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i-Planet Release Notes

Client Specifications and Examples

Third-party remote control products must:

The i-Planet gateway must be able to contact these fixed ports and servers without using the optional web proxy.

Configuring Client Software

Clients must be configured to connect through the Netlet, which proxies that connection to the destination server. Since the Netlet resides on the client, the connections must be made to the machine named localhost.

Integrating Applet Clients

Java security restrictions require that applets can only make connections to the machine from which they are downloaded. This means that the client applet itself must be downloaded through the Netlet. Creating a Netlet rule to download an applet from the machine localhost allows the applet to connect to ports on localhost. If Netlet rules exist that accept connections on those ports, the applet will connect to the machines to which those ports are proxied.

Applets following this procedure require no reconfiguration because these applets normally determine the name of the host from which they were served and connect to that machine name. They will attempt to connect to localhost, which the Netlet accepts and proxies.

If an applet is configured to connect to a named machine, you have two choices for redirecting the applet to connect to localhost. You can either:

  1. Have each user configure the client to use localhost as the server

    or

  2. Have DNS resolve the destination server's host name to 127.0.0.1 for external queries, and to the actual IP address for internal lookups.

The second choice is the recommended solution because it requires no changes to the client configuration, and the client will work correctly from the Internet and the intranet.

Use the following procedure to integrate applet clients.

To Integrate Applet Clients

  1. On the Netlet Administration frame of the Administration Console, create a user-defined Netlet rule to map the applet TCP port over the Netlet.

    The Netlet rule must be in the form: name^client-listen-port^destination-host^destination-host-port, for example:


    Applet1-destination^5092^appletserver.com^5092

    Note -

    The client-listen-port is arbitrary, but it must be a port that is not used by your client or any other Netlet rule. Ideally, the client-listen-port and the destination-host-port should be the same. You should use a value above 2048 for the client-listen-port because certain operating systems require the end user to be root with a client-listen-port below 2048. Table 1-2 shows the ports that are reserved for the predefined Netlet rules.

  2. Repeat Step 1 for each port that the applet uses for connections.

  3. Create a rule to allow the applet to be downloaded through the Netlet.


    Applet1-source^8099^appletserver.com^80

    The destination host and port will be the web server from which the applet is served.

  4. Click the Enter button at the bottom of the Netlet Administration page to save the new Netlet rule or rules.

  5. As root on the i-Planet server, type the following to stop and restart the web server so that the Netlet rule you just defined will take effect.


    # /opt/SUNWjeev/bin/iplanet_serv stop
# /opt/SUNWjeev/bin/iplanet_serv start

  6. (optional) As root on the i-Planet server, edit the i-Planet file /etc/opt/SUNWstnr/html_templates/netletApps.html to create a link that refers to localhost in order to download the applet.

    For information on editing the i-Planet file /etc/opt/SUNWstnr/html_templates/netletApps.html, see the section, "Modifying the Name and Description of a Link in the Remote File and Windowing Functions Window", in this chapter.

    You only need to do this if you want a link to appear on the Remote File and Windowing page of the i-Planet Desktop for this application.

    The URL to download the applet client should look like the following:

http://localhost:8099/path-of-html-to-get-applet

localhost with the port defined in your loopback rule (see Step 3 of this procedure) must be used so that the loopback mechanism of the Netlet will be used. This ensures, for purposes of Java security, that the source host of the client applet will be the same as the host to which it is connecting, that is, localhost.

You can use whatever other mechanism that you have to allow the end user to select an option to request that an applet be downloaded.

  1. Edit the HTML file that starts the client applet to reflect the correct port number and localhost as the host name. Do not use the client's IP address.

    If the applet has parameters to configure the host to which it connects and the port number, edit this startup HTML file so that it has

    • localhost as the destination host

    • The client-listen-port as the port number

    from the Netlet application rule that you wrote in Step 1 of this procedure.

    If the applet does not have parameters to specify the host or port number or both, it, in all likelihood, will connect back to the host from which it was downloaded. You only have to know that the port number (specified as the second parameter in Step 1 of this procedure) must match the fixed port that applet is programmed to use.

This procedure allows the end user to click on the NetFile option on the i-Planet Desktop to download the Netlet. After the Netlet is downloaded, the end user has to click on the link that you created to download and start the applet.

End users can also just start a new browser window and type the following for the example given above:

http://localhost:8099/path-of-html-to-get-applet

Integrating Non-Applet Clients

Non-applet clients, such Lotus Notes or Microsoft Exchange, must be directed to connect to the client machine on which they are running. You can do this in two ways. You can either:

  1. Have each user configure the client to use localhost as the server.

    or

  2. Have DNS resolve the destination server's host name to 127.0.0.1 for external queries and to the actual IP address for internal lookups.

The second choice is the recommended solution because it requires no changes to the client configuration, and client will work correctly from the Internet and the intranet.

Use the following procedure to integrate non-applet clients.

To Integrate Non-Applet Clients

  1. On the Netlet Administration page of the Administration Console, create a user-defined Netlet rule to map the application's TCP port over the Netlet.

    The Netlet rule must be in the form: name^client-listen-port^destination-host^destination-host-port 


    Netlet-1^20000^appletserver^2000

    Note -

    The client-listen-port is arbitrary, but it must be a port that is not used by your client or any other Netlet rule. Ideally, the client-listen-port and the destination-host-port should be the same. You should use a value above 2048 for the client-listen-port because certain operating systems require the end user to be root with a client-listen-port below 2048. Table 1-2 shows the ports that are reserved for the predefined Netlet rules.

  2. Repeat Step 1 for each port that the application uses for connection.

  3. Click Enter at the bottom of the Netlet Administration frame to save the new Netlet rule or rules.

  4. As root on the i-Planet server, type the following to stop and restart the web server so that the Netlet rule you just defined will take effect.


    # /opt/SUNWjeev/bin/iplanet_serv stop
# /opt/SUNWjeev/bin/iplanet_serv start

  5. At runtime, the end user must first start the Netlet by clicking the NetFile link on the i-Planet Desktop.

    The only way that an end user will know that the Netlet is running is to check in the browser's Java Console.

  6. Once the Netlet is running, the end user must start the client software.

    The destination host must be localhost and the port must be the port specified in Step 1 of this procedure.