3Web Interface
The web interface provides a portal to monitor, control, and configure the MPS. Some of the
configuration options, such as those to setup the email and SNMP interfaces are only available through
the web interface. The interface will work well through any common web browser, though different
browsers may render with slight differences. The pages rely on Javascript to do continuous updates and
submit forms, so scripting must be enabled in the browser. Older browser versions may not support
some of the methods used.
Unsecured HTTP requests are processed at port 80. Secure SSL HTTPS requests are processed at port
443. SSL connections utilize encryption to protect data passed between the MPS and the browser from
snooping. Upon initiation of an SSL connection, the MPS will provide a Certificate to the browser to
verify its identity. The Certificate served will be a “self-signed” certificate, and the browser will warn
that the site is untrusted and request confirmation that you want to continue.
To avoid the warning message on future connections, use facilities in most browsers to mark the MPS
Certificate as a trusted certificate. Note that the certificate includes the NetBIOS name as the
“common-name” as part of its verification criteria, so the certificate is rebuilt after a change to the
NetBIOS name (Section 3.3.1). The browser verifies, and may enforce, that the name in the address bar
matches the common-name in the certificate. If a static IP address (e.g. https://20.1.1.24/) is used to
connect to the MPS, NetBIOS can be disabled and the hostname set to the fixed IP address (e.g.
20.1.1.24) to build a certificate with a common-name that matches the loaded address, avoiding a
browser security error.
SSL certificates specify a date range for validity. The web browser may or may not allow access if the
access date is outside the validity window. The certificates generated by the MPS have validity range
extending twenty years from the date of certificate generation. In order to force certificate
regeneration (and hence create a new validity window), change the NetBIOS name and then change it
back to the desired value. Times and dates used for the certificate are based on the SNTP time server,
see Section 3.3.4.
When SSL is used, the interface can be locked with a username and password, see Section 3.3.5.
The web interface can be disabled completely, see Section 3.3.6.
