Chapter 2 - Getting started

2.1 - What do I need?

Warning!

If you don't update your operating system and TCP/IP stack, you are leaving your computer and network open to well-known (and commonly exploited) security flaws. The integrity and security of your system as a whole is at risk without the updates.

The OS and stack updates are to be considered mandatory requirements. Before installing IPS, please take the time to peruse Appendix B for quick links to OS and TCP/IP stack fixes, and apply them.



That wraps it up! This document will walk the prospective IPS administrator through the various steps for configuration.

2.2 - Installing IPS

Once the IPS distribution is downloaded, an unzip utility is required to unpack it to the directory of choice. The distribution unpacks as a tree structure, so appropriate options should be set within the unzip utility that will preserve the original path names. The "IPS root directory", as it's known is ips\, and beneath this is where all of IPS's related files and subdirectories are found. For more information about the IPS directory tree, and the various IPS-related files, please refer to Chapter 5.

After the unzipping is completed, an installation script must then be run in order to let the necessary installation procedures execute. The actual installation script that is executed differs between operating systems, but both scripts are located in the IPS root directory. If OS/2 Warp is being used, the setupos2.cmd file should be executed. To install IPS on Windows NT/2000 machines, a user with Administrator rights must be logged in, and that person must execute the setupw32.bat file. These IPS installation scripts will create and move files to proper directories. In the case of OS/2 Warp systems, administration folders and icons will be created on the desktop.

2.3 - Support availability

Two support channels for IPS exist: The IPS Mailing List and the #IPS channel on EFnet IRC. Details of how to use these support channels are detailed below.

2.3.1 - The IPS Mailing List

The IPS Mailing List is the best support resource for IPS users and enthusiasts alike. The IPS Mailing List has been setup for IPS support at eGroups.com, where all discussion (including general questions and technical support) are submitted. It's a information-rich, ever-changing resource that all IPS users take part in building, and we encourage you to participate! You get announcements, technical support and you can submit feedback and comments through this mailing list.

For those who haven't participated in a mailing list before, here's how it works:

Participation can be done through the web, or through e-mail. First the user subscribes to the mailing list, and then the user can participate in the discussion. Web users can use the web interface at www.eGroups.com to read and post messages, whereas those who choose to use e-mail use their e-mail client software to do the reading and posting. Details on how to subscribe to, post to, and unsubscribe from the IPS Mailing List are found below.

Note

The author of IPS, and the authors of the IPS documentation do not accept direct emails for technical support. Repeating messages through direct email, and again through the mailing list is time consuming for the authors, and unneccessary. Users are advised to use either the IPS Mailing List as outlined above, or the #IPS channel on EFnet IRC, as described in the section below.

To eliminate any confusion, please be advised that technical support e-mails sent directly to the software author or documentation author will be ignored.

Subscribing to the IPS Mailing List

The list server will send mailing list postings to the account that sends the subscription request. For those with multiple accounts, those users must be sure to send the subscription request from the email account with which they want to participate. To subscribe, all that needs to be done is to send a blank e-mail to ips-list-subscribe@eGroups.com.

The list server will then return an e-mail to the originating address, acknowledging the subscription to the mailing list. That's all there is to it. See the next section below on how to post messages to the list.

Posting to the IPS Mailing List

Participating in the mailing list could never be simpler. Upon quick inspection, all messages from the list server have the "From:" address of ips-list@eGroups.com. This is also the "Reply-to:" address. Replying to an existing posting requires the same action as replying to a regular e-mail, which is writing the reploy and telling the e-mail software to reply to the original message. Starting a new subject requires only sending an e-mail to the address above. In either case, the message must be addressed to the list server at the address above in order to be posted to the list. From that point, the list server will distribute that message to each mailing list subscriber, and so on, and so forth.

Using web-based access, from the eGroups groups list, a click on the word "Post" (located to the left of the ips-list group name) is all that is required to begin the posting. From there, a subject should be entered, followed by the message itself, and then a selection of the language the message was written in (from the pull-down box at the bottom). After the writer has completed their message, they simply click on "Send Message", and that message is then posted to the mailing list automatically.

Unsubscribing from the IPS Mailing List

Though we don't recommend doing so, users can unsubscribe from the IPS mailing list at any time. If participation in the mailing list is no longer desired, however, the user has two ways to choose from to unsubscribe: through e-mail, or through the eGroups website.

Through e-mail, a blank e-mail to ips-list-unsubscribe@eGroups.com, sent through thte mail account the user subscribed from, is all that is required. If the subscribed account isn't used to send the unsubscription request, the unsubscription will fail. Shortly after having sent the request from your subscribing account, you should receive a message from the eGroups list server later that confirms your un-subscription from the list. From that point onward, you shouldn't get any more e-mail from the IPS Mailing List.

Through web-based access, simply sign in to eGroups.com, click on the "ips-list" group from the list of groups you are a member of, and then click on "Unsubscribe" in the upper-right hand corner of the new page that's displayed. If you have questions about, or experience problems with the eGroups service, please visit http://www.eGroups.com/.

Changing email accounts

Who would have thought moving could be so easy? One day you might want the IPS Mailing List to be sent to a different email account. Should this day come, simply un-subscribe from the list (refer to the "Unsubscribing from the IPS Mailing List" section just above), and then subscribe using the new e-mail account (refer to the "Subscribing to the IPS Mailing List" section). If you're a web user, you can Unsubscribe from the eGroups list, and then re-subscribe as a new member (refer to the Subscribing and Unsubscribing web sections above).

2.3.2 - Internet Relay Chat (IRC)

EFnet IRC is the host of the Official IPS Support Channel, which is #IPS. This is a channel where informal chats on IPS take place. The various methods of using IRC is beyond the scope of this document. If you haven't had experience using IRC before, quite simply put, it's a way for large or small groups of people to communicate with one another in real-time, through text messages and file transfers. To communicate on IRC, you will need to download an "IRC client" (See Appendix B for links to many popular IRC clients). Try downloading one of these clients and perusing the help they provide.

2.3.3 - The IPS Support FTP Site

The IPS Support FTP Site always contains the latest releases, maintenance releases, enhancements and other files related to IPS. The official address is ftp://ftp.iq.to/pub/ips and it accepts anonymous logins.

NOTE

If you have created RexxHooks of your own and you'd like to share them with other IPS users, please feel free to upload them to the IPS Support FTP Site, and be sure to notify the author after you're done!

2.3.4 - The IPS Author

If you need to contact Terje Flaarønning directly, you can do so at terje.flaaronning@eunet.no. Once again, technical support issues will not be addressed outside the mailing list.