This FAQ has 3 parts:
Meta questions: =============== Q: Why name "F*EX" and not shortly "FEX"? A: At publication time there was already an (older) program named "FEX" on freshmeat.net. Q: Why not use one of the commercial services like DropLoad, ALLPeers, YouSendIt, etc? A: They have a limit of 2 GB or even less. Their security and privacy status is unknown. They are not open source based. There are no UNIX (CLI) clients for them. They need java, active-X, flash or other evil plugins. It is unknown how long they will exist - DropLoad and ALLPeers already have terminated their business. Q: Why a camel as the logo? A: The logo was inspired by the Perl camel, but it is based on a Steiff plush camel, which rides with us on our racing tandem. The logo was drawn by my stoker Beate http://fex.rus.uni-stuttgart.de/Vortrag/tosa.html Q: Where can I get the F*EX sources? A: http://fex.rus.uni-stuttgart.de/fex.html Q: What do I need to install F*EX? A: A UNIX host with a DNS entry and smtp for outgoing e-mail. And you must be root on this host. Q: What is DNS and smtp? A: Do not install F*EX. It is beyond your horizon. Q: Who is the author? A: Ulli Horlacher <framstag@rus.uni-stuttgart.de> Q: Which licence does F*EX have? A: Perl Artistic free software, see http://fex.rus.uni-stuttgart.de/doc/Licence Q: Is there a F*EX mailing list? A: https://listserv.uni-stuttgart.de/mailman/listinfo/fex Q: Where can I get commercial support for F*EX? A: Contact fex@nepustil.net http://www.nepustil.net/ Q: I have more/other questions than in this document! A: Ask the author <framstag@rus.uni-stuttgart.de> User questions: =============== Q: What is the "auth-ID"? A: The auth-ID is an internal identification which authentificates the user. It will be first generated by the admin or the automatic registration process and can later be modified by you, the user. Think of some kind of a low security password. Q: Can I use a HTTP proxy? A: Yes. Q: I have uploaded a HUGE file but misspelled my recipient's address. Now I have got an error bounce e-mail. Must I re-upload the HUGE file? A: No, it is not necessary. You can redirect the file with http://$HTTP_HOST$/rup Q: I have uploaded a HUGE file but forgot another recipient. Must I re-upload the HUGE file? A: No, it is not necessary. You can forward-copy the file with http://$HTTP_HOST$/foc Q: I cannot upload files > 2 GB with my web browser!? A: All web browsers I am aware of have bugs in their HTML-FORM implementation. The limit mostly is 2 GB, sometimes 4 GB. You have to use a special F*EX client to upload files > 2 GB, see http://$HTTP_HOST$/tools.html Q: My download was aborted before it was finished. Can I resume the download? A: F*EX supports resuming at download, but your client also has to support this feature. Firefox eg is missing this HTTP feature, you need an other client like opera, wget or fexget. Q: My upload was aborted before it was finished. Can I resume the upload? A: F*EX supports resuming at upload, but your client also has to support it. No web browser has this feature, you need a special F*EX client like fexsend, schwuppdiwupp or F*IX. See http://$HTTP_HOST$/tools.html Q: My webbrowser cannot start the java client F*IX, it says: "found no java runtime environment, cannot start F*IX upload applet" A: A java plugin for your webbrowser is missing. On Debian and Ubuntu you can install it with: "sudo aptitude install sun-java6-plugin" Q: When I hit [ESC] in firefox the upload is canceled. Why? A: This is a built-in feature of firefox: ESC terminates the current operation. Simple solution: do not hit ESC in Firefox. Complex solution: ask the Firefox developers to add keyboard configuration. Q: Sending as a F*EX user is easy, but how to receive files from others, outside? A: Register them as your subusers or create a F*EX group with http://$HTTP_HOST$/fuc Q: Sometimes I can download a file more than once, especially when I repeat it quickly. Is the autodelete feature buggy? A: The F*EX server has a grace time of 1 minute after first sucessfully download in which the file is still available. This is necessary because of some stupid "download managers" which requests the file several times at once. Otherwise they would report an error to the user. A: Your fexmaster has set AUTODELETE=DELAY as default, which means that the autodelete cleanup process is called once a day. A: Power users (use the source, Luke!) can set a "do not delete after download" flag. Q: The default keep time is too short for me, I need more. How can I set it? A: Use fexsend, ask your fexmaster or read the source code :-) Q: I cannot download files with Internet Explorer, it tells me "Cannot open Internet site". What shall I do? A: Use Firefox or any other Internet-compatible web browser, that Internet Explorer is not. This is one of the many bugs of Internet Explorer. Admin questions: ================ Q: I cannot install a web server like fexsrv, because I have no root permissions. Is there a pure-CGI-version of F*EX which runs with an apache web server? A: F*EX is hard bound to fexsrv for several reasons (performance, file size limit, session concept, etc) and cannot be run as CGI under apache. But you might have a look at http://gpl.univ-avignon.fr/filez/ http://freshmeat.net/projects/eventh/ http://www.schaarwaechter.de/sp/projekte/dateiaustausch.html (German only!) which implement a file exchange as pure CGIs, but with a 2 GB file size limit. Q: F*EX is not working at all! I cannot connect to it with my web browser! A: Check your routing, ipfilters and firewall setup. Also check whether your xinetd is linked with tcp-wrapper and configure it correctly (hosts.allow). F*EX needs port 80/tcp (HTTP) and optional port 443/tcp (HTTPS). Q: F*EX is too complicated! I need something more simplified. A: Try http://www.home.unix-ag.org/simon/woof.html Q: How can I integrate F*EX in the existing user management at my site? A: F*EX has several authentification modules: local, RADIUS, LDAP, mailman and POP For the last 4 please contact the author framstag@rus.uni-stuttgart.de Q: I want that all of my local users can use F*EX automaticly. How? A: Let them register theirselves with http://yourfexserver/fur You have to edit lib/fex.ph and set (example): @local_hosts = qw(127.0.0.1 10.10.100.0-10.10.255.255); @local_domains = qw(flupp.org ulm.sub.net); (Of course you have to add your real local hosts/networks!) Q: I need more security! How can I enable HTTPS? A: Read doc/SSL and also look for "fop_auth" in doc/concept Q: I need a corporate identity look. How can I configure F*EX in this way? A: See variable @H1_extra in fex.ph and you can add HTML code to htdocs/header.html A: See htdocs/fup_template.html, modify it to your needs and use it as your start-page. Q: F*EX is too complicated for my tie users. I need a simplified upload form. A: See htdocs/fup_template.html Q: I want the Bcc mails to fex (admin user) to be sent to another address. A: Use procmail or write OTHERADDRESS to /home/fex/.forward Q: Can I get a localized version in my native languange? A: With your help, yes. Please contact the author framstag@rus.uni-stuttgart.de Misc questions: =============== Q: F*EX is great! Can I join the developing team? What needs to be done? A: Contact the author framstag@rus.uni-stuttgart.de Requested features are: - a F*EX plugin for thunderbird or outlook - more (other) languange support