Apache Basic Configuration

This sub-menu allows you to change commonly configured Apache options.

Overview

The Uniform Server's default installation configures the main server with the values shown at right.

UniController: Server Configuration > Apache > Edit Basic Configuration

  • 1) Server Name sets the hostname of your server, which defaults to localhost.
  • 2) Admin E-mail Use a real e-mail address for users to contact. For example, admin@fred.com
  • 3) Directory Index Files is a list of files searched for when a client requests an index page without explicitly specifying it. If a match is found, then that index page is served.
  • 4) Apache processes files with the extensions listed; any Server Side Includes (SSI) directives found in these files are executed.
  • 5) Server Signature tells Apache to add a footer line for server-generated documents (values are On or Off).
  • 6) Listen Port specifies a specific port for Apache to listen to and to accept incoming requests only on that specified port.
  • 7) The Update Configuration button applies the changes.
 Apache basic config

Note: For the new settings to become effective, you must restart Apache.

Server Name

Server Name sets the hostname of your server; this is used when creating redirection URLs.

If you put your server online, change this to your web address. For example, if you registered the domain www.fred.com, then use that.

Note: To test your web site without being connected to the Internet and to prevent your browser complaining that the "Server cannot be found", you need an entry in your PC’s hosts file. For the above example, put in 127.0.0.1 www.fred.com

  • Navigate to folder: C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc
  • Open the file hosts
  • At the end of this file, add: 127.0.0.1 www.fred.com (use your own domain)
  • Save this file. Now when you type http://www.fred.com (your domain) into your browser address bar you will be able to view your web site.

If you are hosting more than one domain using name-based virtual hosting, you can leave the default setting, but you must use the registered web address in the virtual hosts.

Server Admin Email

The Server Admin Email address is included with some automatically generated error pages sent to a client (user). Use a real e-mail address for users to contact you in case problems are encountered.

Directory Index Files

When a client requests an index page without explicitly specifying it (for example www.fred.com) the list of index pages specified in Direct Index Files is searched in the order left to right. If a match is found, that index page is served. The first one that matches is served and any others that may be in the same folder are ignored.

Default list: index.html index.shtml index.html.var index.htm index.php3 index.php index.pl index.cgi

The Uniform Server’s default installation uses index.php, which is found in the root folder www. If you insert your own index.html page, this will be picked up first, overriding index.php

Server Side Includes

SSI is a server side scripting language allowing you to include the contents of a file into another using SSI commands.

To insert these commands, a special comment tag is used; for example:

<!--#include file="external.htm"-->
<!--#include virtual="/external.htm"-->
The first command assumes that the file is located in the same directory as the document containing it, while the second syntax uses an absolute reference to "external.htm", starting from your root HTML directory.

You can insert these into an html file, but in order to process them, Apache needs to know which files types to use. The standard file extensions are:

  • .shtml .shtm .sht

You can specify any file extension you like, even .htm and .html, but there is a small processing hit for each file accessed.

Server Signature

This allows Apache to add a footer line for server-generated documents. It contains the server version number, server name, and creates a "mailto:" reference to ServerAdmin.

For security reasons, this information is normally not displayed except for testing and the default is set to off.

Listen Port

This tells Apache to listen to a specific port and to accept incoming requests only on that port. Web page servers and all web browsers default to this standard port (80), which is reserverd for World Wide Web traffic (WWW). When a user types an address into a browser, the port is automatically assumed unless overridden, as explained later.

Port 80 already in use

If another program is using port 80, you will want to change the listening port to avoid conflicts, or your Apache server will not start. Before changing the Apache port, be aware that this makes the server non-standard. A preferable solution is to change the port of the conflicting program.

Apache already running

You can change the port while the server is running, but you must restart the servers after making any changes. The new settings will then be picked up by Apache.

General Note

After changing Apache's listing port, in order to display a file you must include this port number in the host name. For example suppose you have changed the port to 8080.

To view your home page you enter the following address http://localhost:8080/ into your browser address bar. Likewise to view any other page in your root folder www you would enter http://localhost:8080/mypage.html to display that page.

Note:
When the server starts, the correct port number is automatically added to the address and redirection takes place to the splash page. Using the above port, you will see http://localhost:8080/us_splash/index.php displayed in the address bar.