You know how it goes: You’re in the server room and want to download some files from the Internet to your NetWare server, but you don’t want to walk all the way back to your administrative workstation to do so. Those of you who are running NetWare 5.0 or earlier will be walking back to your administrative workstation. NetWare 5.1 and NetWare 6 administrators can rejoice, though. You can run a Web browser directly on your server using the server’s Java support. I’ll explain how to do so using the Clue browser from NetClue.

Getting a Clue
Loading a third-party browser, such as NetClue’s Clue 4.1, on your server brings many benefits. Clue 4.1 is a pure Java Web browser. It’s fast, easy to install, and has support to use a proxy. This type of browser also lets you avoid the limitations that come with using the NetWare Remote Manager. You get these features with NetClue’s pure Java browser:

  • ·        HTML 4.0
  • ·        XML/XHTML
  • ·        XML namespaces
  • ·        Persistent cookies
  • ·        Proxy connections
  • ·        Caching
  • ·        Cascading style sheet (CSS 1&2)
  • ·        Document object model (DOM) support
  • ·        JavaScript 1.4
  • ·        Bookmarks
  • ·        SSL
  • ·        A comprehensive set of APIs that make many interesting future features possible

You can get Clue 4.1 at NetClue’s Web site. Two main versions of Clue are available: Professional and Basic. To get the most out of Clue, you’ll want the Professional version. The Basic version doesn’t include support for such things as DHTML, Javascript, and DOM. The price difference between the Basic and Professional versions is minimal. Basic costs $150 for the first license and $50 for each additional license. Professional costs $250 for the first license and $80 for each additional license.

To download the Professional version, go to NetClue’s Download page. As of this writing, the current version is 4.1.1 Release 38. Select Professional/XPackage from the drop-down list box and click Download. You must agree to the download license before downloading. The download file is small, just over 1 MB, so it will download quickly. Download it to a temporary directory on your server and then extract the files from the ZIP file. You’ll then be ready to begin installing it.

Installing Clue
Unzip the file you downloaded onto a volume on your NetWare server, making sure to preserve folder names. Copy all of the files in the NetClue\Clue4.1\lib subdirectory into your SYS:JAVA\LIB directory.

Next, edit Clue’s Run.bat file with any text editor. You’ll find it in the \NetClue\Clue4.1 directory. By default, the Run.bat file looks like this.

Edit it to look like this.

If the server console is running, click on Close GUI and then type unload java from the system console. To start Clue, just type clue at the server’s console prompt and press [Enter]. After you type clue.ncf from the system console, the GUI will automatically load and start the Clue Web browser. If you’re behind a proxy, click on the Options tab from the Clue browser and input the proxy address. Voila! Just type in your favorite Web address.

Conclusion
Both NetWare 6 and NetWare 5.1 can run Java applications that will make your life as a network administrator easier. Clue 4.1 is just one example of the Java applications that you can run on your server. After you install it, you can visit TechProGuild’s NetWare track without ever leaving your server.