Support

Questions and comments can be emailed to the HNR Administrator at hdladmin@cnri.reston.va.us. The HNR Administrator manages CNRI's registration of handle services by Resolution Service Providers, the receipt of registration and service fees, the creation and updating of handle prefixes, and answers questions about operating a local handle service and configuring a handle server. Users who have been assigned prefixes should reference them in their email messages. Administrators with more than one prefix should identify which prefix the question, problem, or sitebndl.zip file is associated with.

Quick Tips:

1. Moving your Handle Service and/or Changing a Handle Server's IP Address. If the IP address of your handle server changes, your handles won't resolve until you re-run the hdl-setup-server script (instructions are in the README.txt file included with the software distribution) and send the resulting sitebndl.zip file to the HNR Administrator at hdladmin@cnri.reston.va.us so that the service information in your prefix can be updated. Be sure to identify the prefix to be updated in your email message. DSpace users should follow the DSpace instructions.

2. Tips for DSpace Users. New DSpace users should follow the steps in the DSpace Documentation for installing and configuring your server. Then, use the Upload a sitebndl.zip File form to submit the sitebndl.zip file generated by the DSpace make file. The HNR Administrator will contact you about your prefix. Note that the handle server software included in your DSpace distribution may not be the latest version. If you see errors when resolving your handles, contact the HNR Administrator at hdladmin@cnri.reston.va.us.

3. Lost Passphrase. If you lose your passphrase, you can re-run hdl-setup-server to create new keys with a new passphrase, then send the resulting sitebndl.zip file to the HNR Administrator at hdladmin@cnri.reston.va.us. Be sure to identify the prefix to be updated in your email message.

4. Changing a Passphrase. If you want to change your passphrase you can use the hdl-keyutil found in your server bin directory. You will need to know the current passphrase to run the command successfully.

5. Dedicated Ports. A handle server needs dedicated ports, typically port 2641 (the ICANN registered handle port) and port 8000. No other processes, i.e., a web server, can be running on the same ports as your handle server.

6. Firewalls. A handle server should be installed on a machine with an Internet presence, preferably outside an organization's firewall. If that isn't possible, ports 2641 (tcp and udp) and 8000 (http) on the firewall need to be open to incoming and outgoing traffic so that handle clients can talk to your local server. Also, many networks are configured so that a server has a different IP address for internal and external access. (These addresses are typically in the ranges 10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12, and 192.168.0.0/16.) The two most likely ways these networks are set up are described in an FAQ, along with instructions for configuring and accessing the server.

7. 'Cannot Connect' error. This error means your handle server is not responding to client requests. Make sure it is running, and if it is, make sure that the IP address in the prefix record is correct, check that ports 2641 and 8000 in your firewall are open to ALL incoming or outgoing requests, and that no other processes are running on those ports.