Setting Up PCTTY bank (several PCTTY programs running on a windows pc
that are scheduled by a perl script running along with an Apache web 
server.  This is probably on a LINUX box).

author: Paul Cheffers
year: 2009
email: paul@securecottage.com


IMPORTANT NOTE: Normally, PCTTY Bank is set up in conjunction with a VOIP phone interface.
Several PCTTYs could have voice modems and phone lines, but normally a VOIP phone interface
would be used.  PCTTY needs to have a TSP (Tapi Service Provider) that can interface with
a SIP phone server on the Internet.  The only one that the author has found to work
properly is the COMISDN SIP communication server available for a fee at

http://www.comisdn.com/voip/communicationserver.htm

see http://www.pctty.com/iptelephony.html for instructions on how to configure the COMISDN TSP.

You can download a 30 trial version of this product and ensure it works with your VOIP 
SIP server.  From there it will cost approximately 220 Euros for 2 channels (2 phone lines).
A USB Dongle, available for around 60 euros, is recommended as with it the license for the
program can be carried from PC to PC.  You can buy more channels if you want them.    

The Activa TSP, an open source project available at sourceforge, looks promising, as it is free,
but the author has not been able to make it work with his SIP server yet.  Perhaps, someone can 
upgrade this product so that it works with TAPI 3 applications like PCTTY.


STEPS TO INSTALL THE WEB INTERFACE



1)You need to install this directory along with the subdirectory 'web' directory 
on your webserver.

2)index.htm is the start of the system, but 
scheduler.cgi is called (twice, first time to see if any free PCTTY 
programs exist on the WINDOWS PCTTY PC, second time, to make the person 
provide a password so that bots don't make thousands of phone calls 
on you).

schedulertest.cgi is a spare Perl script that you can use for test PCTTY banks.
You need to change it just like you need to change scheduler.cgi

3)To run the passwordgenerator.cgi perl program you need to have installed
the ImagePwd perl package (part of the webtools package) available at
CPAN (http://www.cpan.org).  You will need to edit the line

use lib '/home/cheffers/pctty/webtools/modules';

in passwordgenerator.cgi so that it points to the actual webtools perl package on 
your system.  The passwordgenerator.cgi uses the 'passwordimages' directory.  Make sure you
have one in the same directory as scheduler.cgi.


4) You need to have chatclient.html and query.html files in the web directory on your PCTTY
computer program running on the Windows machine. You will need to 
put the '$locals' file in the actual install directory of each PCTTY
instance (ie., c:\Program Files\Nantes Enterprises and 
c:\Program Files\Nantes Enterprises1 etc).  You will need to configure 
this file with local values, mainly ip addresses (internal and external)
and ports (internal and external) 

5) You will have to add to the configuration file (httpd.conf) of the Apache webserver
(see apachestuff/httpd.conf.webstuff.text for instructions)
this will probably mean a recompile of Apache to include the mod_proxy module
and then changes to the httpd.conf configuration file.

6) You will need to edit the scheduler.cgi perl script to take account of the individual
PCTTY programs and their internal IP and port addresses, and the internal and external IP 
address of the apache web server.  Look at the definitions of the variables at the top of 
the file and 

a) change the executive secret at the top of the file to something for you
   i) then bring up a PCTTY on the windows pc, go into Properties, then
   Internet Settings.  From there
      a) click on "Make PCTTY an Internet..."
      b) click on "Check Secrets"
      c) enter the executive secret you put into scheduler.cgi
      d) click on "Make PCTTY a web server"
      e) unclick Disable PCTTY Internet Interface.
b) change any references in the file (strings such as 'pctty/web') to whatever path you
placed the pctty web directory on your apache server.  It is recommended you simply
replicate the web directory structure you find here)

7) edit the '$locals' file on each installation of PCTTY
(look at C:\program files\nantes enterprises' and any other
directories for the ancillary PCTTY installs)
(Each PCTTY program must reside in its own directory, they share 
registry values, but NOT file space)

A typical $locals file follows:

MARRI VARIABLE: 0,7e82
$$ipaddress	192.168.1.38
$$internalipaddress	192.168.1.38
$$port	6667
$$executivesecret	888888888888
$$webserverport	81
$$externalipaddress	calltty.com.au
$$webserveripaddress	192.168.1.40
$$externalwebserveripaddress	calltty.com.au
$$defaulttapidevice	IP Line 1 Channel 1
last	last

These addresses are mainly the ports the chat server within PCTTY is 
listening on, and the internal and external ip addresses of the
PCTTY program.  It is assumed that PCTTY bank is sitting behind
a NAT firewall.

Keep the file line in

last	last

Carefully type in the default tapi device for the particular PCTTY
instance being configure.  It will be different for each PCTTY 
program.  This has to be exact or PCTTY will not use the tapi device
designated for your PCTTY instance.

MOST IMPORTANT: the key '$$defaulttapidevice' is followed by a TAB key,
not a space key.  Use notepad to create and edit this file.  A typical
$locals files is provided in this directory.  You should just be able
to edit it and put it in the main PCTTY install directory (not the 
web directory underneath it).  This file provides local variables
for the particular PCTTY program that differentiates it from the other
PCTTY programs on the same windows box.


8) install the secureco_publickeys MYSQL database by feeding the 

'create_secureco_publickeys_mysql_db.txt' file into mysql after 
you have created the database through mysqladmin.

9) set the password for the secureco_publickeys db (and change the name
of it if you are capable), and change the globallocals.pl file
to reflect the mysql path string and the mysql username and mysql password
for the database created.

(HINT: myPhpAdmin is most helpful for dealing with MYSQL databases on LINUX)

If you keep everything to minimun changes you will probably only need to change
in the globallocals.pl file:

$mainurl = "http://192.168.1.40/cottage/";  # probably your internal web address for the system
$mainurlsecure = "http://192.168.1.40/cottage/"; # your secure web address, could be the same as here

Set the database user name and the database password.  


$dbuser="secureco_publick";
$dbpw='password';

In order to install on LINUX you will probably need someone familar with LINUX system administration
But this system runs on a 800mhz 384mb of memory old Dell box that I bought 5 years ago, so it does not
need many resources.

Essentially, scheduler.cgi queries each PCTTY instance by the web request: query.html.

This webpage returns the current status of the PCTTY instance, whether it is in a call or not.
You need to have the executive secret the same on both the PCTTY registry settings and the 
scheduler.cgi perl script.

If it finds an open PCTTY, it creates a password and a png file showing that password, and enters
this value into the mysql database.  The customer then has to type in the password and then he proceeds
to the actual PCTTY webpage: chatclient.html.

He does not directly connect to PCTTY but to the apache web server which proxies his request to the PCTTY web server 
(each PCTTY can have a web server if this is turned on).  The customer then gets the chatclient.html webpage
which contains an applet that opens a socket to the apache web server on port 80.  The applet then issues
a CONNECT HTTP request (not a GET or POST as normal).  The Apache web server, via configuration file changes 
mentioned above, then starts a socket connection between the customer's web browser and the PCTTY instance
running on the Windows machine.  This allows for continuous chat to happen.

Sometimes firewall restrictions on corporate and/or government networks don't allow for

1) the applet to even load
2) the applet to open a socket connection to an outside ip address
3) use the CONNECT method within an open socket.

So this method is not universal on all systems.  However, it will work for just about anybody on the
private ISP world.

10) It is recommended you simply copy this whole directory and its sub directories 'passwordimages' 
and 'web' to your web server directory.  A path of

http://yourwebdnsaddress/pctty

is recommended as all the Perl scripts assume this.  You may have to edit scheduler.cgi and schedulertest.cgi
if you have a different web address for the system.