If you choose to use a Virtual Private Network, your system will not be accessible over the internet by random people on the internet. Rather, internet access will be limited to those group members that have access your company's VPN. A VPN securely connects networks together and allows remote access to network services with the same degree of security as if users were locally connected to remote networks and hosts. For more information, a good reference guide can be found at http://www.dtool.com/vpns.html

VPN installations are always custom configurations for each company; therefore, Cybozu does not support customers in installing VPNs.

There are many VPN vendors available for Windows, Linux and FreeBSD. For more information, visit the following reference sites:

For Microsoft:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/deploy/confeat/vpnsol.asp

For FreeBSD:
http://www.freebsddiary.org/pptp.php

For Linux:
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/VPN-HOWTO/

If you choose not to use a VPN, you can install Share360 on a publicly accessible machine; security measures are variable and depend entirely on your company's own security policies.

a. Install Share360 on a publicly accessible machine with no security precautions.

This is the easiest, yet least secure method. If you install Share360 on a Microsoft Windows machine, we recommend using Apache rather than IIS as the webserver.

b. Install Share360 on a publicly accessible machine with an SSL-enabled webserver

Share360 should perform just as well under an SSL-enabled webserver as it will under a regular webserver.

For both of the options above, we recommend implementing basic http authentication in addition to Share360's user authentication. To accomplish this, follow your webserver vendor's instructions for implementing basic authentication.

For example, under Apache, in your httpd.conf file, under the section for your cgi-bin directory, make sure the AuthConfig directive is present as follows:

<Directory "/var/www/cgi-bin">
AllowOverride None Authconfig
Options None FollowSymLinks
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>

Then, in your cgi-bin directory, create a .htaccess file with syntax as follows:

AuthName "internal"
AuthType Basic
AuthUserFile /usr/local/etc/apache/users

require valid-user

To add users to the AuthUserFile, execute the command:

htpasswd -c /usr/local/etc/apache/users username

If you are using IIS, which we do not recommend for publicly accessible web serving, please consult IIS help, or the Microsoft web site.