L-Soft
international, Inc.

Installation Manual for
LISTSERV®
for Windows
Version 16.0

This document sets forth a simplified installation procedure for LISTSERV 16.0 for Windows 2003/2008/XP/Vista/7 with a build date of December 9, 2009.
Information in this document is subject to change without notice. Companies, names, and data used in examples herein are fictitious unless otherwise noted. L-Soft international, Inc. does not endorse or approve the use of any of the product names or trademarks appearing in this document.
Permission is granted to copy this document, at no charge and in its entirety, provided that the copies are not used for commercial advantage, that the source is cited, and that the present copyright notice is included in all copies so that the recipients of such copies are equally bound to abide by the present conditions. Prior written permission is required for any commercial use of this document, in whole or in part, and for any partial reproduction of the contents of this document exceeding 50 lines of up to 80 characters, or equivalent. The title page, table of contents and index, if any, are not considered part of the document for the purposes of this copyright notice, and can be freely removed if present.
Copyright ã 2010,
L-Soft international, Inc.
All Rights Reserved Worldwide.
LISTSERV is a registered
trademark licensed to L-Soft international, Inc.
ListPlex, CataList, and EASE are service marks of L-Soft international, Inc.
UNIX is a registered trademark of X/Open Company Limited.
AIX and IBM are registered trademarks of International Business Machines
Corporation.
Alpha AXP, Ultrix and VMS are trademarks of Digital Equipment Corporation.
OSF/1 is a registered trademark of Open Software Foundation, Inc.
Microsoft is a registered trademark and Windows, Windows NT, Windows 2000/2003/2008,
Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 are trademarks of Microsoft
Corporation.
HP is a registered trademark of Hewlett-Packard Company.
Sun is a registered trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Solaris is a registered trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Mac and Mac OS are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc.
PMDF is a registered trademark of Innosoft International.
Pentium and Pentium Pro are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation.
All other trademarks, both marked and not marked, are the property of their
respective owners.
Some portions licensed from IBM are available at
http://oss.software.ibm.com/icu4j/
This product includes code licensed from RSA Security, Inc.
This product includes software developed by the Apache Software Foundation
(http://www.apache.org/).
All of L-Soft's manuals are
available at the following URL: http://www.lsoft.com/manuals.html
L-Soft invites
comment on its manuals. Please feel free to send your comments by
e-mail to: MANUALS@LSOFT.COM
Table
of Contents
Section 1 Things to
Consider Before Installation
1.1.4 Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 No Longer
Supported
2.4 Installing the License Activation Key (LAK)
Section 3 Starting LISTSERV to Verify a Successful
Installation
3.1 Windows Firewall Considerations
Section 4 Registering your LISTSERV Classic Server
Section 5 Installing the LISTSERV Web Interface
5.1 Setting Up the Interface During Installation
5.2 Setting Up the Interface Manually
Section 6 Creating Your First List
Section 7 Installing F-Secure® Anti-Virus
(FSAV) Protection
7.1 Recommended FSAV Versions for LISTSERV 15.0 and
Following
7.1.1 Special Considerations For Windows Workstations
7.2 Recommended F-Secure Hotfixes
7.3 F-Secure Anti-Virus Installation Instructions
7.4 Recommended F-Secure Settings
7.5 Performance Considerations
Section 8 Upgrading your LISTSERV installation
Section 9 Additional Resources
This manual is for LISTSERV Classic running
under Windows 2003/2008/XP/Vista/7.
LISTSERV Lite users should see the installation guide written specifically
for LISTSERV Lite.
This manual makes the following assumptions:
1. You have a Windows 2003/2008 Server, Windows
XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7 operating system installed and operating
normally on a computer in your network that meets the various technical
requirements listed later in this guide;
2. You have physical access to the machine in
question and are logged in as Administrator, or at least as a member of the
Administrators group with full control of the machine;
3. You can troubleshoot Windows 2003/2008/XP/Vista/7
(i.e. native OS problems, not problems related to LISTSERV) without assistance
from this guide or from L-Soft.
Number three is particularly important. L-Soft will be happy to assist you with
LISTSERV-related problems arising under Windows 2003/2008/XP/Vista/7 (assuming
of course that you have purchased support for our product) but is unable to
assist you in setting up your operating system, the Internet Information
Service (or any other web server software available for the Windows 2003/2008/XP/Vista/7
operating systems), or any aspect of your operating system that is not directly
related to LISTSERV's operation. If you
are not familiar with Windows 2003/2008/XP/Vista/7, please be aware that L-Soft
cannot help you with either their installation or subsequent troubleshooting.
This manual also follows this convention:
"Windows" or "the Windows
operating system" means Microsoft Windows 2003/2008/XP/Vista/7
"Windows Server" means
specifically the Microsoft Windows 2003/2008 Server operating systems.
"Windows Workstation" means
specifically the Microsoft Windows workstation
operating systems, that is, Windows XP.
If we
You will need to gather some information
before you start installation:
· What is the DNS hostname for the machine on which LISTSERV is going to be installed? This is something like LISTSERV.YOURDOMAIN.COM . It must be a fully-qualified domain name (FQDN) and it must map to an A or MX record as noted above in the networking requirements. While it is possible to use a bracketed IP (eg, [10.0.0.24]) for testing purposes, as noted above the use of bracketed IPs in production is not supported and not recommended.
· What SMTP server do you intend to use for LISTSERV's outgoing mail? Like the hostname for the LISTSERV machine, this must be an FQDN hostname listed in DNS. If you will be installing L-Soft's legacy LSMTP MTA on the same machine as LISTSERV then the answer to this question is identical to the answer for #1. Otherwise this must be the name of an external machine, ie, one running sendmail or some other SMTP implementation that can accept LISTSERV's outgoing mail for delivery. (If you will be installing LSMTP you will probably still want to identify an external SMTP machine to use temporarily to test LISTSERV prior to installing LSMTP, which is the recommended procedure.)
· What are the email addresses for the LISTSERV maintainers (the person or persons who are authorized to create lists and operate/maintain the server)?
· What drive and directory are you going to install LISTSERV into? (The installation script defaults to C:\LISTSERV; if you have more space on another drive, eg, a RAID array or other large disk, you will want to install LISTSERV on that drive rather than on C:.)
· What program group or folder do you want LISTSERV's icons to be placed in?
There are three classes of technical
requirements for running LISTSERV under Windows --hardware, software, and
networking. Please read each section
carefully.
1. CPU
Architecture: LISTSERV will currently run under Windows on Intel
architectures only.
2. Multiple
Processors: While LISTSERV itself will not use multiple processors
(LISTSERV is a single-threaded application), overall machine performance may be
enhanced by use of multiple processors if other applications running simultaneously
on the machine can take advantage of them.
3. Memory:
L-Soft recommends that a Windows LISTSERV machine start out with a minimum of 512M,
as this will minimize paging and can lead to a marked improvement in
performance, particularly if the web archive/administration interface (see
below) is implemented. In particular,
LISTSERV servers running with the High Performance Option (HPO) require more
memory than non-HPO servers and should therefore start out with at least 1GB.
4. Disk
Space Needed: LISTSERV itself takes up very little space (perhaps 4MB total
for all of its default system files). When planning a LISTSERV system you need
to take into account how large your lists will be (100 bytes per subscriber
entry in a given list) and how much space you will need for discussion list
archives, which have the potential to grow quite large depending on your
traffic and number of lists. For most
small systems, a 4GB or larger drive is probably sufficient for some time. Larger systems will naturally require larger
disks.
5. Disk
Architecture: LISTSERV will run perfectly well for most sites on
inexpensive EIDE disks of the modern sort. If performance is an issue, it will
be greatly enhanced by the use of fast SCSI disks in a RAID array with
write-back caching and a write-back battery back-up. Write-through caching is not recommended. Usually it is best to divide a RAID array
into at least two partitions: A boot partition of 3GB (effective 1.5GB) RAID
0+1, and a data partition making up the rest of the available disk space at
RAID 5. If it is not feasible to divide
the array in this manner, RAID 0+1 for the entire array is suggested. (The boot partition can be larger if desired
-- particularly as very large disks are much more economical than in the past
-- but we would still recommend that it be configured RAID 0+1).
We have also noted increased performance
with SATA and SATA2 architectures -- in some cases even better performance than
SCSI. One main advantage of SATA is the
availability of very large disks at relatively low cost. And of course most boards that support SATA
also support at least RAID 0+1 for redundancy.
If you are building a new machine for LISTSERV, you may want to consider
using a board that supports SATA.
To date we have not done any testing with
solid-state drives.
6. Disk
Format and Security: L-Soft strongly
recommends that LISTSERV be installed on an NTFS-formatted partition.
LISTSERV will run out of a FAT partition, but FAT does not provide the same
level of security and performance available with NTFS.
General
performance notes:
· L-Soft STRONGLY DISCOURAGES running LISTSERV out of a RAM disk in order to speed up I/O. This is not a supported configuration and if you have problems with it the support group's response will be to tell you to stop using the RAM disk.
· If system RAM is tight, either a fast disk or more RAM is a necessity if you are to minimize I/O time lost to paging. An otherwise fast system can become quite sluggish if it is required constantly to read and write to virtual memory. Adding more RAM is usually preferred as it is more efficient to access RAM than it is to access even a fast disk.
1. LISTSERV requires one of the following:
·
Windows
XP Professional. Service Pack 3 is
supported.
·
Windows
2003 Server.
·
Windows
2008 Server.
·
Windows
Vista is supported.
·
Windows
7 is supported.
LISTSERV support for Windows NT 3.5x and 4.0
and for Windows 2000 has been withdrawn for LISTSERV 16.0 and later.
2. Either Internet Information Service (IIS) or
some other WWW server (ie, Apache) should be installed on the machine if you
intend to use the web archive and administration interface. LISTSERV's
web interface cannot be installed on a separate machine. If you install IIS on the LISTSERV machine
you must disable or not install the IIS SMTP service -- or configure it to
listen on a non-standard TCP port -- as otherwise it will conflict with
LISTSERV. Note, however, that there is a
documented and supported solution for using the IIS SMTP service for LISTSERV's
outbound mail (see below).
3. INBOUND MAIL: The SMTP "listener"
service (SMTPL.EXE) provided in the LISTSERV installation kit must be
installed. Third-party SMTP MTAs (Mail
Transfer Agents) are supported for inbound LISTSERV mail if they can be
configured to redirect LISTSERV's mail to SMTPL running on a non-standard port
(for instance, 40025). Examples of 3rd party MTAs that can be used for this
purpose are MailEnable Standard Edition or the IIS SMTP service.
Note: Sites with valid
licenses for L-Soft's legacy LSMTP mailer may of course continue to use LSMTP
for both inbound and outbound mail.
4. OUTBOUND MAIL: The SMTPL.EXE "listener" service cannot
be used for outbound mail. You will need
to have access to an SMTP MTA that can handle LISTSERV's outbound mail. This
machine can be a unix machine running one of the standard unix MTAs
(sendmail/qmail/postfix), a Windows machine running Microsoft Exchange or
MailEnable Standard Edition, or any fully-standards-compliant SMTP server
running on any platform, as long as it can handle the amount of traffic you
will generate with LISTSERV.
Low-end SMTP servers such as IIS SMTP and MailEnable Standard
Edition can handle modest delivery loads (perhaps 10K-25K messages per hour,
although we have seen a well-tuned IIS SMTP instance handle up to 75K per hour).
For heavier delivery loads, L-Soft recommends a high-performance SMTP server
that can handle loads of more than 1 million messages per hour.
If the outbound MTA is running on an external machine, that
machine must be configured to accept for delivery so-called "relay
mail" from the machine running LISTSERV (it may of course otherwise be
configured to reject "relay mail" coming from other hosts).
If you need a "turnkey" single-machine solution for
LISTSERV, a white paper describing how to use L-Soft's SMTPL.EXE
"listener" for inbound mail and the Microsoft IIS SMTP service for
outbound delivery can be found here: Using the Microsoft IIS
SMTP Service for LISTSERV Deliveries
Also, a white paper describing how to configure MailEnable
Standard Edition for use with LISTSERV and the SMTPL.EXE "listener"
service is available upon request.
1. TCP/IP connectivity, preferably 24/7, with
enough bandwidth to handle your workload.
Please note carefully that LISTSERV is not designed to dial up and
access POP mailboxes. The proper installation and operation of LISTSERV is
contingent on direct connection to the Internet in order for it to receive and
send SMTP mail. If you do not understand
this, L-Soft strongly recommends that
you get expert technical advice before proceeding further, or consider using a
hosting service instead of running LISTSERV yourself
(see http://www.lsoft.com/products/ease.asp for an overview of hosting services offered
by
L-Soft).
2. In
conjunction with networking requirement #1, and as a fundamental requirement of
the SMTP mail protocol, LISTSERV requires a static IP address which is mapped
via a DNS A or MX record to a particular host name (typically
LISTSERV.yourdomain, for example, LISTSERV.EXAMPLE.COM). If you are planning to
use the web archive/administration interface with LISTSERV, an A record is
required at minimum (web browsers cannot connect to hosts that have only an MX
record). Please note carefully that
L-Soft does not support LISTSERV servers running without DNS entries (ie we do
not support servers configured with bracketed IP addresses instead of FQDNs
[fully-qualified domain names, for example, LISTSERV.EXAMPLE.COM]).
The use
of a CNAME is STRONGLY DISCOURAGED because typically such hostnames are
rewritten ("canonicalized") when mail sent from them traverses the
Internet.
Microsoft's
WINS and MAPI protocols are not supported or used by LISTSERV.
There
are no guarantees that LISTSERV will work with a dynamically-assigned IP
address (for instance, one obtained through DHCP), and a DNS entry is required
if you expect people to be able to send mail to, and also--in many cases where
the user's ISP does a reverse DNS lookup to validate that the mail is not
spam--to receive mail from the
server.
Again,
if you do not understand any part of this requirement, L-Soft strongly recommends that you get expert
technical advice before proceeding further.
3. If
installing LISTSERV behind a firewall with the expectation that users from the
outside world will be able to access it, it is imperative that you provide
access to the following TCP ports on the LISTSERV machine: Port 25 (SMTP) and port 80 (webserver, if the
web archive/administration feature is enabled).
It may also be necessary to provide access to port 53 (nameserver) if
LISTSERV is unable to resolve the name of its outgoing mail host.
If you
are installing the legacy LSMTP MTA along with LISTSERV, you will also need to
ensure that port 110 (POP3) is open if you intend to use the POP server
component of LSMTP. If your DNS is not inside the firewall, port 53
(nameserver) will also have to be opened so that LSMTP can access external DNS
servers. (It should be noted here that
LSMTP requires access to a DNS server
or it will not start up.)
Installing
LISTSERV behind a firewall is almost more of an art than a science (and every
firewall seems to be different) but the bottom line is that the above ports
must be open if you expect LISTSERV to work.
It is not recommended to route incoming LISTSERV mail through another
machine (ie the firewall) as this normally leads to complications.
Starting with LISTSERV 16.0, L-Soft no longer supports both Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000. Sites currently running earlier versions of LISTSERV under NT 4.0 (Intel) can upgrade to Windows 2003 without needing a new LAK. Sites running LISTSERV under the Alpha-AXP version of Windows NT 4.0 should contact their sales representative for information on migrating away from Windows NT 4.0 (Alpha-AXP).
L-Soft provides its software via download
only. The installation/evaluation kit for Windows (Intel architecture only) are
found at
http://www.lsoft.com/download/listserv.asp
The LISTSERV installation kit contains a
complete implementation of LISTSERV for Windows, limited for evaluation
purposes only by the License Activation Key (LAK) that is shipped with it. If you have already purchased LISTSERV you
will have received a production LAK separately--we will describe the
installation of that key later in this document.
First, place the distribution kit into a
temporary directory (eg, C:\TEMP or C:\SCRATCH). DO NOT try to run the kit from the directory into
which you are going to actually install LISTSERV.
Next, make sure that you are logged in either
as the Administrator user or as a member of the Administrators group. You cannot install LISTSERV unless you have
administrative control of the computer.
The kit is a self-contained, self-extracting
setup kit that includes all of the files you will need for the
installation. Simply run LISTSERV.EXE
from a DOS prompt or double-click on it in Windows Explorer to start the
installation and follow the script.
The installation script will ask whether or
not you want to go ahead and configure the LISTSERV server. You MUST do a basic server configuration at
install time or the installer will exit, but bear in mind that a more complex
configuration can be done after finishing the installation, if necessary. For the basic configuration done at install
time, you will need to have the information discussed below for NODE,
SMTP_FORWARD, and POSTMASTER.
(Note: This basic configuration
step is skipped for upgrades, which are assumed to be already configured.)
Configuring the server after installation is
done via the web administration interface.
Log in as a LISTSERV administrator, and choose Server
Administration/Site Configuration/Site Configuration to enter the web-based
configurator.
It should be noted that the MAIN\SITE.CFG
file is now used only for initial startup; changes made via the web
configurator are written to a platform-independent file which is maintained by
LISTSERV and which should not be hand-edited.
In addition, the old SITE.EXE configuration
GUI is no longer supported or provided (because it operates on the
MAIN\SITE.CFG file). If you have a copy
from a previous installation, it should not be used, and L-Soft recommends that
it simply be deleted along with SITE.HLP and SITEDATA.FILE.
The NODE setting is the fully-qualified
domain name as registered in DNS for the machine LISTSERV is running on. As noted above, it is possible to insert a
square-bracketed dotted-decimal IP address in this box for testing purposes,
but L-Soft neither recommends nor supports this in production. This is the host
name that LISTSERV will always identify itself with when it sends mail out.
MYDOMAIN does not refer to your corporate
domain. MYDOMAIN is the space-separated
list of all possible host names your machine might be known as. In many cases
the value of MYDOMAIN is the same as NODE, but for instance some machines
running LISTSERV also run the enterprise's World Wide Web server, and may thus
be identified in DNS as something like "WWW.MYCOMPANY.COM". If you're running L-Soft's legacy LSMTP MTA,
you might also be using the POP3 feature in LSMTP to handle your corporate mail
accounts, and might have a DNS record for "POP.MYCOMPANY.COM"
pointing to the LISTSERV machine. And of
course we'll assume that NODE has been set above to something like
LISTSERV.MYCOMPANY.COM. Using this as an
example you would set the MYDOMAIN setting to contain, in space-separated
format, all of these names that mail might come in to LISTSERV under, with the
NODE value coming first:
LISTSERV.MYCOMPANY.COM WWW.MYCOMPANY.COM
POP.MYCOMPANY.COM
Alternately the same thing can be done by specifying
%NODE% WWW.MYCOMPANY.COM POP.MYCOMPANY.COM
This way if someone accidentally writes to
LISTSERV@POP.MYCOMPANY.COM, LISTSERV will recognize POP.MYCOMPANY.COM as
equivalent to LISTSERV.MYCOMPANY.COM and will process the mail as if it had
been addressed to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.MYCOMPANY.COM. Otherwise the mail will bounce as LISTSERV
has no other way to know what other names the machine might be known by in DNS.
This setting refers to the name of the
machine which will be handling LISTSERV's outgoing mail. It must be a fully-qualified domain name of a
machine registered in DNS. For instance
if your corporate mail gateway is MAIL.MYCOMPANY.COM, you could set SMTP_FORWARD
to that value.
If you install L-Soft's legacy LSMTP MTA
after you test LISTSERV, this value can be changed to the same value you coded
for NODE. Since we recommend testing the
success of your LISTSERV installation before installing LSMTP, you probably
don't want to do that at this point.
This is a space-separated list of
userid@host.domain type email addresses belonging to people who have authority
to manage LISTSERV--specifically the people who are allowed to create lists,
but also who have pretty much global authority on the server to look at lists,
modify list headers, and so forth. There
are some advanced options for this setting but for right now you will probably
just want to insert your own email address so that you can test the server.
Note: The
POSTMASTER should NEVER be LISTSERV@ anywhere or POSTMASTER@ anywhere. These userids are reserved and mean specific
things to LISTSERV. If you need to use a
generic name for a postmaster account, it is recommended that you use something
like "listmaster" or "lstmaint" instead.
The password that will be used to create
lists and perform certain management functions (such as administering
LISTSERV's user password feature). Note
that when using the web management features, you do not use the CREATEPW=
value, but rather your own personal LISTSERV password, to validate your
identity. See the main LISTSERV
documentation for information on how to create a personal LISTSERV password.
Note:
Starting with LISTSERV 14.3, CREATEPW and its companion STOREPW are obsolete,
as postmasters can now authenticate all commands with their personal LISTSERV
password. If you do not want to set
CREATEPW at all, you should set it to the special value *NOPW*,
which will disable the authentication system they are associated with.
A string that identifies your organization
in the From: line of administrative mail sent out by LISTSERV. This defaults to the NODE value you coded
above, but you can change it to be more descriptive, eg, "
From:
"My Company, Inc. LISTSERV Server (16.0)"
<LISTSERV@LISTSERV.MYCOMPANY.COM>
Only the part preceding "LISTSERV
Server" may be modified by the MYORG setting. The rest of this string is hard-coded and
cannot be changed.
There are a number of advanced configuration
parameters that can be set to modify LISTSERV's behaviour and/or tune it for
better performance. The most common
parameters are found in the Site Configuration
Keyword Reference
document.
A tuning guide for high volume sites running
with L-Soft's LSMTP product is available upon request; please contact L-Soft's
support department at support@lsoft.com for
a copy.
For information about LISTSERV's DBMS and
mail-merge features, the Common-Jobs Language Interpreter (CJLI), and other
extensibility features, please see the Developer's
Guide to LISTSERV, also found on L-Soft's web site at the URL noted above.
If you are just evaluating the software, the LAK will be installed for you automatically. Note however that evaluation LAKs expire at the end of each half: June 30 and December 31. If you have an older kit that you've had around for a while then you may want to either download a newer kit (recommended) or you can download a new evaluation LAK from the LISTSERV evaluation kit download page.
The procedure to install a LISTSERV LAK
(either a new evaluation LAK or a production LAK) is as follows:
1.
Create
a disk file with the license information supplied. If you received the license
registration form electronically, simply delete the mail headers and other
extraneous information (you do not need to remove the instructions found at the
top of the LAK). If you received it via FAX or postal mail, you will have to
retype the information. Please observe spacing carefully. To make the LAK
easier to transcribe, we always insert multiple blanks where one is needed.
Thus, unless you see a big white space on the FAX, you should not insert any
blank. (Note that LAK information can also be entered via the SITE.EXE
utility.)
2.
Make a
backup copy of the file you have just created.
3.
Install
a copy of the file under the name LICENSE.MERGE in the product's main
directory. This would be MAIN\LICENSE.MERGE relative to your LISTSERV root
directory (eg C:\LISTSERV\MAIN\LICENSE.MERGE) if you installed LISTSERV under
C:\LISTSERV).
4.
Start
LISTSERV (or stop and restart it if it was already running). It will compile
the new LAK, verify its integrity, and merge it into its license database. If
no error was detected, it will then delete the LICENSE.MERGE file. This is why
you must make a backup copy of the license file before activating it. The LAK
will of course remain in the license database, but you may need the original in
case of hardware failure.
5.
Verify
that LISTSERV is running with your new LAK by issuing the command SHOW LICENSE either by e-mail or at
the LISTSERV command prompt (in interactive mode).
Important: The
LICENSE.MERGE file MUST be a flat ASCII text file (Unicode is not supported).
If you create the LICENSE.MERGE file with NOTEPAD, please note that by default
the NOTEPAD application will save your file with a .txt
extension (e.g., if you type license.merge in
the "Save as" dialog box, NOTEPAD will actually save license.merge.txt).
If this happens you must rename the file to license.merge or
LISTSERV will not see it on startup. You
can avoid this problem by enclosing the name of the file in double quotes,
i.e., when you are prompted for the filename in the "Save as" dialog
box, enter "license.merge" (you must
use the double quote marks!) and press the OK/Save button. If you use the double quotes, your file will be saved as license.merge and
not as license.merge.txt .
To start LISTSERV for debugging/testing
purposes, you can simply double-click the "LISTSERV for Windows
(interactive)" icon created by the installation script. This starts LISTSERV in a DOS box so that you
can see what it is doing. Similarly, you
should start the SMTPL.EXE "listener" service by double-clicking on
the "LISTSERV SMTP Listener (interactive)" icon (unless you are using
L-Soft's legacy LSMTP MTA).
You can run only one copy of LISTSERV at any
given time. That is, you cannot start LISTSERV interactively if it is already
running as a service, or vice-versa, nor can you start LISTSERV in multiple CMD
windows. The same applies to the SMTP listener.
When LISTSERV is installed, it is registered
in the Services Manager to start automatically as a system service at boot
time. Thus if you have rebooted your
machine after installing LISTSERV, it may already be running. If it is already running when you attempt to
start it in a DOS box, you will get the following error:
C:\LISTSERV\MAIN>lsv
start
>>>
Unable to create SMTP synchronization events <<<
abnormal program termination
Similarly, if the
SMTPL "listener" is already running as a service, you will get
something like:
C:\LISTSERV\MAIN>smtpl
start
>>>
Error 5 creating synchronization event.
Statistics for this session:
Physical
memory: 2048M (1417M available)
Paging
file: 3939M (3409M free)
Process
memory: 6968k in use
Connections: 0 (max 0, total 0 in this session)
Messages: 0 (0 recipients)
SMTPL
uptime: 0 00:00:00 (50.3% CPU
utilization)
If the services
are running, simply stop them from the Control Panel/Services applet, or just
issue the commands
NET STOP
LISTSERV
NET STOP LISTSERV-SMTP
in your DOS box
before proceeding.
If there are no
problems, LISTSERV will start up with messages similar to the following:
C:\LISTSERV\MAIN>lsv
start
12
Mar 2009 10:20:48 LISTSERV(R) for Windows version 16.0 starting...
12
Mar 2009 10:20:48 Copyright Eric Thomas
1986-2009
12
Mar 2009 10:20:48 Build date: 26 Feb 2009
12
Mar 2009 10:20:48
12
Mar 2009 10:20:48 SIGNUP files are being compressed...
12
Mar 2009 10:20:48 -> No entry removed.
12
Mar 2009 10:20:48 The network tables are outdated and must be rebuilt.
*
Network tables generation process started - be patient...
*
Step 1 complete - DBINDEX file generated.
* 198 NJE nodes, 64 dummy
nodes, total 262.
*
Step 2 complete - NODESUM3 file generated (7840 bytes).
* 10 countries, 3 networks, 59
':internet.' tags,
* 73 hostnames, total 2411
bytes of Internet<->NJE data.
*
Step 3 complete - LINKDEF2 file generated (236 links).
*
Step 4 complete - no list/AFD/FUI entry updated for changed node names.
*
Step 5 complete - SIGNUP files have been compressed, no entry removed.
12
Mar 2009 10:20:48 The peers tables are being rebuilt...
12
Mar 2009 10:20:49 ->>> No entry for LISTSERV.EXAMPLE.COM in PEERS
NAMES.
12
Mar 2009 10:20:49 ->>> Dummy entry generated pending official
registration:
12
Mar 2009 10:20:49 ->>> LISTSERV@LISTSERV.EXAMPLE.COM - Backbone=NO,
License n
umber=9999.
12
Mar 2009 10:20:49 -> There are 300 known servers.
12
Mar 2009 10:20:49 File PEERS.DBNAMES has been rebuilt.
12
Mar 2009 10:20:49 File PEERS.DBINDEX has been rebuilt.
12
Mar 2009 10:20:49 File PEERS.NAMESUM has been rebuilt.
12
Mar 2009 10:20:49 File PEERS.DISTSUM2 has been rebuilt.
*
Peers tables rebuilt successfully.
12
Mar 2009 10:20:49 Nearest backbone host is LISTSERV@PLUM.EASE.LSOFT.COM
12
Mar 2009 10:20:49 Nearest NJE host is LISTSERV@CUNYVM
*
Step 6 complete - link weights file successfully compiled.
*
*
Network tables generation completed successfully.
12
Mar 2009 10:20:49 Nearest backbone host is LISTSERV@PLUM.EASE.LSOFT.COM
12
Mar 2009 10:20:49 Nearest NJE host is LISTSERV@CUNYVM
12
Mar 2009 10:20:49 License merged successfully:
>
LISTSERV-WINNT-*
> UNITS=4
> EXP=30-JUN-2009
> REL=16.0
> OPT=EVAL
> SERIAL=EVAL-NT
> CKS=1-4013CB73-A9C0E67D
*******************************************************************************
*******************************
Evaluation copy *******************************
*******************************************************************************
*
*
*
This software is an evaluation
copy, provided to you at
no charge to *
*
demonstrate the capabilities of our
product(s). You are granted a license *
*
to use this evaluation copy until 30 Jun 2009, at which time the program *
*
will automatically exit with an error message
every time you attempt to *
*
start it. The reason for this restriction is that we want to make sure that *
*
you evaluate the latest version of the
software, and not an obsolete copy *
*
obtained from an outdated distribution. *
*
*
*
LICENSE: Subject to the restrictions set forth below,
you may use this *
*
evaluation copy as you see fit (and
until 30 Jun 2009), as long as you do *
*
not derive a profit from such use. *
*
*
*
RIGHT TO COPY: You may copy the software as necessary to use it, and for *
*
backup purposes. In addition, you can copy and distribute the evaluation *
*
kit, IN ITS ENTIRETY, provided that
you do not alter or modify it in any *
*
way, and that you do not derive a profit from such copy or distribution. *
*
Our copyright notice must remain on the
original copy of the software and *
*
be included on any copy you make. *
*
*
*
NO RIGHT TO MODIFY: You are not allowed
to modify the software in any way, *
*
except for the interfaces provided with
source code, which you may modify *
*
and/or recompile for your
own use. Any
modified version remains our *
*
property and subject to the present terms and conditions. *
*
*
*
USE AT YOUR OWN RISK: THE SOFTWARE IS
PROVIDED ON AN 'AS IS' BASIS. L-SOFT *
*
DOES NOT MAKE ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED
WARRANTY OF ANY KIND WHATSOEVER WITH *
*
RESPECT TO THE SOFTWARE, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY WARRANTY OF *
*
MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Neither L-Soft nor any *
*
of its employees, officers
or agents will be
liable for any direct, *
*
indirect or consequential damages, even
if L-Soft had been advised of the *
*
possibility of such damage.
*
*
*
*
FOR ASSISTANCE CONTACT:
SUPPORT@LSOFT.COM, or call +1 (301) 731-0440 (or *
*
1-800-399-5449 from the
*
*
*******************************************************************************
12
Mar 2009 10:20:49 Sent information mail to LSTMAINT@EXAMPLE.COM
12
Mar 2009 10:20:49 Initialization complete.
12
Mar 2009 10:20:49 You can enter commands via the keyboard at any time.
SMTPL isn't as
verbose. It will start up with only a
few messages:
C:\LISTSERV\MAIN>smtpl
start
12
Mar 2009 12:23:36 LISTSERV SMTP listener, version 1.0w
12
Mar 2009 12:23:36 Copyright Eric Thomas 1994-2007
12
Mar 2009 12:23:36 Now listening to 0.0.0.0, port 10025.
12 Mar 2009 12:23:36 Initialization complete - 200
concurrent threads.
To test the
server, send Internet mail to the LISTSERV address with some random command,
such as HELP, to check that the SMTP listener and outgoing mail interface are
working correctly. Please note that the "LISTSERV address" is the
address formed by "LISTSERV@" + the value you defined in the site
configuration file for NODE=. For instance, if you defined NODE=LISTSERV.XYZ.COM, the LISTSERV address would be LISTSERV@LISTSERV.XYZ.COM.
DO NOT attempt to create lists or use the
WWW interface until the basic email functions (ie, sending commands to LISTSERV
by email and getting a response) are tested and working correctly.
If you have any problem, contact
SUPPORT@LSOFT.COM . Note that LISTSERV will not see any mail you send it via
MAPI unless you have a MAPI/SMTP gateway for your LAN. LISTSERV does not
include a MAPI gateway and thus does not support MAPI.
When running as services, LISTSERV and SMTPL
both create log files in the \LISTSERV\LOG directory but, for performance
reasons, the file buffers are not flushed with each and every write. If you
attempt to TYPE the log file, it may appear to be empty. If you wait a few
minutes, the buffers will be flushed and you will be able to examine the files.
LISTSERV generates "crash reports" when it terminates abnormally,
which are sent to the LISTSERV postmasters by default. These "crash
reports" normally include a traceback of the error along with the last 100
LISTSERV log entries prior to the crash, and should be sent to L-Soft support
for problem resolution.
In interactive mode, the log files are also
created but the file buffers are flushed continuously.
(Due to the fact that writing to command
windows can significantly slow down an application, interactive mode should be
used only when you are trying to troubleshoot a problem.)
Note: While
critical errors are reported to the Windows System Event Log and can be
examined with Event Viewer (select the Application log), the Windows error
codes are almost never useful for debugging problems with LISTSERV and the
LISTSERV console log should be consulted in favor of the event log when a
problem arises.
When running as services, both LISTSERV and
SMTPL may be stopped from the Control Panel/Services applet, or by issuing the
commands NET STOP LISTSERV and NET STOP LISTSERV-SMTP from a DOS prompt. Sites running LISTSERV on Intel architectures
may also use the "Stop LISTSERV Service" and "Stop LISTSERV-SMTP
Service" icons provided.
When running in interactive mode, to stop
LISTSERV, simply type STOP. To stop SMTPL, wait until there is no more activity
and type Ctrl-C.
It is recommended that sites using the
Windows Firewall should open the firewall to the LISTSERV program. This is the preferred method as it makes it
easy to change various TCP/IP-related aspects of LISTSERV's operation (eg,
outbound mail port, TCPGUI port) without having to change the firewall.
For the SMTPL.EXE "listener" or
the legacy LSMTP mailer, it is recommended to open the firewall on port 25 from
all IP addresses. Alternately, simply
open the firewall to the appropriate program.
The only advantage to explicitly opening port 25 as opposed to opening
the firewall to SMTPL.EXE or some other specific MTA program is that you can
easily switch from SMTPL to another MTA or vice versa without having to worry
about changing the firewall settings.
Port 25 is also a "well-known" port so inbound mail is in
almost every case going to come to port 25, regardless of which program is
listening on that port for LISTSERV's mail.
Note:
This section does not apply to evaluation kits or to LISTSERV Lite or Shareware
kits. Evaluation copies of LISTSERV should not be registered because they are
(presumably) temporary servers running test lists, whose existence should not be
broadcast. LISTSERV Lite and Shareware kits are automatically registered via a
different process.
Once
the server is ready for production use (that is, once you have purchased and
installed a permanent License Activation Key, and once you have arranged for
LISTSERV to be started automatically when the system boots), you should
consider registering it with L-Soft. Registering the server is necessary to
broadcast its existence to the other LISTSERV servers and to receive automatic,
periodic updates of LISTSERV's networking tables. Once you have registered,
your server will also be sent periodic updates about the public lists hosted by
other LISTSERV sites, and, similarly, other LISTSERV sites will receive
information about the public lists you are hosting. Registration also makes it
possible to assign the most efficient DISTRIBUTE routing path for your server.
Note: L-Soft
registers only sites that have unlimited (UNITS=0) licenses or sites licensed
for DISTRIBUTE-only use, which are running version 1.8d or higher of LISTSERV
Classic or LISTSERV Classic HPO.
In order to qualify for registration, a
LISTSERV site must also:
·
Be
running in NETWORKED runmode. If you have RUNMODE=STANDALONE or
RUNMODE=TABLELESS in SITE.CFG, you must remove the RUNMODE line (or change it
to RUNMODE=NETWORKED) and stop and restart the server before registering.
·
Be
readily accessible via the Internet by e-mail from outside users.
·
Have a
name that is unlikely to change any time soon. For instance,
LISTSERV.EXAMPLE.ORG, LISTS.EXAMPLE.EDU, and LSV.EXAMPLE.COM are completely
acceptable (although we strongly suggest using "LISTSERV" rather than
"LISTS" or "LSV", simply because that is what most users
are familiar with), whereas something like A8B703A.CC.EXAMPLE.EDU is not. If
you are running a test server that you plan to rename later when it goes into
production, do not register the server until it is running under its final
name. Note also that a hostname containing "LISTSERVE"or any other
misspelling of "LISTSERV" is not acceptable.
·
Have an
A or MX record in DNS corresponding to the value you place in the NODE section
(an A record is recommended at minimum).
L-Soft does not register sites running
evaluation kits, LISTSERV Lite, or LISTSERV shareware. Requests to register
such sites will be discarded.
L-Soft cannot register intranet sites since
by definition such sites are not accessible via the Internet. Registration
requires that your LISTSERV site be readily accessible via e-mail by outside
users.
If your LISTSERV Classic site does not meet
the above criteria, there are other options for keeping your LISTSERV
networking tables current (which is the most important reason for registering
the software). See http://www.lsoft.com/table-updates.html for more information.
You may submit an online registration form
at http://www.lsoft.com/regform.html . If there are special considerations for
your site that are not covered by the standard form, or if you are unable to
access the web site, you can contact registrar@lsoft.com to
obtain a registration form. When contacting the site registrar, please tell us
what operating system LISTSERV is running under so that we can send you the
proper form.
It is strongly recommended that you set up
the basic web interface when you install the software. The installation kit will offer to do this
for you; you need only provide the directory used for CGI programs and the
directory and base URL used for LISTSERV's web files.
If you choose to set up the interface later,
please see the next section.
If you choose to
install the web interface manually, please refer to either the Configuring the LISTSERV Web Interface for
IIS 6.x white paper or the Configuring
the LISTSERV Web Interface for IIS 7.x white paper. Both can be found on
L-Soft's web site at http://www.lsoft.com/resources/whitepaper.asp .
Complete information on installing the Web
Archive Interface (including how to publish the content of "Send=
Private" and/or "Confidential= Yes" lists) is contained in the Site Manager's
Operations Manual for
LISTSERV.
Site administrators can create a new mailing list, including the directories necessary for supporting the archives, in a matter of minutes using the List Creation Wizard. This wizard guides you through a set of questions about the type of list that you want to create.
To create a list using the List Creation Wizard, select Server Administration > Mailing Lists > List Creation from the Toolbar.

The List Creation Screen opens. Enter the List Name, the List Title, and then select the Wizard (Step-by-Step) option.

Click the [Next ->] button to continue. The List Type screen opens. Enter the List Owner, and then select the type of list you’d like to create. Your choices are Announcement List, Unmoderated Discussion List, and Moderated Discussion List.

Click the [Next ->] button to continue. The Miscellaneous screen opens. Define how subscriptions are handled and which users can send messages to the list. This screen will vary slightly depending on the type of list you’re creating.

Click [Next ->] to continue. The Archives screen opens. Click the List Archives drop-down menu to define whether or not you want to archive messages posted to the mailing list. If posted messages are archived, then click the Access to List Archives drop-down menu to choose whether the archives will be available to the public or to subscribers only. Finally, define whether to create the archive directories manually or to let LISTSERV do it.

Click [Next ->] to continue. The Summary screen opens. Review your selection, and then click [Create].
Please note that this feature is not
available under LISTSERV Lite.
Please note that the anti-virus scanning
software is available only for Windows Server 2000/2003/2008 and Linux, and
that this feature is only available for LISTSERV Classic or LISTSERV Classic
HPO sites running those operating systems.
An L-Soft maintenance contract is also required.
If you are running LISTSERV under a
workstation version of Windows (Windows 2000 Professional or Windows XP), again,
this feature is only available for LISTSERV Classic or LISTSERV Classic HPO
sites running those operating systems. An L-Soft maintenance contract is also
required.
LISTSERV Version 16.0 supports on-the-fly
anti-virus scanning of all messages sent to mailing lists that run under
LISTSERV Classic or LISTSERV Classic HPO on Windows and Linux-x86 or x86-64 servers,
including inline uuencoded binaries and MIME attachments in those
messages. This is a value-added feature
which, in addition to a regularly-licensed LISTSERV Classic or LISTSERV
Classic-HPO installation, requires the following:
The table below indicates the web sites for
F-Secure downloads.
|
Windows Servers (2003/2008) |
|
NOTICE:
Use of FSAV 8.00 and later requires, at minimum, LISTSERV version
15.0. Use of FSAV 5.52 requires, at
minimum, LISTSERV version 14.3. Issue a SHOW
VERSION command to LISTSERV to ascertain your product level BEFORE upgrading
or installing FSAV. The current
LISTSERV for Windows kit can be downloaded at http://www.lsoft.com/download/listserv.asp#windows . Installation kits: For use with
LISTSERV 15.0 and later: FSAV 9.00 build 333
for Windows Servers* ftp://ftp.lsoft.com/f-secure/fsavsrv900-333-rtm.exe *Note: At the time this
document was revised, FSAV 9.00 for Windows Servers reported as 9.20 in the
output of a LISTSERV "release" command. This is NOT a LISTSERV bug -- LISTSERV is
repeating what FSAV tells it. To
ensure that FSAV 9.00 is installed, right-click the "F" shield icon
in the system tray and click "About". It should report "F-Secure Anti-Virus
for Windows Servers 9.00 build 333" and "F-Secure Anti-Virus 9.20
build 16040". For use with
LISTSERV 14.3, 14.4, and 14.5: FSAV 5.52 for Windows Servers ftp://ftp.lsoft.com/F-Secure/fsavsrv552-12250-full.exe (see below for hotfixes) Manuals: F-Secure Anti-Virus
for Windows Servers, Manual: |
|
NOTICE:
Use of FSAV 8.00 and later requires, at minimum, LISTSERV version
15.0. Use of FSAV 5.52 requires, at
minimum, LISTSERV version 14.3. Issue a SHOW
VERSION command to LISTSERV to ascertain your product level BEFORE upgrading
or installing FSAV. The current
LISTSERV for Windows kit can be downloaded at http://www.lsoft.com/download/listserv.asp#windows . DOCUMENTED
RESTRICTION: With the release of FSAV version 9, F-Secure no
longer supports real-time scanning of compressed archives in FSAV for Windows
Workstations. This means that sites
running LISTSERV on a Windows Workstation platform (e.g., Windows XP) will
not be able to prevent compressed files containing malicious payloads from
being distributed if using FSAV 9 for anti-virus scanning. Installation kits: For use with
LISTSERV 15.0 and later: FSAV 9.01 build 102
for Windows Workstations ftp://ftp.lsoft.com/F-Secure/av4wks901-102.exe For use with
LISTSERV 14.3, 14.4, and 14.5: FSAV 5.54 for Windows Workstations ftp://ftp.lsoft.com/f-secure/fsavwks544-12250-full.exe Manuals: There is no current
manual available from F-Secure for their Workstation product. The release
notes for Version 9.01 are available: http://download.f-secure.com/webclub/fsav4wks901_releasenotes.pdf |
In order to use LISTSERV®’s Anti-Virus features, F-Secure® Anti-Virus must be installed on the same server as LISTSERV. If you already have F-Secure Anti-Virus installed on the server, you should make sure that you are running the version supported by LISTSERV:
· For Windows 2003 Server/2008 Server: version 9.00 build 333
· For Windows XP/Vista/7: version 9.01 build 102
(For workstation systems, the minimum
requirement is Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or 3 (3 recommended). Windows
2000 Professional is no longer supported.)
Important: Beginning in July 2009, L-Soft can no longer guarantee an uninterrupted virus signature update path for older versions of FSAV (5.x and older), which have been at end-of-life for more than a year. We therefore strongly recommend that sites running LISTSERV versions prior to 15.0 should upgrade to the latest supported version of LISTSERV, so that they can also install the latest version of FSAV.
L-Soft strongly recommends that all such Windows LISTSERV sites running on a Server version of Windows upgrade to at least version 9.00 with all hotfixes for that version released to date (see http://www.f-secure.com/en_EMEA/support/business/hotfixes/ for applicable hotfixes).
The FSAV for Windows
Servers or FSAV for Linux Servers license key provided by L-Soft is for a
single stand-alone server only. If you wish to run the
The FSAV for Windows Servers license key normally provided by L-Soft is for the server version of F-Secure Anti-Virus. The server version will not install on a workstation version of Windows (that is, Windows 7, Windows Vista, or Windows XP). If you are affected by this, please contact your sales representative for an FSAV for Windows Workstations key.
The FSAV key provided by L-Soft is valid only as long as your paid maintenance contract for LISTSERV is up-to-date. If you discontinue LISTSERV maintenance, you must uninstall F‑Secure Anti‑Virus or purchase a separate key from F-Secure.
With the release of FSAV version 9, F-Secure
no longer supports real-time scanning of compressed archives in FSAV for
Windows Workstations. This means that
sites running LISTSERV on a Windows Workstation platform (e.g., Windows XP)
will not be able to prevent compressed files containing malicious payloads from
being distributed if using FSAV 9 for anti-virus scanning.
Sites running LISTSERV 15.0 or later under a
Windows Workstation variant such as Windows XP or Windows 7 have the following
options:
Given our own experience and that of customers who have reported problems to support, L-Soft strongly recommends that all currently-available hotfixes for FSAV be installed.
Hotfixes for Windows
can be downloaded from:
http://www.f-secure.com/en_EMEA/support/business/hotfixes/
Please check the
F-Secure website regularly for any hotfixes that may be provided.
When downloading F-Secure hotfixes, be sure to choose the ones for standalone environments. These are the ones with the .fsfix extension.
Following is a quick summary of installation, if you are installing F-Secure from the stand-alone kit provided. If you need further clarification, please consult the manuals cited in the table above.
1. Download the appropriate installation kit for your platform (see table above).
2. Unzip the kit into a scratch directory.
3. CD into the scratch directory and run SETUP.EXE .
4. When prompted for a key, enter the F-Secure key that you received from your L-Soft sales representative. If you did not receive an F-Secure Anti-Virus key along with your LISTSERV LAK, please contact your L-Soft sales representative.
5. When prompted for the Administration Method, choose Stand-alone Installation.
6. When prompted to “Choose Products to Install”, select the F-Secure Management Agent component in addition to the F-Secure Anti-Virus component.
F-Secure Anti-Virus running on Windows
provides an option for “real-time protection”. This means that F-Secure will
automatically check any file matching the criteria configured. The “real-time
protection” settings that are set by default should work for most
installations.
However,
please note that L-Soft does STRONGLY recommend that you change the
"Action to take on infected files" to "Delete
Automatically".
Otherwise, the “out‑of‑the‑box”
settings enable protection for all file extensions that are known to be
susceptible to viruses, on all directories on the server. As long as your
LISTSERV maintenance is up-to-date, you are entitled to protect the entire
server on which LISTSERV resides, not just LISTSERV itself, using the FSAV key
provided by L-Soft. Therefore, there is no need to change the settings.
If you do decide to change the real-time
protection settings, please keep the following in mind:
·
Requesting scanning for “All Files” may result in a
noticeable drop in performance.
If
you have real-time scanning enabled for “All Files”, without specifying
exceptions, then every file written on the server will be checked for viruses.
This has the potential to slow down the server in a situation where many files
are written continuously. In particular, an active LISTSERV site tends to
create many files containing incoming LISTSERV “jobs” and outgoing mail. To avoid
performance problems, avoid enabling automatic scanning of all files on the
server.
·
At a minimum, you should keep real-time scanning on for the EXE
extension on the LISTSERV directory tree.
To do
this, follow these steps:
1. Double-click on the F-Secure logo in the
Windows Taskbar to bring up the F‑Secure Settings and Statistics applet.
2. Select F-Secure Anti-Virus and press the
“Properties…” button.
3. Go to the “Real-time protection” tab.
4. Make sure “Enable protection” is checked,
and select an action to take on infected files (preferably other than “Report
only”).
5. Under “Scanning Options” select “Files with
these extensions” and enter “EXE” in the data entry box.
6. Press the “OK” button to save the settings.
·
Some
performance benefits may be found by excluding “immune” folders from the
real-time scanning.
You may want to
exclude certain folders that will never contain any files that are prone to
infection, for example folders that only contain text files. To exclude
folders: in the “Real-time protection” applet, under “Scanning options” check
the box for “Exclude objects (files, folders)”, then press the “Select…”
button. Next, select those folders that do not need to be scanned. LISTSERV’s
archive directories, for example, should never contain infected files unless
there are people or processes external to LISTSERV that use those directories
for other purposes.
Because of non-backward-compatible changes
made by LISTSERV 16.0 to the format of LISTSERV's SIGNUP files which allow
UTF-8 characters to be used in passwords, and the addition of non-reversible
subscriber password encryption, L-Soft STRONGLY
RECOMMENDS that, prior to upgrading, a full backup be made of your LISTSERV
installation.
IMPORTANT: LISTSERV 16.0 requires
a version 16.0 LAK!
You must
obtain and install a LISTSERV version 16.0 product LAK prior to upgrading your
server, or LISTSERV will not start after the upgrade.
IMPORTANT: Install
your LISTSERV 16.0 product LAK before upgrading! A
valid product LAK (License Activation Key) with "REL=16.0" must be
installed before upgrading or LISTSERV will not start after the upgrade.
If you have not received
a LISTSERV 16.0 product LAK, please contact your sales representative or
SALES@LSOFT.COM before upgrading!
If your product LAK has
EXP=NEVER, you will also need to install an appropriate LISTSERV maintenance
LAK.
To find out if you can
upgrade to LISTSERV 16.0 with your current LAKs, please issue a SHOW LICENSE
command to LISTSERV and examine the response. It will be similar to this:
License type: Permanent
Expiration
date: None - perpetual license
Maintenance
until: 26
May 2009, serial number MNT-XYZ-1
Capacity: Unlimited
Version: 16.0
Serial number: XYZ-1
Build
date: 9 Dec 2009
Your license key will be
valid for the 16.0 upgrade if your current product LAK is for version 16.0
or higher and your maintenance is not expired.
Upgrading LISTSERV is almost as simple as
installing it. Simply follow these
steps:
· If you are upgrading from one full version of LISTSERV to another (for instance, from 15.5 to 16.0), you should have received a new LAK from your sales representative. If you do not have a LAK for the version you are upgrading to, stop right here and contact your L-Soft sales representative. If you are not sure what version you are currently licensed for, send a "SHOW LICENSE" command to LISTSERV.
· If you have received a new LAK, install it onto your old installation, following the instructions that come with the LAK. Send LISTSERV a "SHOW LICENSE" command after restarting LISTSERV to ensure that the new LAK has been installed properly. Do not proceed further until this step has been correctly completed.
· Back up the entire LISTSERV directory hierarchy (just in case).
· Stop LISTSERV and SMTPL (note that if you are running the legacy LSMTP MTA, you do not need to stop SMTPL as it should be disabled).
· Get the current Windows NT evaluation kit from the LISTSERV evaluation kit download page and install it over your existing installation. Your current configuration, lists, and other settings will be preserved. Note that evaluation kits are production code limited only by an evaluation LAK, which your production LAK will override.
· If you are running the legacy LSMTP MTA as your mailer, open the Windows Control Panel/Services applet and ensure that the "LISTSERV SMTP Listener" service is disabled. This is very important! Note that the current version of the installation GUI will not register SMTPL.EXE as a service if an installation of LSMTP is detected in the Windows registry, but it is still wise to check this.
· If you have the web archive interface installed, either re-run the web archive configuration feature of SITE.EXE or manually copy WA.EXE from the \LISTSERV\MAIN directory to your cgi-bin or scripts directory to update it. The setup program will not do it for you automatically.
· Restart LISTSERV and SMTPL (if not running legacy LSMTP) and send a command to make sure the installation was successful.
All of L-Soft's formal documentation for LISTSERV, including its manuals, installation guides, and online help systems, is available at http://www.lsoft.com/manuals .
L-Soft frequently publishes white papers on specific topics for our products. These white papers are available at http://www.lsoft.com/resources/whitepaper.asp .
Specifically related to the configuration and setup of LISTSERV, the following white papers may be useful depending on your situation:
· Configuring the LISTSERV Web Interface for IIS 6.x
· Moving LISTSERV to a New Server
· Connecting LISTSERV to an Existing Database Management System (DBMS)
· Using the Microsoft IIS SMTP Service for LISTSERV Deliveries
Every quarter, L-Soft’s newsletter, LISTSERV at Work, is released and contains Tech Tips that are written by L-Soft specialists with the goal of giving our customers some advice and expert guidance with specific topics regarding our products. For a complete list of these Tech Tips, go to http://www.lsoft.com/resources/techtip.asp .
There are several mailing lists dedicated to the support of LISTSERV.
|
for
LISTSERV maintainers and interested list owners |
|
|
|
|
|
for
LISTSERV list owners |
|
|
|
|
|
for
LISTSERV Lite users |
|
|
|
|
|
for third-party developers using features
documented in the Developer's Guide to LISTSERV |
To subscribe to any of these lists, send mail to LISTSERV@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM with the following command in the body of the message:
SUBSCRIBE listname Your Name
At http://www.lsoft.com/lsv-faq.html we've attempted to document a few of the most frequently-asked questions pertaining to installing and running a LISTSERV server. Before writing to our support department for problem resolution, please take a moment to read through the online FAQ and see if your problem is answered there.
L-Soft recognizes that the FAQ pages are not going to solve every problem you may face. We are always willing to help diagnose and correct problems you may be having with your registered LISTSERV® server. To that end, please note the following when you write to L-Soft with a problem report:
1. Please make the subject line of your report indicative of the problem, and in particular the product with which you are having a problem. A subject like "Problem posting to moderated LISTSERV list" is much more useful to us than "Help me please!"
2. Include any appropriate log entries. LISTSERV keeps logs of everything it does when you are running it in the background (i.e., with './go bg', and without a log excerpt it is often impossible to determine what caused a given error.
3. If LISTSERV dumps core, please run the debugger on the core file (see FAQ 1.3. in the LISTSERV maintainer's support FAQ) and include the results.
4. Always send a copy of your site configuration file (with the passwords XXX'ed out).
5. Send along anything else that you think might be helpful in diagnosing the problem.
If you are running LISTSERV Lite, please join the LISTSERV-LITE mailing list,
LISTSERV-LITE@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM, and send your trouble reports there.