This FAQ has 3 parts:
Meta questions: =============== Q: Why name "F*EX" and not shortly "FEX"? A: At publication time there was already an (older) program named "FEX" on freshmeat.net. Q: Why not use one of the commercial services like DropLoad, ALLPeers, YouSendIt, etc? A: They have a limit of 2 GB or even less. Their security and privacy status is unknown. They are not open source based. There are no UNIX (CLI) clients for them. They need java, active-X, flash or other evil plugins. It is unknown how long they will exist - DropLoad and ALLPeers already have terminated their business. Q: Why a camel as the logo? A: The logo was inspired by the Perl camel, but it is based on a Steiff plush camel, which rides with us on our racing tandem. The logo was drawn by my stoker Beate http://fex.rus.uni-stuttgart.de/Vortrag/tosa.html Q: Where can I get the F*EX sources? A: http://fex.rus.uni-stuttgart.de/fex.html Q: Who is the author? A: Ulli Horlacher <framstag@rus.uni-stuttgart.de> Q: Which licence does F*EX have? A: GNU GPL free software, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.txt Q: Is there a F*EX mailing list? A: https://listserv.uni-stuttgart.de/mailman/listinfo/fex Q: Where can I get commercial support for F*EX? A: Contact fex@nepustil.net http://www.nepustil.net/ Q: I have more/other questions than in this document! A: Ask the author <framstag@rus.uni-stuttgart.de> Admin questions: ================ Q: I cannot install a web server like fexsrv, because I have no root permissions. Is there a pure-CGI-version of F*EX which runs with an apache web server? A: F*EX is hard bound to fexsrv for several reasons (performance, file size limit, session concept, etc) and cannot be run as CGI under apache. But you might have a look at http://www.schaarwaechter.de/sp/projekte/dateiaustausch.html (German only!) or http://freshmeat.net/projects/eventh/ which implements a file exchange on apache base (but both limited to 2 GB). Q: F*EX is not working at all! I cannot connect to it with my web browser! A: Check your routing, ipfilters and firewall setup. Also check whether your xinetd is linked with tcp-wrapper and configure it correctly (hosts.allow). F*EX needs port 80/tcp (HTTP) and optional port 443/tcp (HTTPS). Q: F*EX is too complicated! I need something more simplified. A: Try http://www.home.unix-ag.org/simon/woof.html Q: I want that all of my local users can use F*EX automaticly. How? A: Let them register theirselves with http://yourfexserver/fur You have to edit lib/fex.ph and set (example): @local_hosts = qw(127.0.0.1 10.10.100.0-10.10.255.255); @local_domains = qw(flupp.org ulm.sub.net); (Of course you have to add your real local hosts/networks!) Q: I need more security! How can I enable HTTPS? A: Read doc/SSL and also look for "fop_auth" in doc/concept Q: I need a corporate identity look. How can I configure F*EX in this way? A: See fup_template.html, modify it to your needs and use it as your start-page. User questions: =============== Q: I have uploaded a HUGE file but misspelled my recipient's address. Now I have got an error bounce e-mail. Must I re-upload the HUGE file? A: No, it is not necessary. You can redirect the file with http://$HTTP_HOST$/rup Q: I cannot upload files > 2 GB with my web browser!? A: All web browsers I am aware of have bugs in their HTML-FORM implementation. The limit mostly is 2 GB, sometimes 4 GB. You have to use a special F*EX client to upload files > 2 GB, see http://$HTTP_HOST$/tools.html Q: Sending as a F*EX user is easy, but how to receive files from non-F*EX users? A: Register them as your sub-users with http://$HTTP_HOST$/fuc Q: Sometimes I can download a file more than once, especially when I repeat it quickly. Is the autodelete feature buggy? A: The F*EX server has a grace time of 1 minute after first sucessfully download in which the file is still available. This is necessary because of some stupid "download managers" which requests the file several times at once. Otherwise they would report an error to the user. A: Power users (use the source, Luke!) can set a "do not delete after download" flag. Misc questions: =============== Q: F*EX is great! Can I join the developing team? What needs to be done? A: Contact the author framstag@rus.uni-stuttgart.de Missing features are: - the admin tool fac as a CGI implementation, so that F*EX can be controlled completly by webbrowser