Home » Posts tagged 'apache'

Tag Archives: apache

The Most Versatile VoIP Provider: FREE PORTING

Remotely Managing Your Asterisk Server with WebDAV

Got DAV?It's been quite a while since we last explored WebDAV, and that was in the context of turning a Mac into an ISP-in-a-Box in 2005. Today we want to do much the same thing with your PBX in a Flash server, and the drill is quite similar. Over the course of the last four years, the uses of WebDAV have grown geometrically.

Overview. As you probably know, WebDAV is an acronym for Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning. Simply put, it is an HTTP protocol extension that allows people anywhere on the Internet to collaboratively edit and manage documents and other files using the same protocol and port used for surfing the web. In the Mac world, WebDAV provides a Disk Volume on your Desktop that “looks and feels” like any other networked hard disk. In the Windows world, WebDAV is called Web Folders. They can be used like any other mapped drive in Network Neighborhood. If you’re still a little fuzzy about the WebDAV concept, think of how you link to another drive on your local area network. WebDAV gives you the same functionality across the entire Internet with virtually the same ease of use. Depending upon user privileges, of course, you can copy files to and from a WebDAV volume, and the protocol imposes versioning control through file locking to assure that multiple people with access rights don’t change the same file at the same time.

For openers, WebDAV provides a simple vehicle to manage your PBX in a Flash web site by letting you create a file-sharing link to your server which is read and write-accessible (with a password) from almost anywhere. It also could be used to upload and/or download sensitive corporate data, or it could serve as a backup repository for your portable or desktop PC. Think of it as a Poor Man's Cloud Computing alternative. Install a couple of terabyte drives on a Dell T100 or SC440, and you've got a secure environment for storing all of your data on a single server.

Initial Setup of WebDAV. For today, we're assuming you already have a functioning PBX in a Flash server. It includes most of the WebDAV components necessary to get WebDAV working. If you're using some other Asterisk® platform, then take a look at our previous articles for some hints on the basic setup keeping in mind that most Asterisk distributions use asterisk as the web user account rather than apache. To keep things simple, we're going to set up a separate dav directory within your existing PBX in a Flash web server to use for WebDAV access. This means files and folders managed with WebDAV will appear in /var/www/html/dav on your server.

To complete the WebDAV setup on PBX in a Flash systems, log into your server as root and issue the following commands:

mkdir /var/www/html/dav
chown asterisk:asterisk /var/www/html/dav
chown asterisk:asterisk /var/lib/dav
cd /etc/pbx/httpdconf
wget http://pbxinaflash.net/source/webdav/dav.conf
apachectl restart

Configuring WebDAV. As installed, you'll need your username (maint) and your password to access your WebDAV server from either a browser (for read access) or via network access (for read and write access). You have several choices in how to reconfigure this setup to meet your own requirements. If you want to upload and manage files in this directory with a password and then allow anyone to access the files with a web browser with no password, you can simply uncomment the two Limit lines in the Apache dav.conf file in /etc/pbx/httpdconf. Just remove the leading # characters from both the lines in the configuration file. If you want to restrict network and web access to WebDAV to certain IP addresses, you can remove the Allow from all line in dav.conf and add lines that look like the following:

Allow from 192.168.0
Allow from 68.218.222.170

Remember to give yourself access on the private LAN as well as the public side if you plan to use WebDAV from outside your firewall. Our strongest recommendation remains to not expose your server to public web access without restricting access with either passwords or IP restrictions in .htaccess files for each directory as shown above.

Accessing WebDAV. To access your WebDAV folder with a browser for read-only access, point your browser to the IP address of your server and then the /dav subdirectory. For example, on your private LAN, the link might look like this: http://192.168.0.123/dav. On the public Internet, the link might look like this: http://pbx.dyndns.org/dav.

On a Windows machine, you can create a Web Folder for access to your new WebDAV directory like this:

My Network Places
Add a network place
Choose network location
http://192.168.0.123/dav (with no trailing slash!)
username: maint password: yoursecretpassword
Name the link: PiaF WebDAV

Update: There is a glitch with Web Folder access with some Windows XP and Vista systems. Here's a link to the Microsoft Patch that addressed the problem.

On a Mac, click on your Desktop to open Finder and do the following:

Go
Connect to Server
http://192.168.0.123/dav (with no trailing slash!)
Connect
username: maint password: yoursecretpassword
OK

Using WebDAV for Total Web Site Management. There may be some who actually want to use WebDAV to manage your entire PBX in a Flash web site. This means all directories from /var/www/html down. This WebDAV management need not be exclusive. In other words, you still can retain the WebDAV setup for the dav directory outlined above. To add an additional WebDAV service for your entire web site, you will need to edit /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf. Then search for this text:

<Directory "/var/www/html">

Once you find that line of code, scroll down to just above the </Directory> entry and insert the following lines of code. Save your additions and then restart Apache: apachectl restart.

DAV on
<Limit PUT POST DELETE PROPFIND PROPPATCH MKCOL COPY MOVE LOCK UNLOCK>
AuthType Basic
AuthName "WebDAV Web Server Access"
AuthUserFile /usr/local/apache/passwd/wwwpasswd
Require valid-user
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Limit>

If you haven't also implemented the dav solution above, then make certain you issue the following command while logged into your server as root:

chown asterisk:asterisk /var/lib/dav

Now that you have your own WebDAV server, take a look at this terrific web site for some great ideas on what's possible in the open source and commercial world of WebDAV. Enjoy!


It's Time For That New Dell, Dude. If you've been holding off until Dell put the PowerEdge T100 on sale again, then today's your lucky day. With a dual Core Intel® Pentium®E2180, 2.0GHz processor with 1MB Cache, an 800MHz FSB, an 80GB 7.2K RPM Serial ATA 3Gbps 3.5-in Cabled Hard Drive connected to the onboard SATA controller, 512MB of 667MHz DDR2 RAM, a DVD-ROM Drive, and an On-Board Single Gigabit Network Adapter, the T100 is on sale for $329. It's not as great a deal as sometimes, but it's still a steal. Be sure to upgrade to 2GB of RAM for $19! Once you have your system, just load our Orgasmatron III build and you'll be off to the races in under 15 minutes!

If you want a cash rebate on your Dell purchase, use our eBates link to Dell or click on the coupon image in the right column of this article. It takes less than 30 seconds to sign up, and you get $5 (and so do we!) plus you receive 2% cash back on your Dell small business purchases which can be deposited directly into your PayPal account.


Want a Bootable PBX in a Flash Drive? In a few weeks to celebrate the beginning of Nerd Vittles' Fifth Year, we'll be introducing our bootable USB flash installer for PBX in a Flash with all of the goodies in the VPN in a Flash system featured a few weeks ago on Nerd Vittles. You can build a complete turnkey system using almost any current generation PC with a SATA drive and our flash installer in less than 15 minutes!

If you'd like to put your name in the hat for a chance to win a free one delivered to your door, just post a comment at this link with your best PBX in a Flash story.1

Be sure to include your real email address which will not be posted. The winner will be chosen by drawing an email address out of a hat (the old fashioned way!) from all of the comments posted over the next couple weeks. Good luck to everyone and Happy New Year!!


 

Special Thanks to Our Generous Sponsors


FULL DISCLOSURE: ClearlyIP, Skyetel, Vitelity, DigitalOcean, Vultr, VoIP.ms, 3CX, Sangoma, TelecomsXchange and VitalPBX have provided financial support to Nerd Vittles and our open source projects through advertising, referral revenue, and/or merchandise. As an Amazon Associate and Best Buy Affiliate, we also earn from qualifying purchases. We’ve chosen these providers not the other way around. Our decisions are based upon their corporate reputation and the quality of their offerings and pricing. Our recommendations regarding technology are reached without regard to financial compensation except in situations in which comparable products at comparable pricing are available from multiple sources. In this limited case, we support our sponsors because our sponsors support us.

BOGO Bonaza: Enjoy state-of-the-art VoIP service with a $10 credit and half-price SIP service on up to $500 of Skyetel trunking with free number porting when you fund your Skyetel account. No limits on number of simultaneous calls. Quadruple data center redundancy. $25 monthly minimum spend required. Tutorial and sign up details are here.

The lynchpin of Incredible PBX 2020 and beyond is ClearlyIP components which bring management of FreePBX modules and SIP phone integration to a level never before available with any other Asterisk distribution. And now you can configure and reconfigure your new Incredible PBX phones from the convenience of the Incredible PBX GUI.

VitalPBX is perhaps the fastest-growing PBX offering based upon Asterisk with an installed presence in more than 100 countries worldwide. VitalPBX has generously provided a customized White Label version of Incredible PBX tailored for use with all Incredible PBX and VitalPBX custom applications. Follow this link for a free test drive!
 

Special Thanks to Vitelity. Vitelity is now Voyant Communications and has halted new registrations for the time being. Our special thanks to Vitelity for their unwavering financial support over many years and to the many Nerd Vittles readers who continue to enjoy the benefits of their service offerings. We will keep everyone posted on further developments.
 


Some Recent Nerd Vittles Articles of Interest...

  1. This offer does not extend to those in jurisdictions in which our offer or your participation may be regulated or prohibited by statute or regulation. []