KloakIt 3.0 Active Help

Installation Instructions

The installation of KloakIt can be broken down into five steps. First, you have to unzip KloakIt.zip. Next, you edit install.cgi. Then you upload install.cgi. Next, you set the permissions for install.cgi. Last, surf to install.cgi on your website and enter your the site information requested.

Unzipping KloakIt.zip

For convenience's sake, KloakIt 3.0 is compressed in Zip archival format. To unzip the KloakIt.zip file, use a utility like WinZip. Simply extract the install.cgi file into a directory on your desktop computer. Make sure you extract it to a place where you can find it for the next step.

Editing install.cgi

This is probably the hardest and most technical step. Using a text editor like TextPad or windows Write or WordPad, open the install.cgi file. The first line of the file looks like the one below:

#!/usr/local/bin/perl

This line tells your web server the "location of Perl". For most web servers, this line is already correct. If this is the case for you, then you don't have to do anything in this step.

To find the location of Perl on your server, you have four options (listed in order of preference):

  1. Look at your web site host's help page or FAQ.

  2. Ask your server administrator.

  3. Look at a CGI script already installed and working on your site and copy the first line.

  4. Telnet to your server and type "whereis perl". A list of locations of Perl (there are usually several) will pop up and you should use the location where Perl 5 or higher is.

Just change the first line of install.cgi to match your location of Perl.

Remember, this should not be a problem for most people. The default setting should work for most. If it doesn't, another common setting is:

#!/usr/bin/perl

Uploading install.cgi

Start your FTP client. I recommend using a program like Cute FTP or WS_FTP. You should NOT use FrontPage to do this!

FTP to your website and view your home directory. Now it is time to make a decision. Should you install KloakIt 3.0 into your home directory or into a directory of its own? If your home directory contains web pages with the extension ".htm" like "index.htm" then you must install KloakIt 3.0 into its own directory. Also, many servers will not allow the KloakIt installation program to write files in the home directory. If you try to install KloakIt into your home directory, and it doesn't seem to work, try creating a new directory and installing KloakIt inside it.

Some people will have to install KloakIt inside their cgi-bin. This is because many servers are set up not to allow CGI scripts outside their cgi-bins. If you don't like this, try using TRKHosting.com as your hosting service. They offer low cost hosting and KloakIt runs great on their servers. You can also find more hosting recommendations here.

You must upload the install.cgi file in ASCII mode. Your FTP program most likely has three file transfer modes: auto, binary, and ASCII. Most FTP programs are set to auto mode, which lets the program decide whether to use binary mode or ASCII mode for each file you transfer. HTML and text files are always transfered in ASCII mode and graphics are always done in binary mode. If a file type is unknown to the FTP program, it usually picks binary mode.

CGI scripts like KloakIt 3.0 must be transferred in ASCII mode because they are text files. However, most FTP programs don't know this and will choose the wrong mode if left up to themselves. Therefore you must set the file transfer mode to ASCII. Consult the help documentation of your FTP software if you don't know how to do this; it's usually very simple.

If you're going to install KloakIt 3.0 into your home directory, simply upload install.cgi to your home directory in ASCII mode. If you're installing KloakIt into it's own directory, create the directory first, then change to that directory and upload install.cgi in ASCII mode to that directory. Don't close your FTP program just yet.

Setting the permissions

Now it is time to "set the permissions" of install.cgi. I'm not going to get into a technical discussion of what this is right here and now. I'm not a Unix geek and I'm fairly certain you're not, so there's no reason for that.

To set the permissions of install.cgi, left click on the install.cgi file you just uploaded (the one on your server). Next, right click on it to bring up the context-sensitive menu. Using CuteFTP, one of the options is "Change file attributes". Using WS_FTP, one of the options is "CHMOD". Click on this option.

In the window that pops up, type "755". Then click OK.

The permissions for install.cgi have now been set properly.

Entering your site information

After you have uploaded and set the permissions for install.cgi, navigate to it in your web browser. The address should be something like http://www.yourdomain.com/install.cgi

You should see a screen that asks for some information. If you get an error message instead, go back and check your "path to perl", make sure you used ASCII mode to upload, and set the permissions to 755.

The first question asks you what you want to rename the control panel script. The default name is "control.cgi". I suggest you rename it for security reasons. When you rename it, do not type an extension.

The second item requests a password for the control panel. If you leave it blank, the control script will not be password protected. I suggest you input a password. If you do, the password will be encrypted, so nobody will be able to access the script if you forget it... give it a password you can remember!

The third item displays the name of a subdirectory KloakIt 3.0 will be installing to store some data. The default name of this directory is "data". I suggest you change it for security reasons.

Next you will see a place to enter the URL of the page you want normal people to see. Please type the complete URL here, such as "http://www.yourdomain.com/index.html".

Next is the User License Agreement. Read the agreement, and if you agree to it, click on the "I Agree" button. If you don't agree to abide by the User License Agreement, please delete the software.

If you agreed, you will then be shown your control panel. If you decided to password protect your control panel, you will be asked for your password.