10. Creating a Web Interface - Part 3/3

The last part of this tutorial will deal with setting up a mail server. Basically, when someone registers on your Web Interface, an email will be automatically sent to them, which they must open and click on the Confirmation link, before the account becomes active and they can log in.

Note: Another authentication system, using Captcha, is described at the end, in case you cannot use email due to Port 25 being blocked.


Step 1: Download the Email Server
The preferred email server is the Postcast Server Free Edition, which can be download from here.

Unzip the zip package, and double-click Setup.exe. The standard installation wizard will then launch. During installation I got an error, that said that gcpbbln.ocx failed to register. I chose Ignore, and have suffered no ill effects.


Step 2: Configure the Email Server
The installation process should have placed an icon on the desktop, click this to start the server. The Postcast Server Setup Wizard should then start. The settings should be as follows:

Incoming Connections:
Check the Allow access ONLY for users with these IP addresses, and select 127.0.0.1

Mail Sending Frequency:
Select Immediately

Run-time settings:
Select all three options

Emailclient settings:
Nothing to change.


Step 3: Start the Email Server
You must remember to have the email server running for it to be used! Double-click the icon it has placed on the desktop, then you can minimise it to the System Tray.



Troubleshooting
Test the facility by creating an account, and using a known good email address. The email should pop up in the Email Server window when the account is created, so look out for it.

If the email shows up in the server, but does not appear to get sent, then check that the email is valid, and has been typed in correctly. Try another email address.

It has been noted that an email address can only be used once to create a user. If you try to create another user, and provide an email address that has been used before, then you will get a "This email address is already in use" message, and you must supply another email address to continue.

It should also be remembered that many ISP's now, especially on home connections, block outbound port 25 to prevent compromised machines spamming and instead force you to relay through their SMTP servers.


Captcha
The main purpose of email confimation is prevent web-bots from creating accounts on your grid. Another method of prevention is the use of the Captcha system.

To use Captcha instead of email confirmation just download this zip file. Instructions for use are included inside (it is very, very simple).

9 comments:

  1. any luck with the captcha setup or using another port? haven't messed with this in awhile, wanted to know before i try it again.

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  2. Yes, the Captcha now works fine. You just copy two files to the Sites folder. I will upload the two files in a zip file, with the simple instructions in the next few days, after I have checked on permissions from the Captcha people.

    Rock

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  3. Captcha is now available, and is very, very simple to install. Just download the zip file and follow the instructions in the included text file.

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  4. OMG! That had to have been the simplest and easiest thing yet. Download, unzip and move 2 files. Poof done and working 100%
    Rock, you Rock!

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  5. sorry but i dont understand how i can create account in Post Cast, and i must put in this account a real valid e-mail address?sorry but i dont understand how

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  6. This whole site is very useful for me . I like this because their are lots of information available here for me and the other new comer as well.

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  7. OK, I am hoping someone else is running into this issue. I'm running Cuddles' World on an XP system have WAMP running and using captcha. I thought I had most of the bugs worked out and was thinking about exploring personalizing the thing when I realized that the members created through this were not able to get into world.

    The errors is about the "avatar inventory server"

    It wasn't until this morning I realized it was only new mebers created in the web create site that could not get in world. When I created one manually in the console there was no error. The DB entry gets created in the user table.

    Clues?

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  8. This comment has been removed by the author.

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