Vex.Net's Private Virtual Web Server

• What is a "Private Virtual Web Server"?
• How is the "Private Virtual Web Server" set up?
• How does it work, and are there any drawbacks?
• Other methods of protecting data, and additional help.

What is a "Private Virtual Web Server"?

The Vex.Net Private Virtual Web Server service is a means by which the host of a virtual domain web site can keep confidential files and data more secure than was before possible. This service is free to Vex.Net subscribers who have Virtual Host/Domain accounts.

A normal web server, in order to deliver web pages for everyone on the host system, runs as a user named "nobody". This is why you must make the files and data on your web site "world readable", so that "nobody" (that is to say, everybody) can read them. The Private Virtual Web Server is a means by which you can, for your domain, run a web server process under your own login ID instead of as "nobody".

The benefit of running a web server under your login ID is that it means that the web server can access files and data which have permissions set so as to be accessible only by you, and by no one else on the system; they no longer need to be "world readable" in order to be accessed and sent out by the web server.

All your web pages will still be accessible exactly as they are normally to everyone on the web who visits your web site; the difference is that now any confidential files, data, database connections, or directories, running under this service can be made to be inaccessible to other Vex.Net users.

How is the "Private Virtual Web Server" set up?

The Private Virtual Web Server is a free service to all Vex.Net members who have a Virtual Host/Domain account. There is no special activation, or additional system configuration needed. The service exists for all customers with these account types to use automatically.

To make use of this server, all that needs to be done is to create a new subdirectory within your home directory named "public_html.88". Note that your regular web directory, based in your home directory, is called "public_html", and so all you are doing is creating another directory exactly the same, only with a ".88" on the end of the name. You can create the directory by executing a mkdir ~/public_html.88 command after logging in to your shell. (You will then want to chmod 700 ~/public_html.88 to set the correct permissions.)

All files you place under this directory will be accessible on the web while at the same time having read/write permissions set on the system to make them accessible only to you locally. On a regular web site you would have to use chmod 644 to make the files readable by all; but now you can use` chmod 600 to make the files only readable by you (or `chmod 700 if your file is an executable CGI script).

The way web browsers will access these files/resources, placed beneath the public_html.88 directory, is simply to place a :88 after the domain name in the your URL. For example, if your regular web site address is http://www.ragdollwear.com you would now use http://www.ragdollwear.com:88. Or, to access a specific page within that site, the URL might read: http://www.ragdollwear.com:88/test.py.

How does it work, and are there any drawbacks?

The way Private Virtual Web Server works is that it knows which user ID of the domain account and so when a request comes in for a page on that domain with the :88 on the end, a new web server is spawned which runs under the proper ID.

This starting of web servers for individuals means that pages served in this manner can be slower to start up than regular web pages. With this in mind you will have to decide whether you feel your data requires the extra privacy with the trade-off of possibly slower response times.

Other methods of protecting data, and additional help.

Remember, the Private Virtual Web Server service makes it possible only to deny access to your files/data to other users locally on the system who might otherwise be able to access them due to them having "world readable" (or "other readable") permissions. This is useful mostly only to protect raw data, as users obviously can save the actual web pages they view from within their browsers. If you read this and were wondering about other privacy protection methods, such as making directories password protected on the web, the Private Virtual Web Server is probably not what you are looking for. There are other methods for doing this, such as setting up password protected directories using an .htaccess file.

If you have any more questions or need more help, please send email to support@Vex.Net.