Installing Caucus 4.0 on Windows/NT

Last revised: 5 March 1999

This guide, from the Screen Porch Documentation Library, describes the details involved in downloading and installing Caucus on your Windows/NT system.  If you run into a problem or question not covered in this page, please join the appropriate support conferences on our Caucus site.

  1. System requirements to install Caucus.

  2. Downloading a Caucus kit for Windows/NT.

    If you'd like to try Caucus on your own NT host, you can download a 30-day trial kit.

    If you have purchased a Caucus license, you can download your official kit now.  You will need the download id and password sent to you by Screen Porch.  (If you did not receive a download id, please contact sales@screenporch.com.)

    In either case, you will need the 17+ digit activation key that was e-mailed to you.  (If you did not receive an activation key, contact sales@screenporch.com.)

  3. Installing your Caucus kit.

    Your Caucus kit is downloaded as an InstallShield self-extracting archive called caucus40.exe.  Login as Administrator, and double-click on this file to start the installation process.  Follow the instructions that appear on your screen. 

    Notes:

  4. Configure your Caucus Service

    The next-to-last screen in the installation procedure tells you to configure your Caucus Service to "Log On As" the Caucus userid.  This must be done manually, through the Control Panel.

    See the service configuration page for details.

  5. Configuring your Web Server
    1. General Server Configuration
    2. Microsoft IIS 2 Web Server
    3. Microsoft IIS 4 Web Server
    4. O'Reilly WebSite Web Server

  6. Accessing Caucus

    The installation procedure creates a standard HTML page that you can use to access Caucus.  The URL for that page is:

    where yourhost.com and caucus are the hostname and NT account you supplied during the installation procedure.

  7. If Something Goes Wrong...

    Should a problem occur, especially during installation, start by checking over each step of the installation procedure.  Most problems are caused by missing details in configuring your web server to work with Caucus.

    If you have installed a Caucus upgrade over a previous version of Caucus, and are having troubles with "CGI errors", try the following.  Stop the caucus service; delete all files in the SOCKET directory (e.g., C:\caucus\SOCKET); and restart the caucus service.

    If problems persist, join our support conferences, especially the Installation and Setup conference.

    In special circumstances, we may be able to help resolve a problem by "telneting" into your NT host.  See installing a telnet server for Caucus for more information.  An even better approach is to install VNC, so that we can "share" your NT console and fix a problem while you watch.  See http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/index.html.

  8. Managing Caucus

    During the installation procedure, you were asked for the userid (in Caucus) of the "primary manager".  That person is given full management capabilities of your Caucus site, including the ability to add other people as managers.

    To see the management capabilities, access Caucus with that userid, and on the "Caucus Center" page, click on "You can manage this site" (underneath your name near the top right corner of your browser window).

    If for some reason you need to change the userid of the primary manager, edit the plain text file c:\caucus\misc\managers, and change the userid in the very first line of that file (where "c:\caucus" is the home directory of the NT "Caucus" account).

  9. Uninstalling Caucus

    If you wish to completely remove (uninstall) Caucus from your NT host, note that "Add/Remove programs" in the Control Panel does not work with Caucus.

    You may use the following procedure to completely remove Caucus, where c:\caucus is the home directory of Caucus, caucus is the Caucus account, and Caucus is the caucus service name:

    1. Start a "cmd" window (click on Start, Run, and type "cmd").  Type the commands that follow in this window.
    2. net stop caucus
    3. c:\caucus\services\instsrv caucus remove
    4. net user caucus /delete
    5. rmdir c:\caucus /s

  10. Upcoming Features for Caucus/NT

    Several enhancements are planned for Caucus/NT in the near future.  These include detailed web server configuration instructions for later versions of Microsoft IIS, and automatic creation and management of Caucus userids for sites using the O'Reilly "WebSite" server. 

    Stay tuned to this site for further information!
    (Last revised 6 May 1998.)