Hey peeps, I'm just starting to get into the whole web thing, and one day I want to be able to host sites off of my own server. So for now I have a G3 the blue one, it's a 333, with like 30gigs. Is there a way to turn that into a small server? Any links would be much appreciated. thanks for your time.
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I have an old G3 Mac, can I turn it into a server?
- Thread starter VegasMac
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Save yourself the hassle and let someone else host your website. You really don't want the hassles of trying to keep a server online 24/7. Not to mention that if you have a "home" internet plan, its usually forbidden to run a server on the connection.
That said, you can use OS X to run a server if you wish.
That said, you can use OS X to run a server if you wish.
VegasMac said:
Hosting plans can be found for less than $10 per month. Most internet plans are capped for upload, so your site would be much slower hosted on your own server than if hosted in a datacenter somewhere.
That being said, however, the educational expierence is well worth it to host it yourself, just make sure that if the site is at all important, you get it somewhere that is reliable.
Well in my lab we needed a simple database to keep up with all of our reagents, antibodies, plasmids, etc. I upped the ante and set up a web site running mysql/apache on a g3 imac with similar specs. It performs wonderfully, since it doesn't have to handle much traffic.
It depends on what features you need and how much traffic you intend to generate. You can find cheap hosting if you are just putting up a web page with a few pics and pages. If you want reliable php/mysql and some semblance of control and security, you will probably have to shell out a little more.
Also if you decide to use the g3 as a server, I wouldn't suggest using OSX because of the high overhead it involves. I'd use a minimal linux install that only runs the services that you need. However, this isn't for the unix novice.
Jim
It depends on what features you need and how much traffic you intend to generate. You can find cheap hosting if you are just putting up a web page with a few pics and pages. If you want reliable php/mysql and some semblance of control and security, you will probably have to shell out a little more.
Also if you decide to use the g3 as a server, I wouldn't suggest using OSX because of the high overhead it involves. I'd use a minimal linux install that only runs the services that you need. However, this isn't for the unix novice.
Jim
whocares said:
Yeah, you could use console mode. Just be sure to use the workaround if you have Panther (Did Apple ever fix that >console bug? I never needed to use it, so never really paid much attention).
I always just install Debian PPC or something, so I have complete control over the installation. Just a preference and a holdover from my *nix days.
Jim
Sweet thanks guys. Now do you guys know of any links to help me through the set up process? I already have w site up earthlink is hosting it for me so ya I understand that it's not that expensive, and I'm more secure but i really just want to learn. So I think it would be cool to set up my G3 to have a little webpage so I can see how it all works. Just for fun and learning. Thanks again.
Sure thing. If you want to do a web server ala OSX, then you simply go to the Sharing section under your System Prefs and check personal web server. This will automatically start apache on boot as a service. I think your web site will reside in the ~/Sites directory. You can add on MySQL, PHP and more, but you'll need to look on google for instructions to those. OSX server offers them on install, I believe. I don't know how OSX handles its init process, so I have no clue how to do this in console mode. Someone else should enlighten us both on that process.
Now if you want some hardcore experience by completely customizing your own *nix box. I'd start at linuxdocs and search for 'web server' or 'apache'. It should give you some of the bare bones instructions on how to get a rudimentary server set up on most any distro. You can further delve into security and optimization settings to completely tailor your server. I suggest linux because it is the only ppc *nix that I have had experience with for web serving, though you can use netbsd or maybe even openbsd to positive effect. I would suggest using Debian PPC over something like Yellowdog, but it is your choice. Debian also has decent documentation for apache/sql/php/perl/whatever.
Granted the linux/bsd route is going to be very time consuming and involve a lot of initial frustration and confusion if you have no unix experience. It is just something that I throw out to you in case you find alternate OS's interesting, and feel like learning lots of new stuff. You'll also gain an appreciation for OSX's internals and why it is inherently more secure that something like NT (and start really liking terminal.app).
Jim
Now if you want some hardcore experience by completely customizing your own *nix box. I'd start at linuxdocs and search for 'web server' or 'apache'. It should give you some of the bare bones instructions on how to get a rudimentary server set up on most any distro. You can further delve into security and optimization settings to completely tailor your server. I suggest linux because it is the only ppc *nix that I have had experience with for web serving, though you can use netbsd or maybe even openbsd to positive effect. I would suggest using Debian PPC over something like Yellowdog, but it is your choice. Debian also has decent documentation for apache/sql/php/perl/whatever.
Granted the linux/bsd route is going to be very time consuming and involve a lot of initial frustration and confusion if you have no unix experience. It is just something that I throw out to you in case you find alternate OS's interesting, and feel like learning lots of new stuff. You'll also gain an appreciation for OSX's internals and why it is inherently more secure that something like NT (and start really liking terminal.app).
Jim
VegasMac said:
OS X comes with PHP installed, but not working. It requires a bit of configuring of Apache (with the httpd.conf file). Check Mark Liyanage's Page for easy install packages of PHP & MySQL if needed.
Other than that, as jim. said, just turn on websharing and you effectively have a webserver up and running (Apache 1.3 in Panther). You'll find its documentation here (your websharing must be on for the link to work!).
For other resources I recommend books and google. If you have specific questions we/I may be able to help you too.