Why was the Sambar Server created ?
Why is it free ?
When upgrading to a new server are there any concerns ?
How compatible is the Sambar Server with Apache or NCSA ?
Does the Sambar Server support the Microsoft's FrontPage Server Extensions ?
Does the Sambar Server support SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) ?
Will the Sambar Server act as a proxy server?
Does the Sambar Server support server-side image maps ?
Why does the server fail to start when I double-click my short-cut ?
Why do I get the Forbidden message after a server restart ?
How do I implement multiple default documents ?
Why don't user restrictions seem to work when I add an entry to the [restrict] section of the security.ini file ?
What is the /session directive ?
Will the Sambar Server run as an NT Service ?
How do I change the FTP login/logout messages ?
Will the FTP server interact with the NT user database for username/password/directory information ?
What are the future plans for the Sambar Server ?
What platforms with the Sambar Server run on ?
Where can I get the Sambar Server ?
Are *.map files supported by the Sambar Server ?
What do the 499 status codes found in the access log mean ?
What is the maximum length of a configuration entry in the security.ini or config.ini files ?
How do I add MIME types to the Sambar Server ?
My browser doesn't connect to the server. How can I test the server ?
How do I configure the Sambar Server to serve Java applets ?
How do I change the realm name for authentication requests ?
Why does the Sambar Server crashes my system when McAfee NetShield is running ?
Why do I get the error saying sambardb.dll cannot be loaded ?
Is it possible to filter HTTP logs. I would like to not log my requests (e.g. to administration pages) ?
Are you browsing a local file (file://) rather than an HTTP connection (http://) ?
What is the maximum size I can upload as POST arguments or using multipart/form-data ?
What do I do if I forgot my username/password ?
Can I force the server to bind to a specific IP address (on a multi-homed machine) ?
Can I customize the error messages returned from the Sambar Server ?
Why does the Sambar Server stop responding when my laptop goes into suspend mode ?

Full Documentation

Why is it free ?
Well, if I charged for the Sambar Server you probably wouldn't be reading this. I developed this technology more for the experience and entertainment that to achieve riches. I derive modest revenues by licensing the Sambar Server to companies seeking to embed the technology in their products, and work as an independent consultant in Silicon Valley to pay the bills. As Microsoft and Netscape have the commercial market pretty well locked up, I'll continue to enhance and distribute the Sambar Server for free until a new venture sweeps me off.

When upgrading to a new server are there any concerns ?
When upgrading to a new release, you MUST install the new release in a new directory. There are no "smarts" in the installer to recognize previous versions and upgrade them. So if you install over a previous release, you will erase any common configuration and document files that you might wish to keep around.

I recommend that after installing the Sambar Server, you point the "Document Directory" to something other than the default "docs" directory. That way, future releases can be pointed to an independent document directory.

How compatible is the Sambar Server with Apache or NCSA ?
The Sambar Server does not attempt to offer all of the features or configuration options of Apache or NCSA. The focus of the Sambar Server is on an extremely simple installation, turn-key packaging, and a programmer friendly interface for extending the underlying functionality.

Future releases will likely remain on this track, including extensions to the programmer interfaces, more sample source code, and improved configuration capabilities from the system administration forms.

Does the Sambar Server support the Microsoft's FrontPage Server Extensions ?
I have repeatedly sent mail to Microsoft asking for an SDK to allow me to port their FrontPage Server Extensions to the Sambar Server. I have not as yet received any response.

According to some users, you don't actually need the FrontPage extensions to use FrontPage to design your site, or even to publish your site to the Sambar Server. When you hit the Publish button in FrontPage, it attempts to connect driectly to your server through the extensions. However, if FrontPage does not find the extensions, it automatically launches the Microsoft Web Publishing Wizard instead, which transfers the file via FTP.

Ordinary web pages designed using FrontPage 98 should work fine against the Sambar Server (with FTP configured to run), even without the extensions. You should also be able to use elements of Active Elements since they're Java-based. However, you won't be able to use any of the FrontPage Components - such as search, e-mail, or discussion forums - on your site, nor will you be able to administer your site directly as if it were a FrontPage web located on your machine.

Lastly, you can use the FrontPage editor separately without the FrontPage Explorer. The editor is located in the \bin directory where FrontPage is installed and is called fpeditor.exe.

Does the Sambar Server support SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) ?
The Sambar Server does not support SSL. I have no immediate plans to support this specification (its quite large and requires licensing encryption technology from RSA). If you need SSL functionality, I recommend you contact a commercial vendor.

Will the Sambar Server act as a proxy server?
The Sambar Server comes with a non-caching HTTP proxy server and basic SMTP, POP3, and IMAP4 proxy servers compiled in. These proxies perform modest security filtering via the sample application shipped with the server (see security.c). The proxies were designed to facilitate multiple clients on a private network connecting to the internet on a single PPP connection. This can be implemented by having a Windows 95 or NT machine connect to the internet via modem while also listening to requests from their local network (Note: the gateway machine must be configured with two IP addresses - one for the modem connection and one for the ethernet connection - to support this operation. The "Act As HTTP Proxy", "Act As SMTP Proxy", "Act As POP3 Proxy" and "Act As IMAP4 Proxy" parameters in the configuration file can be used to turn these features on. Note: All proxy configuration can be performed via the system administration interface. See the Proxy Functionality documentation for more details.

Does the Sambar Server support server-side image maps ?
No. It is my belief that the introduction of client-side image maps has rendered server-side maps obsolete. I recognize that there is legacy code requiring this feature but have not had a significant number of requests to implement it.

Why does the server fail to start when I double-click my short-cut ?
The working directory must be the installation directory of the Sambar Server. So if you set up your own short-cut, the working directory must be C:\program files\sambar rather than the default C:\program files\sambar\bin.

Why do I get the Forbidden message after a server restart ?
The browser caches the magic cookie associated with your administration login. After a server restart, this cookie is no longer valid, so you must re-login. Unfortunately, because the browser often caches pages, you may find it difficult to login without getting the Forbidden message once you have received it the first time. The solution is to clear your browser memory and disk cache and then re-login to the administration console. With Netscape browsers, you can use the shift-reload command sequence to force an /session/adminlogin after receiving the Forbidden page.

Important: For System Administration usage, you should configure your browser to "verify documents every time". This option is a setting in the Netscape Network Preferences panel's "Cache" tab. This setting will help avoid getting cached pages when moving among the System Administration pages.

Netscape 4.x Browsers have the ability to turn off cookies (this may in fact be the default). The system administration console requires cookies for user validation.

Users also often receive the Forbidden page if they restart the server and then use the "back" menu to return to the System Administration pages. Because these pages are in cache (Netscape ignores pragma no-cache), you are free to view the pages, but as soon as you select an option that hits the server, you receive a Forbidden message because you have not logged in the the server as the system administrator. You must always (re)enter the System Administrator console with the /session/adminlogin?RCpage=/sysadmin/index.stm URL after a server restart.

How do I implement multiple default documents ?
The "Default Page" configuration variable (config.ini and vhost.ini) can be a space separated list of files to search for when no document is specified.

Why don't user restrictions seem to work when I add an entry to the [restrict] section of the security.ini file ?
The security.ini file is cached during the startup of the server to enhance performance. For this reason, when modifications are made to the security.ini file, the server must be restarted.

What is the /session directive ?
The /session directive is used to indicate that a Sambar Server RPC should be executed to fulfill the request. There is no /session directory. The parameter immediately following /session (i.e. /session/sendmail) corresponds to the RPC to be executed and parameters to pass to the RPC. The System Administrator console reports provide a list of all RPCs available for execution via the /session directive and the security restrictions imposed on each RPC. Many of the RPCs configured for execution are provided in source code in the samples subdirectory of the Sambar Server installation.

Will the Sambar Server run as an NT Service ?
Yes. The Sambar Server NT Service can be found in bin/ntserver.exe. The instructions for installation and execution of the Sambar Server NT Service can be found in the Installation Documentation. The source code for the Sambar Server NT Service can be found in the samples/source directory.

How do I change the FTP login/logout messages ?
The FTP login message is returned from the FTP_WELCOME message defined in the config/macros.ini file. If there is no FTP_WELCOME define, then no welcome message is returned. The logout message is returned from the FTP_GOODBYE macro definition.

Will the FTP server interact with the NT user database for username/password/directory information ?
I provide all of the source code for the username/password validation and directory location for FTP (see samples/source/login.c -- ftp_connect()). I do not have plans at this time to use the NT user database in place of the current file mechanism, but would greatly appreciate it if someone would implement this feature and provide the source code (which I would distribute with the Sambar Server).

What are the future plans for the Sambar Server ?

• Keep up with advances in HTTP protocol (i.e. HTTP 1.1) and dynamic content delivery
• Add server-side JavaScript (with RDBMS and file I/O extensions)
• Add additional server functionality including: Dail-on-demand, and possibly a IMAP4 server down the road
• Improve the infrastructure including: search (proximity searches), and programmer interfaces
• Increase the number and usefulness of the sample applications available
• Enhance the system administration APIs
• Collect suggestions for fixes/improvements from users

What platforms with the Sambar Server run on ?
While originally developed on a Sun Workstation (Solaris), the Sambar Server is now only available on Windows 95 and Windows NT (3.51 and 4.0). Availability on other platforms is not planned at the present time as my hardware budget is limited to PC systems for the forseeable future.

Where can I get the Sambar Server ?
You can find the most recent release of the Sambar Server at http://www.sambar.com/.

Are *.map files supported by the Sambar Server ?
Map files for server-side image maps are not presently supported by the Sambar Server. The modules interface can be used to implement this functionality should an enterprising programmer wish to code this up.

What do the 499 status codes mean in the access logs ?
The 499 status indicates that the user cancelled the HTTP request before the entire document could be downloaded.

What is the maximum length of a configuration entry in the security.ini or config.ini files ?
The maximum length of any single entry line in a configuration file is 1024 bytes.

How do I add MIME types to the Sambar Server ?
MIME entries are located in the config/mime.ini configuration file.

My browser doesn't connect to the server. How can I test the server ?
The first place to look when something appears wrong with the server is in the log/server.log file. (Note: The unusual file names and line numbers that appear with error messages are part of the Sambar Server debugging environment).

The other option is to telnet to the server (which is on port 80 by default) and request the home page. Once connected via telnet (make sure to turn on local echo on your telnet client), type GET / and press return twice. The server should return the home page in response.

How do I configure the Sambar Server to serve Java applets ?
Java applets are served up just like images or HTML files. You do not need to do anything special. If your applets aren't working, make sure that you are pointing to the applet properly in your APPLET tag.

How do I change the realm name for authentication requests ?
The realm name is defined in the Security Realm configuration variable defined in the config/config.ini file.

Why does the Sambar Server crashes my system when McAfee NetShield is running ?
This problem has been reported by users running Sambar Server as an NT Service. Microsoft has a patch for this problem. You need to get a new version of AFD.SYS and put it in your WINNT\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS directory. You can get this file from: ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/bussys/winnt/winnt-public/fixes/usa/nt40/hotfixes-postSP1/

Why do I get the error saying sambardb.dll cannot be loaded ?
ODBC32 may not be installed on your machine if you are running Windows95 (see the Install documentation for the location of Microsoft's free download site. Otherwise, ODBC32 may be installed on your machine, but may not be in your path; the sambardb.dll library is linked with odbc32.dll and requires it be available. First, using Explorer, attempt to find the file ODBC32.DLL on your machine. If found, then add that directory to your path in the Conrol Panel. If that fails, you will need to reinstall your ODBC32 software.

Is it possible to filter HTTP logs. I would like to not log my requests (e.g. to administration pages) ?
The configuration parameter Don't Log Requests in the config/config.ini can be set to /sysadmin* for to eliminate all requests for pages starting with /sysadmin. You can also restrict by IP address using the Don't Log IPs.

Are you browsing a local file (file://) rather than an HTTP connection (http://) ?
If you accessed the Sambar Server home page using the 'Open File...' or 'Open Local...' command of your browser then you are not invoking the Sambar Server and will not be able to access any Sambar Server features (such as administration).

Check the URL displayed at the top of your browser. If it is prefixed with file:// then this is the problem. Re-connect to the Sambar Server using the web server's address.

What is the maximum size I can upload as POST arguments or using multipart/form-data ?
The Sambar Server has an internal limit of 100KB for all content length (this includes GET/POST arguments as well as multipart/form-data).

What do I do if I forgot my username/password ?
If you forget the administrator password, your only recourse is to edit the config/passwd file and remove the encoded password in the third field (colon separated fields) of the administrator account. Then login as the administrator, no password is required, and reset the account password.

For other user accounts, you can go in as the administrator user and use the User Management forms to select the user who forgot his/her password and reset their account password.

Can I force the server to bind to a specific IP address (on a multi-homed machine) ?
Yes. In the config.ini file there is an entry in the [common] section which can be used to force the server to bind to a specific IP address at startup. The parameter, Force IP Bind should be set to the single IP address you wish the server to be bound to.

Can I customize the error messages returned from the Sambar Server ?
Yes. All error messages can be found in the messages directory where the Sambar Server is installed. Any modifications made to these error files will reflected in subsequent Server error responses.

Why does the Sambar Server stop responding when my laptop goes into suspend mode ?
Patrick Maddox writes: Typically when a laptop goes into suspend mode it shuts down or puts on standby all unnecessary services. Networking is considered one of these. The solution is to disable the suspend mode on the machine.