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CodeNewb

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 9, 2009
7
0
I'm teaching myself html, css, php, and MySQL from books), and am nearing the end of the html/css book..

It suddenly dawned on me that using a hosted server to learn to web program would be a total PITA... So I want to use my G4 for this.. I have an extra hard drive in it, that is mostly empty...

This is my main computer.. I do my web surfing, music, etc. on this thing..

Someone recommended that I could download everything I need in one self installing package called XAMPP... Which sounded wondeful, but when I went to the website it said that it was for OSX 10.4 and above..

I'm running 10.3.. So I thought, well maybe I can get a copy of 10.4 on ebay on the cheap.. because I'd like to install OSX on my G3 iBook anyways (running OS9 still).. But 'YIKES!' .. It costs $180-220 for a copy of tiger.. I don't understand this as leopard is $129.. but it is what it is..

In either case, I'm out of work and barely getting by, so spending that kind of money is a non starter..

Which is why I'm here.. How can I get these apps on my G4's spare hard drive using the existing OS I'm running?

Before I run around and start installing things without knowing where to get them, what they are, what caveats, etc.. I thought I'd ask here first..

According to the book, I need to have apache, and the latest versions of php and MySQL

Be gentle..LOL I'm venturing into uncharted waters here... (for me) :)
 
The book (Head first series), said that to find out if I have apache installed, type in http://localhost in an open browser window.. When I do, I get "server not found" error page..

Doesn't this mean there is no server on the computer?

That's not a good way to tell. If Apache is listening on 8888, then according to your book, it isn't running, but very well could be.

Using Terminal, you can:

ps -auxw | grep httpd

To see if the daemon is running.
 
Thank You, thank you, thank you!!!

In the first couple paragraphs of that tutorial, the problem was obvious.. It just needed to be turned on! You'd hink the book (also an oreilly publication) would have mentioned this...LOL

Gonna work through the whole tutorial...

Question.. does turning on 'personal web sharing' in any way increase vulnerability to my system as it pertains to bad guys out on the net? I'm using a DSL switch with build in firewall.. does 'web sharing' disable this or reduce it's effectiveness in any way?
 
Well, any open port can decrease security, but as long as you don't open port 80 to the outside world, you should be okay.
 
Well, any open port can decrease security, but as long as you don't open port 80 to the outside world, you should be okay.

Where all should I look to make sure this port is not enabled? I remember seeing something about port setting in Mail.. Is there a global setting somewhere? Do I need to go into every browser and what not, and check settings? Is any setting in Mail an issue?
 
No it's not associated with Mail. This would be on your router. If you've never configured port forwarding on your router, then you should be fine.
 
From the tutorial:
By default, the Apache server has been configured to use your Mac OS X "short" user name. (You can find your short user name in the Users preference panel. Click on "Edit User".) If your short user name is "morbus", for example, you can access your personal web site by opening any web browser on the local network and typing http://127.0.0.1/~morbus/. Don't forget that last forward slash!


Where is this users preference panel? I can't find it... It doesn't seem to be part of te system preferences, and a search for "users preference" comes up empty...
 
Those would be user accounts. I think you better get a newer/better book. That thing seems to have all sorts of errors.
 
Those would be user accounts. I think you better get a newer/better book. That thing seems to have all sorts of errors.

That was from the on line tutorial that consultant posted...

In user accounts, I can not find the "short name"...I'm assuming by"user accounts" you mean 'accounts' in the main system preferences?..

Yat Da Hey?
 
nevermind.. I found it.. It's not really 'short'.. just the space removed between the first and second word...
 
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