>Date: Mon, 10 Feb 1997 12:30:13 -0800
>From: "Ron Snyder" <snyder @
roguewave .
com>
>
>I was just informed by our webmaster that the netscape commerce
>server uses javascript for remote admin. In order for him to
Actually, this is probably just a technical distinction, but the
Commerce server proper does not: the Fast Track and Enterprise
servers do.
[--cut--]
>I was just getting ready to disable javascript through the
>firewall when he told me this. Here are my questions:
>
>1) Is it _really_, _really_ dumb of Netscape to REQUIRE
>javascript to admin the server?
People begged and pleaded for a nicer admin interface. They gave the
world one. Bites, eh?
>2) Is there any way that I can have my cake (disable java*) and
>eat it too (let him admin the server)? These are the
>possibilities I can
>see:
> a) tell him to dial in to the web server
> (modem should be dial-out only, so this is a bad idea)
> b) Have him use ISDN to establish his admin sessions to the
> web server.
> (What problems does the existence of his desktop ISDN
> connection give me?)
>
>What are some other options that I'm not seeing?
Some thoughts:
1) dialing in would be a terrible option, IMHO. Modems are slow,
they fail, they hang up, offer a direct line to the machine, etc.
2) If you are willing to punch a tiny hole in the firewall, you
could permit javascript to their (the admin's) desktop, or you could
permit the admin to connect to the web server and remotely launch a
Netscape app to the admin's screen. This could be managed through
SSH, which would tunnel/encrypt the X session and offer increased
authentication options.
3) You could grant the admin physical access to the web server.
4) The admin could learn to admin the .conf files by hand (not
recommended, though).
5) The admin could maintain a staging server inside the network,
configure it properly, manually change ip/hostname info and then
deliver them by some other mechanism.
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