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System requirements

If you host your website on www.1and1.com, like I do, then this search will work without having to do anything much more than copy/FTP the search software you purchase to a new folder on your website hosted by 1and1.com (save 50% limited time offer).   I could also FTP it to the website for you for additional $$.

If not hosted by 1and1, it can still work.   This is not for everyone. It was designed for webmasters who are proficient at hand-coding HTML and who are familiar with the Internet, web, and CGI. If you are not familiar with these concepts and the related vocabulary, then the script might not fit your needs.

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System requirements - continued...

Search Engine is not for everyone. It was designed for webmasters who are proficient at hand-coding HTML and who are familiar with the Internet, web, and CGI. If you are not familiar with these concepts and the related vocabulary, then the script might not fit your needs.

In attention to this "human requirement", Search Engine has the following technical requirements:

  • Your web server MUST run Perl CGI scripts.

    Search Engine has been heavily tested on Windows IIS, Windows Apache, and Unix Apache systems, and will probably work on most others.

    Search Engine does WILL NOT work on Netware servers nor Mac servers prior to OS X. It may not work on Windows NT 4.0.

  • You MUST have permission from your web hosting company to run your own CGI scripts.

    Some web hosts support "server CGI", such as hit counters and feedback forms which are maintained by the web host itself, but they don't allow their customers to install their own scripts. Support for only "server CGI" is not sufficient to run Search Engine.

  • Your server's version of Perl MUST support the crypt function.

    That function is a fundamental part of the Perl language, but it is not "compiled in" to all Perl interpreters.

  • Your server's version of Perl MUST have the "strict.pm" and "vars.pm" standard libraries.

    These libraries are commonly used and are shipped with all versions of Perl. However, on some servers they have been removed or are corrupt. If these libraries aren't present and functioning properly, then Search Engine will fail with no warning or error messages.

In addition to the base requirements, the following are required for most features:

  • Your server SHOULD support sockets functionality for CGI scripts. The Search Engine web crawler depends on sockets functionality. Without sockets, Search Engine can still work, but only for searching static HTML files on the local server. It won't be able to crawl remote sites nor dynamic content. In practice, this means that the server configuration must allow outbound sockets and DNS resolution. In addition, the standard Socket.pm library must be installed and working.

    Note: if your server does not support sockets, see Admin Page => General Settings => Use Socket Routines. Set the setting to 0 (unchecked). Then Search Engine will internally disable all features which depend on sockets. Any remaining features which appear in the web-based admin interface will work properly.

  • Your server's version of Perl SHOULD support the dbmopen function.

    Note: if your server does not support dbmopen, see Using DBM files in Search Engine for instructions on how to turn off features which depend on it. Doing so will help avoid errors.