronize directories with foreign mail systems.
How Internet Services uses resources
FirstClass ships with standard resources such as pictures, icons, forms, language strings, and help files.
Where the standard resources are stored
FirstClass stores the standard resources in files within the FC Resource Registry, located in the Multi-Site Setup folder on the administrator's Desktop.
Note The default setup for an English FirstClass site uses English Resources and en.rez files. Other language sites will have the appropriate language names for these.
The English Resources file
English Resources contains standard registration and licensing forms. Its main purpose is to safely store global custom resources (images, icons, forms, strings, and so on) that won't be overridden during a system upgrade.
The Pictures.rez file
Pictures.rez stores the shipping pictures for the web client. Although you can place images in different locations, from an Internet Services perspective it is more convenient to place them in the Pictures.rez file.
Note All pictures must have unique names and ID numbers.
The icons.rez file
Icons.rez stores the shipping icons for both the FirstClass client and the web client.
If you have either a multiple site or a multiple-language site setup and you want different icons for each site, you must use FirstClass Designer to create an icons.rez file and place it in each of the site folders at the root level (for example, at the same level as the .sitepref form). Keep in mind, you only need to put the custom icons in the site-specific folders. If Internet Services cannot find an icon in these locations, it will fall back to the Resource Registry hunt chain.
The MobileIcons.rez file
MobileIcons.rez contains icons specific to the mobile templates and sits in the Resource Registry only.
The sounds.rez file
Sounds.rez contains standard FirstClass sound resources.
The lang.rez files
Lang.rez (for example, en.rez for English) contains the specific shipping resources (forms and strings) for a particular language. Since Internet Services processes lang.rez files independently of the language-specific site content processing, you can have multiple lang.rez files on a site. If you want to support multiple languages on your site, place the specific lang.rez file (for example, fr.rez, es.rez, dk.rez) in the Resource Registry. If you want to support multiple sites with different languages, place the specific lang.rez file in the respective site-specific folder.
You can download a language resource file appropriate for the template set and version you are running from FirstClass Online (FCOL) in Conferences > Downloads > Product Updates > Localised Resources for IS.
 CautionBoth the site resources and template sets that you use must be the same version or you will experience broken functionality and missing strings on your web interface.
How Internet Services accesses resources
Internet Services locates resources both by location and by file type.
Accessing resources by location
For any resource file, regardless of type, Internet Services follows the same location hunt chain to find the most appropriate version of the resource, and will stop as soon as it finds the requested resource. This is the location hunt chain for any resource file regardless of type (first item is the first place searched):
• the current language folder (if present)
• the current site folder (if present)
• the cluster folder (if present)
• FC Resource Registry
• the Config folder on the local hard disk (if present for legacy purposes).
Accessing resources by file type
Regardless of where resources are located, Internet Services follows this file type hunt chain to find them:
• HeaderMatch overrides (optional)
• container or group-specific local overrides from the container's or group's Rules & Resources folder
• lang.rez
• icons.rez and Pictures.rez
• English Resources or equivalent in the FC Resource Registry
• lang.rez on the local hard disk (final fallback language file).
Using custom resources
Although FirstClass ships with all of the resources you need to run a standard FirstClass website, you can use your own custom resources.
If you use custom resources globally (for all of your sites), we recommend placing them in English Resources (or equivalent), since resources contained in this location are not overwritten during an upgrade process.
Custom resources intended only for specific sites must be stored at the site level. If you use custom pictures or images, place them in the site-specific Images folder in the same location as the site templates. If Internet Services cannot find a picture or image in the site-specific Images folder, it will look in the Resource Registry, as per the Internet Services hunt chain.
For custom icons or custom language strings and forms, create either an icons.rez or lang.rez file respectively and place it in the site folder at the same level as the site templates. For information on creating resource files, see Customization Tools/FirstClass Designer.
FirstClass templates
A template is a document used to create multiple pages that share the same layout. When you create a template, you indicate which elements of a page remain constant in documents based on that template and which elements change.
Templates are most useful for situations where either you want a set of pages to have a similar layout or where you want to design the final layout for a set of pages first, and add content later. For example, if you publish an online newsletter, the masthead and overall layout probably won't change from one article to the next or from one issue to the next. However, the content of each newsletter will change. With established templates, anyone can put together a new issue of the newsletter and concentrate mainly on the content, without having to recreate the layout. FirstClass templates work on these same principles.
FirstClass templates provide the interface for your web Desktop in much the same way FirstClass client forms provide the interface for your client Desktop. Simply, templates are the web equivalents of client forms. Similar to client forms, the template layout does not change (for example, areas like text field names or the location of input fields) but the information users input changes.
There are different web client interfaces that you can display on your site based on which template set you use.
By default, web templates are located in the Internet Services/WWW/Template Sets folder on the administrator's Desktop. You can have as many template folders as you wish, but each folder must have a unique name. For example, if you have a custom template set for your site, you could name the folder that contains them .customtemplates.
Note You must put a leading period (.templates) before the name of any template folder.
Where are the forms?
Throughout this help, you'll find references to Internet Services forms and files. Here is a rundown of where you will find these from the administrator's Desktop:
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