tute overview for the general reader

tute.mit.edu: overview

This is a draft. --a.s. 7-23-98
tute.mit.edu is an IS-supported webserver that serves pages only to members of the MIT community. It has some similarities to web.mit.edu, which is also an IS-supported webserver, but the main difference between the two is that web.mit.edu does not impose any restrictions on its http connections. tute.mit.edu serves pages only to the MIT community by restricting http connections to browsers that are actually "at" MIT (that is, they are connected to MITnet), and by restricting https connections to browsers that can provide an MIT certificate. If a browser is not at MIT, or it cannot provide an MIT certificate, tute.mit.edu will not serve pages to it.

tute.mit.edu: Roughly How It Works

The default port for a webserver to listen on is port 80. On tute.mit.edu, there is a daemon listening on that port that performs the initial screening and triage of http connections. Basically, if the connection comes from an MIT address (as determined by the daemon), it is directed to the http daemon on the system; otherwise, it is directed to the https daemon on the system, where the browser will need to provide an MIT certificate. Thus, tute.mit.edu is a webserver which serves pages only to the MIT community, since it only allows http connections to MITnet systems, and it only allows https connections to systems with valid MIT certificates.

Similarities between web.mit.edu and tute.mit.edu

From a browser on a system on MITnet or from a browser with an MIT certificate, these pages should appear the same:

MIT homepage via web.mit.edu, which has no special restrictions on http connections; this link should succeed for any browser
MIT homepage via tute.mit.edu, which restricts http and https connections to the MIT community; this link should fail for systems and users that are not part of the MIT community

Both web.mit.edu and tute.mit.edu are IS-supported webservers, both run customized httpd services (for example, to allow the use of MIT "locker names" in URLs), and both are AFS clients (thus, they can easily serve the same world-readble pages).

Differences between web.mit.edu and tute.mit.edu

The first difference between the two is that web.mit.edu imposes no special restrictions on its http connections; it allows http connections from anywhere. tute.mit.edu restricts its connections to members of the MIT community. The second difference between the two is that the webserver processes on web.mit.edu run without any authentication in the athena.mit.edu AFS cell, so it can only access files that are stored in AFS directories that allow access to "system:anyuser". tute.mit.edu is associated with the 'mitweb' AFS user, and so in addition to files that "system:anyuser" can access, it can access files in directories that allow access to "mitweb". The current 'pts' entry is

athena% pts memb mitweb
Members of mitweb (id: -99253) are:
  rcmd.tuscany
  18.86.0.41
athena%

It is also worth noting that the https deamon on tute handles full paths in URLs; it does not support MIT "short forms" in the way that the http processes on both web.mit.edu and tute.mit.edu do.

Note for Owners of Web Content at MIT

See the cwis-provided guides for writing HTML that makes effective use of MIT web services, including using tute.mit.edu to restrict access to the MIT community.

Note for MIT People and Access to Web Content