What special features does the web server on Alcor have?
“as-is” files are now supported (see the apache documentation at http://www.apache.org). In short, you can have a file named something.asis, which contains the HTTP header information as well as the body, and both will be transmitted. This can be used, for example, to perform redirections without having to use a CGI script. SSL (Secure Socket Layer) is now supported. This means that the web server can encrypt transactions to SSL-capable browsers (such as Netscape, and the new Lynx now under test). Encrypted sessions use a URL that starts with “https:” instead of “http:”. This should probably be considered something of a pilot project at the moment, until we have a bit more experience with the technology, and until we deal with the matter of certificates. However, we have tested it (of course), and it works. We haven’t yet updated the user support web pages to explain how users can benefit from the encryption capabilities, but in short: • Using a URL of “https://alcor.concordia.ca/whate
