Business Support Internet

A. Common Gateway Interface or CGI is a standard protocol that a Web Server uses to communicate with external applications. When a user submits data through an HTML form, the data is collected and sent to the Web Server. The Web Server takes this data and passes it to the CGI script for processing. Once processed the output will be used for a variety of uses.

Q. What is PERL?
A. Perl (Practical Extraction and Reporting Language) is an interpreted language optimized for scanning arbitrary text files, extracting information from those text files, and printing reports based on that information.

Q. What is the path to Perl?
A. /usr/local/bin/perl

Q. What is the line that will make Perl scripts execute?
A. #!/usr/local/bin/perl. This must be the first line of your CGI Script.

Q. What version of Perl are you running?
A. Perl version 5.005_03.

Q. What is the absolute path to my home directory?
A./www/home/domain_name.com/htdocs

Q. What is the absolute path to my cgi-bin directory?
A./www/home/domain_name.com/cgi-bin.

Q. What is the path to sendmail?
A. /lib/sendmail

Q. What web server software are you running?
A. Apache Web Server 1.3.4

Q. What Operating System is Apache running on?
A. Solaris 2.5.1

Q. Where do I place my cgi scripts?
A. Place your scripts in the cgi-bin sub-directory. This directory is configured by the web server to store the executable scripts and allow them to run.

Q. What permissions have to be set on my CGI-BIN directory?
A. 751 or read write execute by owner, read execute by user and execute by everyone.

Q. What permissions should be assigned to my scripts?
A. 755 or read write execute by owner, read execute by user and read execute by everyone.

Q. How do I change the file permissions?
A. Most windows ftp software will allow you to change the file attributes. Right click on the file and select change attributes. Refer to http://www.allstream.com/customercare/business/internet/wsftp.permission.html. for compete instructions.

Q. Can I write my CGI in a different language?
A. Your scripts must be written in Perl.

Q. Do you have pre-written scripts that I can modify and use?
A. Yes. Allstream has provided two prewritten scripts a counter and email form. For more information visit http://www.allstream.com/bin/customercare/business/internet/cgi.overview.html

Q. Can I test my CGI's on the server?
A. Allstream does not allow shell access so your scripts will have to be tested on line.

Q. What do these error codes mean?
403 Forbidden
500 Server Error
501 Not Implemented
A. 403 - This usually means that your CGI is not executable. To change the file permissions on your CGI script refer to http://www.allstream.com/bin/customercare/business/internet/wsftp.permission.html
500 - This is a very generic error and is usually an error in the CGI script.

Q. I am not able to access my CGI-BIN directory?
A. You may not have the correct web hosting plan with Allstream. Custom CGI access is available to Web25 customers and up. If you have a Web 10 plan it will need to be upgraded.

Q. I have a Web 25 plan and I still can not access my CGI-BIN directory
A. Contact Allstream support at 1-866-282-0111 and we will turn on CGI access for you.

Q. Can you install a certain Perl module for me?
A. No.

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