About the Mac OS X Web Server Handbook Server

The Web site for the Mac OS X Web Server Handbook used to be served up on Dave's Mac in his office. As of February 2002, however, the book's Web site has been moved to the WeHostMacs.com hosting service. I had to do this because I finally upgraded by PowerMac G4 to a Titanium PowerBook G4 and was no longer able to host a permanent Web site. I hope that the new service will provide you with even greater reliability.

For the historical record, here are the details of the last hardware and software configuration on which I ran my Mac Web server.

Web Server Statistics

I used Summary.Net to keep running tabs on my site logs. To save you the trouble, I've been averaging about 3,000 hits (give or take) every two weeks.

Hardware

The book is now serving from a 400-MHz PowerMac G4 tower. Thanks to SDSC's desktop systems group for the upgrade from the blue-and-white G3 tower, which replaced the PowerMac G3/266, which in turn replaced the Power Macintosh 9600/200. It has a 6-GB hard drive (and another 30 GB drive) and 256 MB of RAM. It is connected to SDSC's local-area Ethernet, which is connected to the Internet through SDSC's partial T3 connection.

Mac OS 9.2: My Mac is now running Mac OS 9.2. Why not Mac OS X? Well, this was the Mac I used for my daily work and until key applications became available as native Mac OS X applications, there didn't seem to be much point. It also wasn't support by the center's desktop systems group. My iMac at home runs Mac OS X just fine, though.

Keep in mind that this was not a dedicated Web server. In addition to the applications described here, I also performed my day-to-day work on this Mac. Most days, I kept between 12 and 14 applications open, including Internet Explorer, Microsoft Word 98, Adobe GoLive, Outlook Express, F-Secure ssh, and less often Quark XPress 4.0 (with the Beyond Press XTension), and a graphics editing program such as PhotoShop 3.0 or Macromedia Fireworks.

Web Cam: I got a USB-connected Kensington VideoCAM, which I connected to my Web server. I used Oculus 3.1 as the Web cam software.

Server Software

Web Server -- Web Server 4D. I ran Web Server 4D thanks to the fine folks at MDG Computer Services. On the plus side, it's an all-in-one Web server, search engine, and database server. On the downside, it's a little complicated and takes some effort to get it up and running with all the admittedly useful bells and whistles. The server's name was http://hart-mac.sdsc.edu/ (R.I.P.).

FTP Server -- NetPresenz 4.1. This wasa shareware application from Stairways Software. I used pretty much the default settings for anonymous ftp and for authenticated file transfer. I bought this when it was $10 shareware. Then for a while it ran about $70. These days it appears that Stairways Software is focusing on Interarchy. Mac OS X includes FTP server software, which makes extra ftp software unnecessary.

Database -- Web Server 4D. For my limited database needs (including guestbooks, online polls, and searching), Web Server 4D's built-in database functions served me nicely.

Scripting Languages -- AppleScript, MacPerl 5.0 and UserLand Frontier 5.0. To demonstrate various examples, MacPerl 5.0 and UserLand Frontier 5.0 would launch themselves if they're not already running. In most cases, though, to make life simpler, I'm using Web Server 4D built-in functions wherever possible.

Development Software

Site Management/Page Creation -- Adobe GoLive 5.0. I highly recommend this program, which I've been using since it was GoLive CyberStudio 2.0. In addition to being the best page design tool I've found, GoLive supports Dynamic HTML actions (making image rollovers a breeze) and Cascading Style Sheets (although the CSS editor is not as intuitive to use.) Beyond that, the Site Management tools are excellent, with the ftp integration much improved. The two major gaps are in support for server-side includes (SSIs) and in automatic site map generation.

Image Creation/Editing -- Adobe Photoshop and ImageReady. For home, I bit the bullet and bought Adobe's Web Design combination, which includes GoLive, Photoshop, ImageReady, LiveMotion, and Illustrator. That pretty much covers all the bases.