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411 lines
13 KiB
411 lines
13 KiB
<?xml version="1.0" ?>
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<!DOCTYPE book PUBLIC "-//KDE//DTD DocBook XML V4.2-Based Variant V1.1//EN" "dtd/kdex.dtd" [
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<!ENTITY kappname "&kpf;">
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<!ENTITY package "kdenetwork">
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<!ENTITY % addindex "IGNORE">
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<!ENTITY % English "INCLUDE" > <!-- change language only here -->
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]>
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<book lang="&language;">
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<bookinfo>
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<title>The &kpf; Handbook</title>
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<authorgroup>
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<author>
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<firstname>Rik</firstname>
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<surname>Hemsley</surname>
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<affiliation>
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<address>&Rik.Hemsley.mail;</address>
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</affiliation>
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</author>
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<!-- TRANS:ROLES_OF_TRANSLATORS -->
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</authorgroup>
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<copyright>
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<year>2002</year>
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<holder>&Rik.Hemsley;</holder>
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</copyright>
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<legalnotice>&FDLNotice;</legalnotice>
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<date>2003-09-30</date>
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<releaseinfo>1.0.1</releaseinfo>
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<abstract>
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<para>
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&kpf; allows you to share files over a network.
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</para>
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</abstract>
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<keywordset>
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<keyword>KDE</keyword>
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<keyword>public</keyword>
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<keyword>fileserver</keyword>
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<keyword>HTTP</keyword>
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</keywordset>
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</bookinfo>
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<chapter id="introduction">
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<title>Introduction</title>
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<para>
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&kpf; provides simple file sharing using &HTTP; (the Hyper Text
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Transfer Protocol,) which is the same protocol used by web sites to
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provide data to your web browser. &kpf; is strictly a public
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fileserver, which means that there are no access restrictions to shared
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files. Whatever you select for sharing is available to anyone.
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</para>
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<para>
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&kpf; is designed to be used for sharing files with friends, not to
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act like a fully-fledged web server such as
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<application>Apache</application>. &kpf; was primarily conceived
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as an easy way to share files with others while chatting on
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<acronym>IRC</acronym> (Internet Relay Chat, or <quote>chat
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rooms</quote>.)
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</para>
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<para>
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Typical usage: &kpf; is set up to serve files from the <filename
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class="directory">public_html</filename> folder in your home
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folder. You wish to make a file available to some people with
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whom you are chatting online. Rather than send them each an
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email with the file attached (some may not even be interested,)
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you copy the file into your <filename
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class="directory">public_html</filename> folder and announce
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to those listening that your file is available at
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http://www.mymachine.net:8001/thefile
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</para>
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</chapter>
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<chapter id="using-kpf">
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<title>Using &kpf;</title>
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<sect1 id="kpf-basics">
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<title>&kpf; basics</title>
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<para>
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&kpf; runs as an applet inside &kicker;. This means that it
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takes up little space on your screen and its status is always
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visible. To start the &kpf; applet,
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<mousebutton>right</mousebutton> click on &kicker; and choose
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<guimenu>Add Applet to Panel...</guimenu> to open the <guilabel>Add
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Applet</guilabel> dialog. Select <guilabel>Public File Server</guilabel> and
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click the <guibutton>Add to Panel</guibutton> button.
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</para>
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<para>
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&kpf; employs the concept of shared folders. You may choose
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one or more folders to make public, and all files in that folder
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(and any subfolders) will be shared.
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</para>
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<para>
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Please be extremely careful about which folders you
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share. Remember that all files in the folder and its
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subfolders, including <quote>hidden</quote> files
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(<quote>dotfiles</quote> to the techies) will be made
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available to the world, so be careful not to share sensitive
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information, such as passwords, cryptographic keys, your
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addressbook, documents private to your organization, &etc;.
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</para>
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<para>
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Once &kpf; is running, you will see a square applet with a
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thin sunken bevel and an icon depicting an <guiicon>hot air
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balloon</guiicon>. The balloon is visible when no folders are being
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shared.
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</para>
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<para>
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To share a folder, <mousebutton>right</mousebutton> click
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on the balloon icon and a popup menu will appear, containing
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only one item, <guimenuitem>New
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Server...</guimenuitem>. Selecting this entry will cause a
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<quote>wizard</quote> to appear, which will ask you a few
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simple questions. Completing the questions will set up a
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folder for sharing.
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</para>
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<para>
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There is an alternative to using the applet directly when you
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want to share a folder. &kpf; is integrated with &konqueror;.
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</para>
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<para>
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With &konqueror; open and displaying a folder,
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<mousebutton>right</mousebutton> click on the background and
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bring up the <quote>Properties</quote> dialog. On install,
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&kpf; added a <guilabel>Sharing</guilabel> tab to this
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dialog. You will be offered the option of starting &kpf; if it
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is not running. Choosing <guibutton>Ok</guibutton> will send a
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signal to the &kpf; applet, asking it to add a new share.
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</para>
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</sect1>
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</chapter>
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<chapter id="share-config">
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<title>Share configuration</title>
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<sect1 id="listen-port">
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<title>Listen port</title>
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<para>
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For each folder that is shared by &kpf;, a new network
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<quote>port</quote> is opened. A <quote>port</quote> is simply a number used to uniquely identify a
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network service. When someone uses a program (⪚ a web browser)
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to connect to a machine, it is directed to the service by specifying
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the address of the machine and the <quote>port</quote> on which the service is
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running.
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</para>
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<para>
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The <quote>port</quote> concept allows one machine to run more
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than one network service. Services you might use every day
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include &HTTP; (the web,) usually connected to by port 80,
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&SMTP; (mail sending,) usually on port 25,
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and POP3 (mail receiving,) usually on port 110.
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</para>
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<para>
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Usually, when you connect to a network service, you do not need
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to specify which <quote>port</quote> you want to connect
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to. This is because the ports are standardized, so anyone
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connecting to port 80 on a network machine expects to find an
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&HTTP; (web) server.
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</para>
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<para>
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&kpf; is not a <quote>standard</quote> service, so 8001 was
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chosen for the default port.
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</para>
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<para>
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The second folder you share will offer to listen on port 8002,
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with the number being incremented each time you start a new share.
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</para>
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<para>
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Within certain boundaries, you are free to choose whichever port
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number you wish, for a share.
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</para>
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<para>
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It is usual for port numbers below 1000 to be reserved for
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<quote>system</quote> services, &ie; those under the control
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of the machine's administrator, therefore you may find that
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attempting to use anything below 1000 will simply not work.
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</para>
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<para>
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&kpf; tries to warn you when it cannot <quote>listen</quote>
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on a port. It does this by displaying a <guiicon>broken
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connection</guiicon> icon over the top-left corner of the
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graph. &kpf; attempts to stop you assigning more than one
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share to the same port, but it will not attempt to stop you
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setting a share to listen on a port which is already occupied
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by another service, for example your <quote>real</quote> web
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server.
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</para>
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<para>
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If you see the <guiicon>broken connection</guiicon> icon,
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<mousebutton>right</mousebutton> click on the bandwidth graph
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and choose <guimenuitem>Configure...</guimenuitem> Now try
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changing the listen port and pressing
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<guibutton>Ok</guibutton>. Assuming that this time you picked
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a free port, you should see that the <guiicon>broken
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connection</guiicon> icon disappears, and you should now be
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able to connect to the share.
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</para>
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</sect1>
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<sect1 id="bandwidth-limit">
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<title>Bandwidth limit</title>
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<para>
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The term <quote>bandwidth</quote> refers to the amount of data
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that may be transmitted over a connection during a period of
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time. Techies may be overheard referring to how
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<quote>fat</quote> their <quote>pipe</quote> is. The analogy
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is apt.
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</para>
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<para>
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&kpf; allows you to set a limit on how much bandwidth will be
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used by a particular share. This is useful when you want to
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avoid your network connection being saturated by people
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downloading from your shares. If you are on a modem, for
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example, you only have a few kilobytes per second to
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yourself. Limiting the bandwidth used by your &kpf; shares
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will allow you to keep a portion of the bandwidth for your own
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use.
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</para>
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<para>
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As just mentioned, &kpf; measures bandwidth in kilobytes per
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second, or kB/s for short. A typical modem transfers about 5kB/s on
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average, so limiting the total use of all &kpf; shares to a value
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less than this may be wise, depending on how you are using &kpf;.
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</para>
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</sect1>
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<sect1 id="follow-symlinks">
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<title>Follow symbolic links</title>
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<para>
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A symbolic link is a special file which is a reference to another
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file (or folder) in your filesystem. By following the link,
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you reach the file or folder referred to - the link is generally
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transparent.
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</para>
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<para>
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By default, a &kpf; share does not allow the following of
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symbolic links. This means that, for example, if you have a
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share pointing to <filename
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class="directory">/your/home/folder/public_html</filename>
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and you create a link inside <filename
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class="directory">public_html</filename>, pointing to
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<filename class="directory">/tmp</filename>, then anyone
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requesting <filename class="directory">/tmp</filename> will
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see the contents of your <filename>/tmp</filename> folder.
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</para>
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<para>
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In general, it's a bad idea to allow the following of symbolic
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links in this way. The main reason this is allowed is so that
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you may have symbolic links inside the shared folder, which
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point to another place inside the shared folder. This can
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be useful if you're serving up an entire
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<quote>website</quote> - which as mentioned previously, is not
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the intended use of &kpf;.
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</para>
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<para>
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Just be careful not to link to anywhere on your file system that
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might hold sensitive information (or have a symbolic link in it
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somewhere that points to sensitive information!)
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</para>
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</sect1>
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</chapter>
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<chapter id="faq">
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<title>Questions and Answers</title>
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<qandaset id="faq-questions">
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<qandaentry>
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<question>
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<para>Why does &kpf; not include any security mechanisms?</para>
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</question>
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<answer>
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<para>
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In truth, &kpf; does include various measures designed to help
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prevent the user accidentally providing access to sensitive
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information. There is no password protection and no encryption.
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This is by design, as will be explained.
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</para>
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<para>
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The more security measures that are added to a service, the
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safer people feel when using it. Sadly, to ensure real security,
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the user needs to have a good understanding of the issues involved.
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For example, providing password protection is no use if the user
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does not know how to pick a good password. Therefore the decision
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was made to provide zero security, in the hope that the user will
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find it easier to understand what this means than to spend months
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or years learning about the complexities of network security.
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</para>
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<para>
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The concept is simple. If you specify that a folder is
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shared, it's shared to the world. If you don't want to make
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it available to the world, don't share it.
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</para>
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</answer>
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</qandaentry>
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</qandaset>
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</chapter>
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<chapter id="credits">
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<title>Credits and License</title>
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<para>
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&kpf;
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</para>
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<para>
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Program copyright 2002 &Rik.Hemsley; &Rik.Hemsley.mail;
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</para>
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<para>
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Documentation copyright 2002 by &Rik.Hemsley; &Rik.Hemsley.mail;
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</para>
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<!-- TRANS:CREDIT_FOR_TRANSLATORS -->
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&underFDL;
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<para>
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&kpf; is released under the MIT license.
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</para>
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</chapter>
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<appendix id="installation">
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<title>Installation</title>
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<sect1 id="getting-kpf">
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<title>How to obtain &kpf;</title>
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&install.intro.documentation;
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</sect1>
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</appendix>
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&documentation.index;
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</book>
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<!--
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Local Variables:
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mode: sgml
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sgml-minimize-attributes: nil
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sgml-general-insert-case: lower
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End:
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-->
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<!-- vim:tabstop=2:shiftwidth=2:expandtab -->
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