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Configuring the X10 Dispatcher Web Server :
X10Dispatcher comes with an optional built-in web server. This web server
doesnt serve up files on your hard drive. When someone (usually you) requests
a web page from the X10Dispatch Web Server, it is created right then in memory and
sent the user. This includes your home's X10 event history, any alerts which
might have been raised, copies of the images you have configured, weather forecasts,
status information, caller id logs, email inbox monitoring, and notes.
By default the web server is not enabled, but you can enable it very easily :
Go into the Web Server tab of the Setup screen and check the 'Run a web server on
port...' and save. Thats it... the next time you run X10 Dispatcher it will
start up the web server automatically (on port 8080). There are no icons,
services, or anything else visible about the webserver, it actually is running in
X10Dispatcher... and the only status information you will see or hear will be from
X10Dispatcher. All internet requests are logged (every page they request and
the ip address of the person requesting it).
Port : Web servers listen for incoming requests on a 'port'.
You don't normally enter a port when browsing the web because commercial web sites
all use the default port 80 and Internet Explorer knows to try that first.
The problem with port 80 is that alot of Internet Service Providers intentionally
block you from running servers on port 80 (maybe they think they will cause alot
of traffic). Whatever the reason you will most likely need to use a non-standard
port like 8080 for the web server to work (outside of your lan of course). So
just leave this at port 8080 unless you know what your doing. However, since
port 8080 is a non-standard port, you need to enter it into Internet Explorer as
part of the web address. So if your web address was 24.1.1.1, then your main
page would be at http://24.1.1.1:8080/x10d_index.htm. Port 8080
was chosen as a popular alternative to port 80 but depending on your isp or other
software you may be running you may want or need to alter this. Or you might
simply change it if you suspect others have 'found' and are viewing your site and
you want to hide it from them.
Hide the X10Dispatch Logo in web pages : Check this if you do not
want the X10 Dispatch Logo to be included in the web pages.
Show 3 Day Weather Outlook : This feature utilizes weatheroom.com
to generate a 3 weather outlook for the zip code which you have entered in the webalerts
tab, and includes this weather outlook in the summary page. You can still
enter your zip code in webalerts and not enable the weather alerts if you only want
the forecast, and not weather alerting.
Welcome Message : This textbox lets you enter your own custom welcome
message to display on the index and summary pages. While its easiest to just
enter some simple welcome text, this could actually be some complicated html/javascripting
if you really wanted it to be.
Colors : Don't like the default blue color scheme? You can
set up your own color scheme here.
Enable Web Macros : Enabling this option will allow you to remotely
invoke any of your Dispatch Macros over the web. The web macro password prevent
people or hackers (the non-dedicated kind at least) from running your macros. The
security behind web macros passwords as SHA-1 hashes (for those who know and care).
SHA-1 cryptography is more than sufficient for securing X10Dispatcher's macros.
Once you enable this feature, the index page will have a new link to the macros
page where you select macros, enter a password (if needed), and 'invoke' them.
Don't require password if client requesting macro page has ip starting with...
:
That is quite the detailed label. Perhaps this requires no explanation at
all... but since I'm already here, why not. If this feature is turned on then
if you are running macros while you are at home, you wont need to enter a password,
but if you are not home (like at work), it will ask you for a password. This
makes, for example, turning on a lamp from your backyard on a PocketPC easy enough
that you might actually do it often. For the curious, here's a more detailed
explanation : most home users are using routers
so that
multiple computers throughout
their home share a single internet address. The router makes up its own set
of addresses for each computer using it within your home and when they go out to
the internet, it translates all your computers' requests into your one real internet
address. The default set of addresses which most routers use/assign to computers
start at 192.168.1.100. Addresses starting with 192.168.x.x are 'private'
addresses. This means you can trust that requests coming from ip addresses
beginning with 192.168.x.x are originating from within your home network.
Now if you have a wireless router and are not using encryption on it, and those
neighbors know you are running an X10Dispatch website, they might be able to invoke
a macro, but realistically the odds of them knowing how to access the site are pretty
low... if you are worried, then you should enable WEP encryption on your router
or just not enable web macros.
Custom HTML footer : This area lets you add more custom text, add
extra hyperlinks, or even complicated HTML to the end of the index and summary web
pages. Adding links is made easier using the text boxes below. If you
mess up the html, you can reset it with the reset button.