Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Creating a Web server site via the Net can be a frustrating experience. This book helps information systems professionals and information providers to avoid misinformation and chasing scattered electronic instructions. It covers all the fundamentals of designing, configuring, maintaining and expanding a Web site using the software packages CERN and SCSA. In addition, it discusses key issues like software security, authoring documents and how to incorporate special services like indexes and gateways to other services into a Web site. Practical examples are also included for different operating systems.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Preface
• 1 Introduction to the Web
• A Little History
• Guided Tour
• Key Concepts
• What Can You Do with the Web?
• Creating the Document and Server Root Directories
• Creating a Web Site
• Allocating Responsibility
• Doing Business Over the Web
• 2 Unraveling the Web: How It All Works
• Network Basics
• Uniform Resource Locators
• The MIME Typing System
• The HTTP Protocol
• 3 Installing and Configuring a Web Server
• Preparing Your Site
• A Choice of Servers
• Servers on Non-Unix Platforms
• Obtaining and Installing the NCSA and CERN Servers
• Creating the Web Directories
• NCSA httpd
• The CERN Server
• Starting the Server at Boot Time
• Managing Log Files
• Publicizing Your Site
• 4 Security
• Planning the Security at Your Site
• Basic Security Measures
• Introduction to Web Server Built-in Access Control Facilities
• Configuring Access Control: The Basics
• NCSA httpd: Controlling Directory Access
• The CERN Server: Controlling Directory Access
• Running a Web Server with a Firewall
• Configuring the CERN Server to Act as a Proxy
• Running in a Change Root Environment
• 5 Creating Hypertext Documents
• Some Background
• Basic HTML Tags
• Creating Hypertext Links
• Creating In-Line Images
• Advanced Text Formatting
• Creating Lists
• Specifying Text Styles
• Special Characters
• Miscellaneous HTML Tags
• Tags for Defining Fill-Out Forms
• Putting It All Together
• Extended HTML Tags Used by Netscape Navigator
• Maintaining Compatibility with HTML 3
• 6 Software Tools for Text, Graphics, Sound, and Video
• HTML Editor
• HTML Syntax Checkers
• Converting Other Text Formats into HTML
• Using Graphics in Your Pages
• Using Sound in Your Pages
• Using Video in Your Pages
• 7 A Web Style Guide
• Lost in Hyperspace
• Making the Most of Your Pages
• Optimizing Performance
• Clickable Image Maps: Uses and Abuses
• Testing Your Pages
• Managing a Changing Site
• Mirroring Other Sites
• The Web and Copyrights
• 8 Working with Server Scripts
• Script Basics
• Communicating with Scripts
• Creating Clickable Image Maps
• Gateways to Other Services
• Fast Text-Based Searching for Documents at Your Site
• Other Getaway Scripts
• Simple Scripting with Server-Side Includes in NCSA httpd
• 9 Writing Server Scripts
• Introduction
• Basic Scripts
• Retrieving Server and Browser Information from Within Scripts
• Writing Safe Scripts
• A Generic Script Template
• A Form for Sending in Comments
• A Picture Database Search Script
• Preserving State Information Between Invocations of a Script
• Returning Nontext Documents from Scripts
• Issuing HTTP Status Codes with No-Parse-Headers Scripts
• Writing a Script to Start a Time-Consuming Task in the Background
• Appendices
• A Resource Guide
• B Escape Codes
• C Configuring NCSA httpd to Use Public-Key Cryptography
• Index. 0201633892T04062001

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Lincoln Stein has an M.D. and is a scientist at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. When the Web first emerged, he created and maintained one of the earliest Internet sites for distribution of Human Genome Project data and has since become an acknowledged expert in Web, network, and Perl programming. Known for his exceptional ability to synthesize and present complex information, he writes for The Perl Journal and Web Techniques magazines and is the author of four other books.