You can find the forum at Windows Server Forums

Password protecting websites, directories and files on Windows 2003 Servers is very easy. It only takes a couple clicks and it’s done. For users to access the protected areas they’ll need to have an account on the server. There are ways to avoid this by using Passport authorization, but for this article we’ll use Integrated Windows authentication.

First thing to do is open IIS Manager. Once you have it open select the website that has the directory or file you want to protect. Click on the + next to the website to expand the directory and file list.
Right click the directory or file and select properties. A property box will popup. Now select the Directory Security tab at the top of the properties dialogue.
Select Authentication and access control by clicking the button that says edit.
Uncheck the box that says enable anonymous access. Check the box below that says Intergrated Windows Authentication.
Close the box and select apply in the properties box. The directory is now protected and can only be accessed by users that have a valid user account on your server. Test it out by going to yoursite.tld/protected_directory.

If you want to password protect a directory or file in the website click the website in the left window and when the files expand in the right window right click the directory or file and follow the procedure above to password protect it.
If you have any questions post a comment to this article ask in Windows/IIS Forum.

First you need to download the tolls for the job. You’ll need cwRsync and syn2nas.
Download cwRsync.
Download sync2nas.

After you download the 2 files above install cwRsync on your home computer or if you have a dev server that you work on at home to test upgrades and such install it there. The second option is what I use. I have live data from my sites on my home server. The advantages of this are enormous for upgrading and redundancy. Once you get cwRsync installed as a service on your home box you’ll need to configure it. The default will install to C:\cwRsyncServer. Head into that dir and read the documentation to get familiar with it. Once you have read the documentation it’s time to edit rsyncd.conf to allow connections from your server.

The basic rsyncd.conf will look something like this:

use chroot = false
strict modes = false
hosts allow = *
log file = rsyncd.log
pid file = rsyncd.pid
secrets file = rsyncd.secrets
# Module definitions
# Remember cygwin naming conventions : c:\work becomes /cygwin/c/work
#
[test]
path = /cygdrive/c/work
read only = false
transfer logging = yes

What you want to do is create a section to allow your server to connect to your home computer to transfer your data.

You’ll want to edit rsyncd.conf to add this. Make sure you change the paths I use to reflect the real paths. You could just create the directories I use and leave it if you wish. In any case you’ll have to set a username and password.

[ConnectionName]
path = /cygdrive/c/backups/remote
comment = Local Backups
read only = false
transfer logging = yes
auth users = YourUsername
secrets file = rsyncd.secrets
read only = false
list = false
hosts allow = your server

In the above change connection name, and username to whatever you want. If you use the paths above then create C:\backups and C:\backups\remote. If you are using Windows XP then no permissions need to be set on those directories. If you are using Windows 2003 Server you need to set permissions on C:\backups to allow NETWORK read, write and modify on the directory and all directories below it.

You notice the rsyncd.secrets line. This is where the username password information is found. Open Notepad and add

yourusername:yourpassword

to it. Now save it as rysncd.secrets and put it in the same dir as you rsyncd.conf file.
You can add as many sections like the one you created for different websites. Once you get the hang of using it you’ll be able to backup everything from your sites.
One last thing to do to set up cwRsync.
Go to Start > All Programs > Administartive Tools.
Click on Services to open Services manager. Scroll down the list on the right and look for RscycServer.
Right click the service and select Properties. Change Startup type from Manual to Automatic. Use the dropdown to change this. Once you change it close the properties box and click apply. The service will not start whenever Windows starts.

Now you’re done with the client side of the install. cwRsync is now ready to accept backups from the server. All you have to do now is install sync2nas on the server.

Transfer the sync2nas installer that you downloaded to the server and run the installer. It will install sync2nas in C:\sync2nas. Head into C:\sync2nas and right click sync2nas.exe and select pin to start menu. This makes it easy to open snyc2nas.
Click Start > syn2nas.exe to start to program. You’ll get what look like Windows Explorer with the left pane showing you drives and folders. Below that you’ll see the server connection boxes. In the Appliance or Virtual IP box add the IP of your home computer. Make sure you open port 873 on your firewall and/or router so sync2nas can access your home box. If the input boxes are greyed out go to the menu on top and in Advanced menu click enable username field. After you add the IP fill out the other boxes. The share name is the [ConnectionName] in your ryncd.conf. Add that name without the []. Remote folder is the folder you want the data stored in. You already have your backup folder set in rsyncd.conf. If you leave this blank it will create a directory in your backup dir the same name as the dir you are backing up. For instance if you are backing up a mysql database called mydb it will create mydb in C:\backups\remote. While this is ok I like to organize things. I set Remote Folder to data for database backups and sites for files backups. Now that you have that set you’ll add your username and password. They are the ones in your ryncd.secrets file.

Now you’ll want to choose which database to backup. In the left pane navigate to your mysql data directory. If you want to back up the whole data dir then just click the >> button between the 2 panes and it will add it to the list. If you want to add just a couple databases then click + and wait for the dir to open. Then just click and add the databses you want to backup.

The last step is to create a scheduled task to run the backup. You do that in the Source Replication Task Schedule. This pretty much self explanatory. One you have the scheduled task created add you administartor account username and password and click apply. A little message at the bottom will tell you the task was created. Now would be a good time to do the initial backup. The first one takes a bit of time since it has to transfer all the data. Subsequent backups don’t take as long. To backup right away go to File meu > Replicate Once Immediately. It will take a few minutes for the task to start as it gathers file information. Once it starts a command box will popup and the transfer will begin. When it completes, could take an hour or 2 depending on the size of the files being transfered, the box will close.

Once you input the server IP, username and such you might want to ping your home box to make sure it accepts connections. To do that hit the Ping button. At the bottom if it says server is alive and acceptin connections then you are ready to go. If it errors then check that you have port 873 open to your home box and that the RsyncServer is running.

Now that you have cwRsync setup on your home network you can also backup you Linux servers to it using rsync which is built in to Linux. Instructions to do that are beyond the scope of this article, but a quick Google search should lead you to a tutorial on how to set up rsync on your Linux server.

That’s all. Now you’ll never have to worry about losing any data.

Choose your team carefully. If your forum is s startup don’t advertise for staff. Instead watch how members interact with each other. For one new communities don’t need moderators until the member base increases. By the time the membership gets to 100 you’ll have a good sampling of posts and get a good feel for who would make a good team member. Ask that person or persons as the case may be if they would be interested. Once you have a few leaders in place then put in some sort of nomination and voting process to add more team members. It is imperative that team members have input on this process. They are the ones that have to “work” with the other members of the team.

Once you have your team in place then as an admin step back from moderation duties and concentrate on maintaining the site and being a part of the community. Make sure you have guidelines in place for them to follow and make sure they have a say in creating them. Once that is done let your team run things. After all you put them in place so you should trust them to run the place for you. Never give the team the impression that you are watching every move they make. If one of the team members does something you don’t think is right then discuss it with them privately. Never call a person out in public. As the site grows or as team members retire let you team select the replacements. After they decide who to promote do the promotion and welcome the new leader. Never run a community as a dictator.

Now you have an active community and have your team in place. For whatever reason team members become inactive for long periods of time. Everyone at one time or another has to change priorities and doesn’t have the time to devote to a community. Most of the time these people end up coming back and getting involved again once time permits. I myself have had staff members leave for a year or more and come back to the community and become an active leader.
So what do you do with these inactives?
Nothing. Leave them be. They aren’t hurting anything. Instead nominate another member or ask your team for nominations and promote who they choose. Whatever you do do not remove them without first contacting them. Send them an email, not a PM, if they are inactive they won’t see the PM, and ask them if they would like to retire from their position. Some will tell you they will be back as soon as time permits and ask that you leave them. Let them be. Some will retire, but, ask for the option to have the position back if they become active again. Tell them that is what you’ll do. Move them into a retired group with read permissions on the staff forums. From my experience a retired leader will come back and read the staff forum to catch up on new rules before they ask for reinstatement. Once they ask welcome them back with open arms. In any case never remove a staff member without first conversing with them.
There is really no reason to remove staff for inactivity.

Staff disagreements happen. The best thing to do is to let them air their differences in the staff forum. If staff members start to argue in public move the post to the staff forum. Let the ones that have the disagreement try and work things out. Whatever you do don’t take sides. Let them work this out themselves. The problem will die out pretty fast and things will be back to normal.

The above is tried and true. It has worked on every community that I own or have owned. It took a while for me to be able to just sit back and let my teams run the place. I can enjoy the communities more by participating in my communities instead of managing them. I’m sure you will too.