Ichabod Administration FAQ

Here is the list of frequently asked questions about Ichabod administration. There are also several other other faqs.

Administration FAQ

How do I install ichabod?
Ichabod comes in a single jar file, for now. (An installer is coming soon). It also requires the sun servlet.jar file from the servlet SDK. (or jsdk.jar from the older version of the servlet sdk).

Sample command line


java -classpath javamail.jar com.worldware.ichabod.Ichabod dir=c:\maildir /install /admin ip=localhost

If you just type

java com.worldware.ichabod.Ichabod /help
It will give you a list of possible arguments. ( more info about this coming soon )

How do I get started after I install it?

How do I let someone else run a list?
Create the list, and give the user the list name, and set the password, and give the password to the user. This name/password will allow them to log in to make changes to the list, but not to change any other lists.

You might want to set up the initial options for them. (moderated/unmoderated, public list, etc). This will save you haveing to hand hold them through the first part of getting a list set up. You also might want to give them the URL for the list FAQ.

Can users create their own accounts?
No. Right now someone with admin privileges must create the account. This is on our todo list (as an admin settable option).

Who can access what?
Ichabod's web UI has three modes. ADMIN, USER, and PUBLIC. There are different capabilities in each user interface. For example, a user can read & delete his own email, but is not allowed to change his username. An admin can change the user name or delete the account. Some one coming to the site without doing any log in cannot access anything about a user account, but they can sign up for mailing list and view the archives of lists.

If you give the user a password for an user account, or a list, they can log in and modify that account, but not modify or see other accounts.

Someone logged in as 'router' (presumably the system administrator) can access any accounts.

How are users authenticated?
Login uses the browser's authentication. This is NOT high security (passwords are sent across the web in plain text, base64 encoded). This hasn't been an issue for our existing customers. If it is for you, let us know. Customer feedback is a major part of how we prioritize feature requests.

How does login really work?
First read the discussions above.

When a user logs in, the system gets their username and password. When determining what access rights the current user has, the username/password are authenticated against the current object.

If they match the user gets to see the 'USER' version of the interface for that object. If they don't match, Ichabod tries to see if it has the name/password of the parent object (in this case, the parent of a User Account is the Host the account is on). This checking continues above the host to the 'Router', which is kind of the equivalent of logging in as 'root' on a unix system. If there is a match somewhere up the tree, the 'ADMIN' version of the user interface will be displayed.

The approach means that someone logging in as 'router' can change/delete any account or host in the system.

What do you mean by an 'object'?
Each account in the system (an account can be a mailing list, user account, remote admin, etc.) is implmented by a JavaTM object. Also many other elements of the program (e.g. the SMTP server) are objects that are visible to users via the web interface.

How do I log in as an Administrator?
The default administration account is named 'router', you need to log into that account.

Note: You can't do this via the 'login' link in the main menu. This is on our 'todo' list.

Does Ichabod publish email addresses?
No. Unless you log in, by default Ichabod does not show any email addresses. This is to prevent automated scanners from picking up addresses on the web UI and spamming them. If this doesn't worry you, you can put your email addresses for mailing lists in the list description, which is displayed on the web page.

Mailing list subscriber email address are never visisble to the public.

How do I create an account?
First, Login as router

On the 'Mail Server Administration - Top Level' page, click on 'create' (under Configuration/host). This will take you to the part of the 'Host Administration' page, where you can create an account. Select the type of account from the drop down (Mailing List, User Account, etc). Type the name of the new account into the text box, and press create. For more information about the types of accounts, click on the ? near 'Select Type of Account to Create'.

How can users subscribe to multiple lists at one time
If you'd like your users/visitors to be able to sign up for multiple lists at one time, from your 'list of lists' page, you must create a confirmation account. This account will hande the users' responses to the 'confirm subscription' message sent out by the multiple subscription request.

A confirmation is required here, admin it cuts down on the amount of junk mail the admin (you!) will have to deal with if someone signs up for 50 lists, but mistypes their email address.


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