From: Aron Roberts (aron@socrates.berkeley.edu)
Date: Thu Sep 26 2002 - 10:53:00 PDT
Hi Ilan,
>I am trying to make it possible for our staff to use our website when
>the network is down. I think I can accomplish this by using document
>relative links for pictures and URLs, then copying the site (it's only
>14Mb) to each computer that needs it.
>This works on PCs running Windows 2000, but it does not work on the
>Macs. Is there a personal web server application for Mac that makes
>this possible?
First, Web sites consisting only of relative links should be readily
viewable using major browsers under the Mac OS (both 8.x and 9.x and
Mac OS X), just as they are under Windows 2000.
Is it possible that your Web site makes use of server-side includes,
FrontPage extensions, or other server environment-specific features?
This will help you determine what features your Macintosh Web server
applications might need to provide, and how to configure them, to make
your Web site viewable on an 'off-the-network' Macintosh.
Mac OS X (both client and server versions) comes standard with
Apache, the world's most widely used Web server. The following article
describes how to get started using Apache under Mac OS X 10.1.x:
<http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2001/12/07/apache.html>
(In Mac OS X 10.2, the "Sharing" System Preferences panel looks a bit
different, but the "Personal Web Sharing" option is still readily apparent.)
Mac OS 8.5 through 9.2.2 also come standard with a personal Web server
(based on technology licensed from a third party, Maxum Development
Corporation), which your staff can enable via the "Web Sharing" control
panel, selectable from the "Control Panels" option in the Apple menu.
This personal Web server is somewhat feature-limited, however. A more
full-featured Web server, WebSTAR 3.0.x, has been site licensed for
campus use. Although it is by now quite an outdated version, it still
works well under Mac OS 8.x and 9.x, requires relatively modest
system resources, and can be downloaded, along with an extensive manual
in PDF format, from:
With all three Web servers, your staff should simply be able to put
the root of your Web site 'tree' into the top-level folder associated with
their local Web server and then use their browsers to connect to:
http://127.0.0.1/ ('localhost,' the IP address of the local machine)
Apache (under Mac OS X) and WebSTAR 3.0.x (under Mac OS 8 & 9) both
can be configured to permit the use of server-side includes and a
number of other features that might be necessary to fully view your
Web site offline. It's always possible, of course, that your site might
use additional features of your current server and back-end environment
that require the installation of additional software on your staff's
Macintoshes, or which simply may not be available at all under the Mac OS.
One way to check on this is to look at representative HTML documents
on your site and see if there are any tags which aren't standard
HTML elements (such as <p> or <img ...>), but rather are custom tags
that may be associated with specific server features or back-end
programs or scripts on your site. Here are some you might look for:
<%@ Language="Vbscript" %> (ASP)
<!--webbot bot=" ... (FrontPage)
<cf... (Cold Fusion)
<!--#... (Server-side includes, format sometimes
used by other back-end tools, as well)
Aron Roberts
Workstation Software Support Group
P.S. One other possibility to check out is that sample HTML document
files and image files from your site can be opened and displayed at
all on your staff's Macintoshes. If they can, but certain parts of
your pages do not appear at all or appear as tags, code, or other
"gibberish," then the suggestions above are still pertinent.
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