Web Sharing is built-in to Mac OSX, using the Apache web server software.
Apache is very stable UNIX software, and is used by many web hosting providers
for ...
Wazza’s QuickStart
A School Intranet using any Mac
This document provides information about setting up a school Intranet with nothing more than a basic Macintosh as an Intranet server. The procedure described in this document uses iWeb to create an Intranet site, and Personal Web Sharing, on a standard Mac OSX client, to share the Intranet site on a school network. Once setup, this Intranet is available to both Macintosh and Windows computers (or any mobile device with a browser) on the school network. Web Sharing is built-in to Mac OSX, using the Apache web server software. Apache is very stable UNIX software, and is used by many web hosting providers for their web-site hosting services. For best performance of your Intranet, the computer that you are using to host your Intranet should be used exclusively for this purpose. A standard iMac, eMac, or MacMini will support a medium sized school Intranet quite efficiently. As with all computers, some additional RAM will always improve performance, but this is not essential.
More information about school Intranets is available at: intranet.wazmac.com
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1. Pre-requisites - Hardware You need a Macintosh computer. Any Macintosh computer with Mac OS X installed will be suitable for use as a school Intranet server.
If you already have a “spare” Mac, then your Intranet will cost you almost nothing, other than your time to set it up. If you don’t have a Macintosh computer, you can find a suitable machine on eBay for anything from $50 to $500. Even the older “Indigo” iMacs will suffice for this purpose. A basic Mac will do the job so long as it has a functioning Ethernet port. As always, newer is better - and more RAM is a good thing.
2. Pre-requisites - Software These notes describe the Intranet setup process using Mac OS X 10.6, though all previous versions of Mac OS X are similar to setup for web sharing, with only minor variations in the GUI between some versions. These notes also describe how to create an Intranet site using iWeb part of iLife. Again, there are various versions of iLife, with some differences between them. These notes are written using iLife ’09. This is not essential, and earlier versions of iLife, or other web publishing software can also be used to create and publish your site. However iWeb is very easy to use, and can be purchased relatively cheaply.
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3. Setting up your Computer (The technical stuff!) 3.1.
Setting an IP Address To easily access your Intranet, the computer hosting the Intranet site must be allocated a ‘fixed’ IP address, rather than an address allocated by DHCP, which may change over time.
3.1.1.
Power up the computer, and log on as an Administrator.
3.1.2.
Check that the computer is connected to the network with an Ethernet cable.
3.1.3.
Go to System Preferences > Network.
3.1.4.
Verify that the Ethernet connection is active - check for the green “light” and the word “Connected”.
3.1.5.
Use the pop-up menu on the right to choose a Manual connection for the IPv4 configuration.
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3.1.6.
Enter the appropriate information for the network settings. (Check with your network administrator for a suitable “spare” fixed IP address on your network.)
3.1.7.
Click on the Apply button.
3.2.
Activate Web Sharing
3.2.1.
Go to System Preferences > Sharing.
3.2.2.
Tick to activate Web Sharing.
3.2.3.
On the right of the screen you will be advised that your web address is http://10.x.x.x/
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4. Create an Intranet User for Your Intranet Site It is useful to host your Intranet as a discrete account on your ‘server’. This also creates the possibility of splitting your Intranet up into multiple ‘sites’ - Principal, Canteen, Year 6, LOTE, etc. 4.1.
Open System Preferences > Accounts.
4.2.
Create a new user, called Intranet. Give the Intranet user Administrator privileges.
4.3.
Log off as the computer Administrator, and log as the newly created Intranet user.
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5. Create an Intranet Site You can create an Intranet site from scratch using a web-editing application, or you can get started using a pre-made template. The template used in these notes as an example has been created with iWeb, and can be downloaded from: somewhereps.wazmac.com Follow the instructions included with the template to copy the iWeb domain file to the Intranet user’s Library > Application Support > iWeb folder before continuing. 5.1.
Log on as the Intranet user, and open iWeb.
5.2.
The pre-made template that you have downloaded (or the site that you have created) will open as your default site.
5.3.
If you are using the pre-made template, click on the school name at the top of the Home page to edit the title of the page.
Save your changes
5.4.
Click on the name of the site in the left pane of iWeb.
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5.5.
In Site Publishing Settings > Publishing (in the right pane of the window) choose Local Folder from the pop-up menu.
5.6.
In Site Publishing Settings > Folder Location (in the right pane of the window) identify the folder where your site will be published. Choose the default option of the Intranet user’s Sites folder.
5.7.
In Site Publishing Settings > Website URL (in the right pane of the window) enter the address of your web site. This will be in the form of: http://yourIPaddress/~username/ where the IP address is the address of the computer hosting the site.
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6. Publish your site 6.1.
Return to your web site, by clicking on a page within the site, in the left pane of the iWeb window.
6.2.
Click on the Publish Site button at the bottom of the window.
6.3.
A progress bar will indicate the progress of the publishing process.
6.4.
You will be advised that your site has been published.
Click the OK button. Publishing the site (with minimal changes) will enable us to continue with the setup process and to see that the Intranet is functioning correctly. You will no doubt need to return to iWeb to further customise the site for use in your school. 6.5.
When the publishing process is complete, Quit iWeb.
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7. Visit your Intranet site 7.1.
Launch Safari, or another browser, and enter the IP address of your Intranet server, and the Intranet user’s short name, in the form: http://10.x.x.x/~intranet/
7.2.
You will see your new Intranet site.
7.3.
Now go to another computer on the network (Windows or Mac) and enter the same address - you should see your site appear on the screen. (Remember that the computer that hosts your Intranet site must always be running for the site to be available.)
7.4.
Congratulations - you are now a web publisher!!!
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8. Configuring other computers on the network For a school intranet to be effective, it must be easily accessible by everyone in the school. Ideally, the school Intranet site should be the default Home page of everyone’s browser. To make this site the “default” site that appears when anyone opens their web browser, set the Intranet address to be the browser’s Home page.... 8.1.
In Safari, go to Preferences and set the Home Page address:
In Firefox, go to Preferences and set the Home Page address:
In Internet Explorer (Windows), go to Tools, Internet Options:
8.2.
With some planning, your Intranet can become a “gateway” to relevant Internet sites for staff and students.
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9. Other Ideas 9.1.
Multiple Sites & Publishers The web address of your site includes your short username on the computer (/~intranet). If you have created other users on the computer, they will have their own Intranet addresses, accessible using the same format. So, thinking strategically, this means that you could have users called principal, or library, or science, or canteen, or year6, etc, each with their own web site.
9.2.
Links to other Users To make a link to those other users (above) from your main Intranet site, include their full address as a link: eg http://10.26.0.222/~principal Maybe another person (or Class) in the school has setup their site on another computer.... eg http://10.26.0.222/~year6
9.3.
The Root Address The method we have discussed in these notes is designed around having individual users, each with their own web site. But the “computer” can also have it’s own site, known as the “root” site. In our example, this would be http://10.26.0.222 The location to publish your site so that it can be seen at this address is: Macintosh HD > Library > Web Server > Documents (You need administrator access to the computer to publish to this location). You can also setup a “redirect” at this address to automatically send all requests to your main Intranet user’s site.
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