| Here is a list of questions and issues that both potential
and established WebAgain users may encounter.
What types of files does WebAgain protect?
WebAgain can protect any files associated with your web site. As long as WebAgain
has read/write privileges to the area on the web site where these are stored. This
includes: HTML, XML, Java, external cascading style sheets, VBScript, Jscript, JavaScript,
any graphics formats (GIF, JPG, PNG, etc).
Does WebAgain check for changes in my PERL and CGI scripts?
It can, if your scripts are stored in an area accessible to WebAgain. (i.e. If your
ISP allows you to have your own CGI Scripts folder).
Most ISPs do not allow users to have their own CGI script folders as part of their web
site. Most ISPs provide some generic scripts for general use of their
customers. They want to make sure any scripts used on their server are
non-destructive and meet various security standards.
Note, if you publish executable files to WebAgain (.exe, Perl scripts, etc.), WebAgain
cannot determine if the file is supposed to be executable or not. Therefore, if you
publish your files to a system that does not depend on a filename extension to determine
if the file is executable or not (i.e. Unix/Linux), you will have to manually change the
attributes on the files.
For example, if you want to use WebAgain to protect your Perl scripts and an
unauthorized change is made to one of them on the web site, the original copy of the Perl
script will be reposted, but it will not be executable. This change will have to be made
change manually. For this reason, we do not recommend that you publish your scripts to
WebAgain, if your target computer is a Unix/Linux computer.
Can WebAgain just protect a single file?
Yes, if it is the only file in a folder and all the other folders in the site are
excluded.
Can WebAgain detect unauthorized additions to my web site?
Yes. WebAgain is able to detect additions to your web site were not sent through WebAgain.
WebAgain will remove the unauthorized files and folders from the web site and put them in
the Quarantine.
When additional file checking is turned on for a web site, you can also exclude certain
files and folders from being checked. You would want to do this if you put web trending
information in the same location as your web site files. Excluding the folder with the web
trending information prevents WebAgain from detecting the changes/updates to the web
trending data as an unauthorized change (which would remove and Quarantine the updated web
trending information).
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Is WebAgain only for corporate and business web sites, or can I use this on my
personal home page? Do I need a registered domain name to use WebAgain?
No, WebAgain works the same with www.mycompany.com as it does with
www.myisp.com/~myusername/homepage.html
How does WebAgain know that a page has been altered?
WebAgain offers two (2) different styles of checking: a fast check and a thorough
check. The fast check is excellent for scanning lots of files very quickly.
The thorough check will check the contents of every file in your web site, looking for
differences between the version of the file that is on the web site and the version of the
file that is in the Archive.
Can WebAgain detect when unauthorized files have been added to my web site?
Yes.
Will WebAgain keep hackers out of my web site?
No. It just changes their work back to your original content within seconds
(depending upon the scan time frequency you choose).
Will WebAgain prevent my web site from going down?
No.
Will this protect my web site from “Denial of Service” attacks?
No. Denial of Service attacks consist of large quantities of data being directed at
your web server, not any content or structural changes being made to your web site.
Does the scanning process of WebAgain affect my page counters and Web trend reports?
Not if you use FTP because hit counters on UNIX web servers are implemented as CGI scripts
which are linked into your web page. The hit counter data file is only updated when the
page is read from the web server via HTTP. If you check your site via the FrontPage Server
Extensions then the hit counters will increase when that page is checked.
Does WebAgain work with FrontPage Extensions?
Yes.
Does WebAgain support WebDAV?
Not yet. This is currently being researched for possible inclusion in a future revision.
Does the WebAgain server replace my existing Web server?
No. WebAgain posts files to your Web server if an unauthorized change is made and
monitors the files on your Web server for changes.
Can I install WebAgain on my Web server? Is it recommended?
Yes, as long as your Web server is a Windows NT machine. However this is not
recommended since all the hacker would have to do is modify the files in the Archive and
WebAgain would end up protecting their work and not yours.
How often can I schedule WebAgain to check my web site?
WebAgain can be set to check your web site down to a per minute basis, if desired.
Obviously, the more often your web site is scanned, the more CPU time will be
utilized. WebAgain’s default scan time is set at 15 minutes.
Does the size of my web site restrict how often I can have WebAgain check for
changes?
No.
How many mirror sites can be protected with WebAgain?
A single license can protect a single main site and an unlimited number of mirrors of the
main site.
How many different web sites can be protected with WebAgain?
WebAgain can protect a virtually unlimited number of web sites. However, the proper
number of licenses do need to be purchased.
Is an "always on" connection (T1, DSL, cable modem) required to use
WebAgain?
No. WebAgain can use dial-up networking or an "always on" connection such as a
T1, DSL or cable modem.
How is WebAgain licensed?
WebAgain requires a license for every web site it protects. However, one license
number covers the web site and all mirror sites that go with it.
- To have WebAgain protect your public web site and its 3 mirror sites, you need to
purchase (1) WebAgain license.
- To have WebAgain protect your public web site, its 3 mirror sites and your internal web
site, you need to purchase (2) WebAgain licenses.
If WebAgain protects more than one web site, can each site be scanned at different
intervals?
Yes.
Can WebAgain be remotely administered from my Internet browser?
No, but WebAgain can be remotely administered from any Windows 9x-2000 platform.
Does WebAgain make a backup of my web site?
Yes. WebAgain can create a Rescue Disk that contains a copy of the current web
site.
If I uninstall WebAgain, will it remove files on my web site?
No.
Can I import data from my existing site into WebAgain?
Yes. When you create a site configuration, this option is presented. Note that if you
enter multiple mirror sites, WebAgain will import its data from the first one in the list.
Can I change which web site to import data from?
WebAgain always chooses the first site in the list of mirror sites to imports its data
from. Make the site you want to import from, the first site in the list.
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What operating systems does WebAgain run on?
WebAgain runs as a Windows NT/2000 service and therefore must be installed on a Windows
NT/2000 computer. However, it may be remotely administered from a Windows 9x/ME
computer or another Windows NT/2000 computer.
WebAgain will, however, protect a web site that is hosted on nearly any
platform/operating system (Unix/Linux, etc).
Does WebAgain work with UNIX Web servers (Apache, NCSA….)?
Yes.
What type of security features does WebAgain offer?
1. Remote administration option may be enabled/disabled.
2. Remote administration may be allowed or restricted from certain machines.
3. Ability to publish to WebAgain may be allowed or restricted from certain
machines.
4. If multiple network cards exist on the WebAgain server, you can selectively
listen for connections on any one or all of the network cards.
5. Optional password can be enabled to prevent illegal remote access to the WebAgain
server..
Does WebAgain support dial-up networking?
Yes. WebAgain can publish and monitor web sites via a dial-up networking connection.
Do I have to disable FTP services on my Windows NT IIS server?
No, but if you want to be able to transfer web site files to WebAgain using FTP, you will
have to change the WebAgain FTP server port.
Will WebAgain's FTP server work as a general purpose anonymous FTP server?
No. Everything that is transferred to the WebAgain FTP server is stored in the Archive and
not in a user selectable location.
How do I know WebAgain is up and running?
Since it runs as a Windows NT/2000 service, this can be difficult to determine. You
can bring up the machine’s main user interface and check its status. Or you can
try to connect to the server machine via the WebAgain Remote Administration Interface.
What notification methods are offered?
When a change has been detected, WebAgain can send a notification via:
- SMTP E-mail
- NT Event Log (local or specific machines)
- SNMP
Do I have to disable IIS services on my WebAgain Server?
Only if you want to be able to transfer web site files to WebAgain using FrontPage
Extensions.
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Publishing To WebAgain
Does WebAgain integrate with FrontPage or any other publishing software?
WebAgain is not an “add-on” to any other software package. It works in
conjunction with web site publishing titles such as Microsoft FrontPage and Adobe
GoLive. After setting up the WebAgain software on the WebAgain server, all you have
to do is create your web site in your favorite Web authoring software and publish the web
site to the WebAgain server machine instead of the the web server machine.
Can I still use WebAgain even if I don’t use any web site publishing software
(i.e. create HTML pages in notepad and send to WWW via FTP or a script)?
Yes. Just copy your files to the WebAgain source folder and WebAgain will publish
the files to all your sites for you.
My web authoring software allows me to publish only my changed files to the WebAgain
server. Can I continue to do this?
Yes and No. Some web authoring software allows you to select whether you only want to
publish files that have changed or publish the complete web site. Our recommendation
depends on the route you took when creating the WebAgain site configuration.
If you chose to import your existing data from the web site into WebAgain, then you can
continue to publish only the changes.
If you chose not to import your existing data from the web site into WebAgain, we
recommend you publish the entire site the first time you publish your web site to
WebAgain. This allows WebAgain to begin protecting the entire site as well as build
an archive of the complete web site. After the initial publish to WebAgain, you may
choose to use the feature that allows you to publish just the files that have
changed.
What publishing methods are supported?
WebAgain currently has the ability to receive data from your web publishing software using
FTP, shared folders and FrontPage Extensions.
Publishing from WebAgain
What publishing methods are supported?
WebAgain currently has the ability to publish data to your web site using FTP, shared
folders and FrontPage Extensions.
Can I publish to just one mirror site, instead of all of them?
No. Once a version of the web site is published, it will be sent to all mirror sites
– keeping all sites “in sync”. The only way around this is to change the
web site configuration to remove all the mirror sites except the one you want to publish
to.
Can I re-publish individual files (pages) or do I have to re-publish the whole site?
Re-publishing can only be done on an entire site basis. However, this does not mean
that the whole site will be sent (via FTP, etc.) up to the web site. WebAgain will
compare the new version of the web site against the previous version and send only the
files that have changes in them up to the WWW. This cuts down on file transfer time.
Do I have to publish using the same method (e.g. FTP) to all my mirror sites?
No. You can "mix and match" among your target sites. You can publish FTP to your
UNIX/Linux computers and use FrontPage Extensions or Shared Folder to your Windows NT web
server.
Can I publish archived versions of my web site?
Yes. Just go to the archive section and choose the particular date you want to
“roll back” to and press the Re-Publish button in the toolbar.
If I remove a target site from WebAgain, will it remove the files from the target
site?
No.
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How do I put the newest version of my web site in the WebAgain Archive?
When you publish with WebAgain, a version is automatically stored in the Archive.
How many revisions of a web site can be kept in the Archive?
By default, we do not place a limit on the number of revisions. WebAgain can publish more
than one site for you (i.e. an external and an internal web site), and store unlimited
versions of each site. If your web sites are particularly large or you wish to limit
the amount of disk space WebAgain uses, you can specify how may versions to store in the
Archive.
What happens to the Archive when a limit is reached?
The oldest versions are deleted.
Oops, I imported too much data from my web site. Can I remove things from the
Archive?
Yes.
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What is the Quarantine Area?
WebAgain's Quarantine area is the place where files that have had an unauthorized changes
made to them are stored. Files can be saved to removable media for evidence gathering
should you decide to pursue a legal response.
Can I save quarantined files to another location (for use later as evidence)?
Yes. Highlight the name of the quarantined file and press the Save button.
Files, folders, or the entire web site can be saved to external media.
Can I republish files that accidentally end up in the Quarantine?
Yes.
Can I delete files in the Quarantine?
Yes, files, folders and entire mirror sites can be removed when you no longer want them.
Note, this is a permanent operation and there is no "undo" for this.
Why aren't all the graphics being displayed?
When viewing hacked files in the Quarantine, you may not see the associated graphics.
WebAgain looks for the graphics in the Quarantine and in the associated website in the
Archive. If they do not exist in either of these places, they will not be able to be
viewed. This issue should only occur if the web site does not have the Additional File
Checking feature enabled because in this mode, files which were added to the web site
outside of WebAgain are ignored. If the Additional File Checking feature is enabled, then
the additional files are detected will be removed from the web site and placed in the
Quarantine at which point they will be able to be viewed.
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Is WebAgain a firewall product?
No.
Will WebAgain work with my existing firewall product?
WebAgain does not integrate with any firewall product. It is assumed that the
WebAgain server will reside behind your firewall.
I already have a firewall. Why do I need WebAgain?
WebAgain is designed to complement your already existing security infrastructure.
Firewalls and intrusion detection systems are a good start, but they do not help you clean
up if someone does slip by their defenses. WebAgain makes sure your public image on the
Web is protected should they try and post false information or deface your site.
I don't allow FTP access through my firewall. Can WebAgain protect my site using
HTTP?
Yes, if your web server is running FrontPage Server Extensions.
If you are not running FrontPage Extensions, then the answer is no. The HTTP protocol
has several limitations that prohibit WebAgain from being able to fully protect your web
site. These limitations include:
- No ability to create folders
- No ability to delete folders
- A folders contents can only be listed if:
- This operation is enabled by the server.
- A default document (for example, index.html or default.html) does not exist in that
folder.
- No ability to rename files
- No ability to delete files
- Only able to send files if enabled by the web server
WebAgain needs these features to be able to publish data to the target web site. It
also needs them to repair a web site should unauthorized files be added to the web site.
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