TCPAuth ManualTCPAuth is a server process which runs authent modules and provides a TCPIP PORT interface to it's client External Authentication Module. TCPAuth has two parts:
Because the client and server communicate via TCPIP, TCPAuth may be a good option for systems that have a cluster of servers which need access to the authentication module, e.g. the DMail servers, DSMTP, DPOP and IMAPD, and also, if you are running the NetAuth product on a web server, on a separate box. By using the TCPAuth Server, transitory processes like IMAPD, which is spawned for each connection, can authenticate quickly, even if your authent module itself takes several seconds to start. This module is available for both Windows and UNIX platforms, so it also has the great advantage that you can run the server on one platform (where your database is located) and the client on another platform. On this page ...
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TCPAuth Installation - UNIX
You will probably need to modify /etc/tcpauthsvr.conf in order to make it run your real authent module, e.g.
You must restart the TCPAuth Server in order for any change to the config file settings to take effect. You can simply kill the server process to stop it, and use,
to start it again. You must then add to your rc.local script or similar, this line:
so that the server is started on startup. In order to see whether it is running ok, examine
TCPAuth Installation - WindowsRun the self extracting archive,
which will then run the server with the -install command,
The -install option will make the server install itself as a Windows Service, on platforms which support that. Therefore, in order to stop and start the server you MUST go to your Control Panel, and then the Services dialog, and find tcpauthsvr, 'TCPAuth Server, Network User Database' in the list of services. Following this, use the Start/Stop button to control the TCPAuth service. The install also copies the tcpauth.dll file into your system32 directory for the TCPAuth client to use. You will probably need to modify c:\winnt\system32\tcpauthsvr.conf in order to make it run your real authent module, e.g.
You must restart the TCPAuth Server in order for any change to the config file settings to take effect. In order to see if it is running ok, examine
Testing TCPAuth Server after InstallationIn order to test it, run the TCPAuth client module by hand. You should find that the installation has copied both the TCPAuth Server,
and the TCPAuth client,
executables to your dsmtp_path directory, e.g.
on Windows platforms, and,
on UNIX based platforms. So, given that the user database has a user with the username 'username', you can enter at a (MS DOS) command prompt,
NB: if you have set authent_domain to true in dmail.conf, your user database will have usernames like,
so replace 'username' with 'username@domain' in the example above. TCPAuth Client Installation - all platforms Once you have tested the TCPAuth server by running the client, you will then need to configure the programs that previously authenticated against your authentication module so that they run the TCPAuth client instead. The examples below assume that your TCPAuth Client is located at,
If you are on UNIX platforms substitute with,
or whatever your path is. NB: If you are running the client on a different machine from the server, please see the notes below. DSMTP and DPOP: Add or edit the authent_process line in your dmail.conf file (typically /etc/dmail.conf or c:\winnt\system32\dmail.conf) to read,
Then restart both DSMTP and DPOP. IMAPD: Add to dmail.conf,
NetAuth: Add to netauth.ini,(you may want to choose a different path if you don't have dmail on the machine where you run netauth)
Notes for running TCPAuth client on a different machine to the server: If you are running the client on a different box to the TCPAuth Server, then you need to give the '-host' command line option,
where x.x.x.x is the IP address of the machine running your TCPAuth Server. Also, note that you MUST copy the encryption file from the server machine to EVERY
machine running the client, see, If the client is running on a windows machine then you must also copy the file,
to the system32 directory on the machine which will run the TCPAuth client. Secure TCPIP connectionTCPAuth Server and Client automatically encrypt communication between themselves if they are on the same machine. If you are running the client on a different machine, you must copy a file from the
server machine to the machine running the client. The file you will need to copy is,
on Unix:
and you need to place it in one of those two locations (whichever is relevant for the
Operating System) on the machine running the TCPAuth client. The file can be transferred
in ASCII mode between NT and UNIX boxes. You may need to overwrite the file which you find
there. Windows Users Gotcha! TCPAuth Server Runs as System...Note these three important things on Windows NT, Windows 2000, and TCPAuth Server ... 1. will be running as a Service. 2. will also be set to run as the 'system account'. 3. defaults to c:\winnt\system32 as the 'home directory' for any authent module which it runs. So, you will need to ensure that your authentication module can find it's configuration file if it has one, and that it can run as the 'system account' user. You can set the TCPAuth Server to run as another user account, e.g. where it needs to access a shared network drive, but this is not recommended unless you need to. Here are some specific details for some authentication modules... NWAuth: You may need to use the command line option, -path, in order to ensure that it can find the correct working directory. If so, set in c:\winnt\system32\tcpauthsvr.conf,
and restart the TCPAuth server. This will ensure that nwauth finds, for example, one of it's user database files, c:\dmail\nwauth.txt . ODBCAuth: ODBCAuth requires you to have set up a ODBC data source (see the icon in your system control panel). In order to allow the 'system account' to access this file, you must create the data source as a 'System Data Source' rather than as the default, 'User Data Source'. Also, you should ensure that your odbcauth.ini file is located at,
rather than,
TCPAuth Server Config Settings - tcpauthsvr.conf
Un-installing TCPAuthIf you need to un-install the TCPAuth server, simply run the server with the -uninstall option, e.g.,
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