Frequently asked questions
Legal issues.
Q: May I buy this server software to host illegal or unlicensed
content (cracks, warez, porn, stolen music and videos)?
A: Yes, you may. Having bought this software, you become completely responsible
for anything you do with it. Acritum Software takes no responsibility for
anything that you offer using this server.
Q: May I order Femitter URL redirection service (http://name.femitter.com/)
for redirecting users to a server with illegal content (cracks, porn, etc)?
A: No, such domain names will be deleted and the money paid for the domain
name will not be refunded.
Q: May I order Femitter URL redirection service (http://name.femitter.com/)
for redirecting users to a server with unlicensed video and music content?
A: Yes, you may, because the laws about the distribution of unlicensed content
are different in different countries. However, Acritum Software reserves the
right to delete your domain name without any explanation in case we receive
any complaints that you illegally distribute copyright-protected content using
our http://name.femitter.com/ URL. The money paid for the domain name will
not be refunded.
Q: I like this software, how do I buy it?
A: This software is distributed as shareware. It means that you may try it
free of charge, please do it before buying to be sure that it has no conflicts
with your hardware and other software. Once you are sure that it's what you
need, you can buy the product using different ways at http://antol.msk.ru/fem/.
HTTP issues.
Q: Do I have to install any other software to run a HTTP
server?
A: No.
Q: Do my users have to install any software to access my
HTTP server?
A: No. All modern operating systems already have a web browser preinstalled.
Q: Can my users download files using non-browser software
(ReGet, FlashGet, etc)?
A: Yes.
Q: Can I test it without Internet or LAN?
A: Yes, use http://localhost/ to test HTTP server.
Q: I updated my webpages but the HTTP server still shows
old ones, how to fix this?
A: Actually, the server doesn't show your old pages. The problem is that when
you connect to one and the same URL, for example, http://localhost/, your
web browser saves it and next time you request this url, it loads the web
page from its existing cache, thus the request to the server doesn't occur.
To prevent it, either disable the caching in your web browser, or refresh
the page every time you see old results ([F5] in most browsers).
Q: I can see my files when I enter
"http://localhost/", but the users say they cannot connect to the
server. What's wrong?
A: There may exist numerous reasons:
-
Problem: You gave your users a wrong IP address.
Solution: Not all your IP addresses are accessible from Internet. Some IPs
belong to LAN (local network) and may be used to access your server from
this network only. Some IPs are created along with virtual PAN (personal
network). Such networks are sometimes created by bluetooth drivers to allow
the communication between bluetooth devices. Be sure to tell your users
the right IP: Internet users should know your Internet IP and LAN users
should know your LAN IP. This is not a problem if you use Femitter URL redirection
service, because your domain name remains the same even if your IP changes
- your users don't have to contact you every time they want to download
something from your server, they simply enter http://yourname.femtter.com,
and that's it.
-
Problem: The settings of your antivirus or firewall software
deny any requests from internet.
Solution: Configure your firewall to allow Femitter act as a server. Also
allow any incoming and outgoing requests on port 80.
Here
are the rules for standard Windows Firewall.
-
Problem: Still nothing works...
Solution: Possibly, you are connected to Internet via a router. If it's
your router, you should configure it to redirect requests from the router
to your server. In this case, you should give your users the IP of the router,
not your the IP of your system. If the router belongs to your ISP, unfortunately,
you have no possibility to configure it and thus you will not be able to
run server software on your computer.
Q: I don't use Femitter as a file server, but I want my users to upload
files from my custom-made HTML pages. Is it Possible?
A: Use a form like this:
<form name="upload" method="post" action="http://localhost/cgi-bin/upload"
enctype="multipart/form-data">
<div align="center">Select a file to upload:
<input type="file" name="file">
<input type="hidden" name="filepath" value="\path_to_upload">
<input type="submit" name="Upload" value="Upload">
</div>
</form>
What's important here is the value of "filepath" hidden field. It
should point to a user-related path to upload a file. For example, if the root
for the user is "c:\wwwroot\john" and you want him to upload a file
to "c:\wwwroot\john\uploads", you should write
<input type="hidden" name="filepath" value="\uploads">
FTP issues.
Q: Do I have to install any other software to run a FTP server?
A: No.
Q: Do my users have to install any software to access my FTP
server?
A: Sometimes. If they work in Windows, they will be able to access your FTP
server from Internet Explorer. However, it is recommended to use a professional
FTP client to ensure fast download speeds. Good FTP clients can also be found
in some file managers, such as FAR and Total Commander.
Q: Can I test it without Internet or LAN?
A: Yes, use ftp://localhost/ to test FTP server.
Q: Users cannot connect to my server, however, when I connect
to "ftp://localhost/", everything works.
A: This problem was already described above. Try
to check all these steps. Make sure FTP ports 20 and 21 are not closed by your
firewall software.
URL redirection issues.
Q: Can I use Femitter server without URL redirection service?
A: Sure, the server will work without this service. The purchase of this service
is optional.
Q: Will Femitter URL redirection service work if my server has a dynamic
IP address?
A: Yes, the server will automatically update your IP address for domain redirection
every time you start your server.
Q: Can I access my FTP server as ftp://name.femitter.com/?
A: No, unfortunately, FTP redirection is not possible. However, you can use
a special link for FTP redirection. For example, the users who enter "http://femitter.com/ftp.php?user=yourname"
will be redirected to "ftp:/YOUR_IP/". As many web browsers are able
to work with FTP protocol, your visitors will be able to visit your FTP server
after clicking on a HTTP link. You can offer this link on your html pages, for
example:
<a href="http://femitter.com/ftp.php?user=john">Feel free
to visit my FTP server!</a>
And this is an example how to download one and the same file from HTTP and
FTP servers:
<a href="http://femitter.com/john/dist/fem-dist.exe">Download
Femitter distributive from a HTTP server.</a>
<a href="http://femitter.com/ftp.php?user=john&path=/dist/fem-dist.exe">Download
the same file from a FTP server.</a>
Warning: not all web browsers can work with FTP servers, so this redirection
doesn't guarantee that the user will actually reach your FTP server. Internet
Explorer and Mozilla Firefox are proved to be able to work with FTP servers.
Q: If FTP redirection doesn't work from FTP clients, how do I notify my
users about my new IP?
A: There exists a special script that shows your last submitted IP. If the user
doesn't exist, the script shows nothing. By default it shows only IP:
http://femitter.com/showip.php?user=john
Result: "213.85.166.208"
If you use a PHP or Perl hosting, you may write simple scripts to embed this
information into your web pages. If you don't have PHP/Perl, you may use a link
from your web page to show a simple welcome message with your current IP. This
can be done with the help of "format" parameter which understands
@ip, @hport, @fport masks. The "fromat" value shouldn't be too long,
otherwise the server returns an error. Here is a simple example of a welcome
message:
http://femitter.com/showip.php?user=john&format=Web%20server%20is%20http://@ip:@hport/%20and%20file%20server%20is%20ftp://@ip/,%20port%20@fport.
Result: "Web server is http://213.85.166.208:80/ and file server is ftp://213.85.166.208/,
port 21."
Q: I used URL redirection and I don't need it anymore. Do I have to delete
my account?
A: No, all accounts are registered for one year and deleted automatically after
expiration date unless they are not prolonged for one more year. However, if
you don't want to redirect users to your computer, simply change the IP field
to any other web site and set HTTP port 80. For example, to redirect users to
Google, just set IP to "google.com".
