How Does Personal Web Sharing For Mac Work ? seems to be great but how does it work?

Hi,I guess all of you as Mac OS 9 or X users came across Personal Web Sharing at least once.It is briefly said a folder (on OS X called Websites) where you can store websites.Then you can activate Personal Web Sharing in the Network/Sharing Control Panel and you get your IP right there, so others can access you online. Sounded easy to me so I tried, but I was not possible for friends to reach my pages (they just saw a page sayin' "Ruben's personal webspace" or something like that.)Now I wonder if that is because I am using a router or because I'm a fool or because it just doesn't work. and of course I'd like to find out how to make it work.It would be a great way of sending files, it is like peer2peer sharing but you don't have all these firewall problems because it is implemented in OS X and your friends just access a normal web page.Also, I would be interested if this directory has PHP functionality.All answers appreciated,Ruben

Edited October 23, 2005 by microscopic^earthling (see edit history)

Why dont you test if you have PHP on it my writing the following

 

<?phpecho"Testing my Server for PHP!";phpinfo();?>

Save the above as info.php in the root of the Websites folder then point your browser to it. If your system does have PHP installed it will echo the Testing my Server for PHP! followed by a giant table of all PHP modules etcetera, if it does nothing then you need a webserver like Apache installed as well as PHP and to make it fully functional you also need MySQL. All three are free.

Thanks man but before I need to get the Personal Web Sharing to work ^^ I read something about it now, but it seems that I have to forward some ports (I have no idea which, of course. I mean I can't forward Port 80, right? then the other router users would have problems).The rest is only some setup, I already found out how. The difficult part is to forward the requests to my computer, but I haven't found information WHICH ports I have to forward yet.I'd like to say that I know, what phpinfo is ;-) I'm not an absolute beginner.

Well, Apache web server is built-in, and it's what's activated when you turn on web sharing. However, you will need to download PHP and MySQL if you want them.

 

Also, I hear that only you can view your site if you have a dynamic IP... >_<

Well, Apache web server is built-in, and it's what's activated when you turn on web sharing. However, you will need to download PHP and MySQL if you want them.

Also, I hear that only you can view your site if you have a dynamic IP... >_<

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Thanks, help is appreciated, but this is NOT what I was asking for. Honestly, everyone can find this out. By the way you're wrong about two things: PHP is integrated, you just have to turn it on in the httpd.conf (I read this) and I can be accessed when I have a dynamic IP, but well, I can't set up a website, because the IP changes from time to time. As long as the IP consists, everyone should be able to use it.

 

My main question and the only left (because Personal Web Sharing won't work without it) was:

How can I enable it behind a router?

I read that I have to do some Port Forwarding, but I wasn't able to find out, which I have to forward. So who can help?

Thanks, help is appreciated, but this is NOT what I was asking for. Honestly, everyone can find this out. By the way you're wrong about two things: PHP is integrated, you just have to turn it on in the httpd.conf (I read this) and I can be accessed when I have a dynamic IP, but well, I can't set up a website, because the IP changes from time to time. As long as the IP consists, everyone should be able to use it.

 

My main question and the only left (because Personal Web Sharing won't work without it) was:

How can I enable it behind a router?

I read that I have to do some Port Forwarding, but I wasn't able to find out, which I have to forward.  So who can help?

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You have to forward port 80 from the router to your machine or make your machine the 'DMZ host' (all requests get sent to your machine). If you have multiple systems which serve port 80 behind the same NAT firewall, you are essentially out of luck (with personal web sharing). You can always set up the webserver itself on a diferent port and serve pages, but the automatic personal web sharing setup will not work that way. The Mac installer for Zope/Plone sets up a fairly comprehensive web portal on any port you want.

 

If you have a dynamic IP, other local systems (with Rendevous, either Macs or Linux/Windows that have had Rendevous added) can access your system by name (yoursystem.local). Some routers also support automatically adding your name to their local nameserver when you connect to the network. For outside users, if your router's IP is dynamic, you will have to try dyndns.org or similar services.

I wonder why Microsoft couldn't have come up with this for Windows, oh yes, now I remember, becuase they like to keep people waiting. <.<

Thanks a lot, evought, your post made pretty clear for me that I can't use this service as easily as it is meant to be used... I managed to test this service on a normal direct connection now and it is working fine.. But I noticed that the access ID shown in the Control Panel is NOT my IP. I was confused, because I thought people could access me using my IP! So if I forwarded port 80 to my computer (which would make other computers on my router unable to access the internet, right?), then I still would need some other address instead, not my IP but this strange thingie with my ISP subdomain before it. The address I had in my control panel instead of my IP hat nothing to do with my IP, it actually looks like this: http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

Would be great, if you could answer this too, since you seem to know a lot, thanks a lot :-)

goto https://www.whatismyip.com/

this will give you yuour PUBLIC IP.
its gets your IP from the source field of the IP packets, so it knows your true global IP rather than your local IP.

I know! This works too, but my Personal Web Sharing gives me a different address (see above). Is the public IP always working Personal Web Sharing? Because when I start to test on my router I don't want to try to access my public IP all the time, when it is the wrong thing to do.

Thanks a lot, evought, your post made pretty clear for me that I can't use this service as easily as it is meant to be used... I managed to test this service on a normal direct connection now and it is working fine.. But I noticed that the access ID shown in the Control Panel is NOT my IP. I was confused, because I thought people could access me using my IP! So if I forwarded port 80 to my computer (which would make other computers on my router unable to access the internet, right?), then I still would need some other address instead, not my IP but this strange thingie with my ISP subdomain before it.  The address I had in my control panel instead of my IP hat nothing to do with my IP, it actually looks like this:  http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

 

Would be great, if you could answer this too, since you seem to know a lot, thanks a lot :-)

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First of all, redirecting port 80 from your router to this computer won't prevent your other PCs from accessing the Internet. It only redirects *incoming* traffic. The downside is that you can only do it once. In other words, if you had two PCs both of which wanted to use web sharing and both accessible from the outside it is not easy to do.

 

I have no idea what the addess is you are being shown. It could be your name on the ISP's internal network. As the above poster said, you can use whatismyip.com to get a number you should be able to give out to others, but it may change on a regular basis. WIth some ISPs it may change less than once a week at random. I have had an ISP that forcibly changed the address every four hours like clockwork. I have used dyndns.org before to get an actual domain name for my PC. You run a script to tell them what your address-of-the-minute is and they send traffic to the right place.

 

Sorry it took so long to get back to you.

Hi evought, thanks for the patience!But won't forwarding port 80 slow down the internet connection for the other computers? I mean if all traffic goes to my computer and I have to "send it on its way" again? Sorry, I'm completely out of knowledge here, so I just make metaphores with school crossing guards ^^I did not figure out yet, what this address is, but since the normal IP works fine too, I can use this. Luckily I don't have two Macs trying to WebShare.I don't really need a dyndns service, since I'm not really hosting a website there (hey I'm at Xisto :–)). It's just a good and fast way of sharing files with people without computer knowledge or without suitable programs.

Hi evought, thanks for the patience!

But won't forwarding port 80 slow down the internet connection for the other computers? I mean if all traffic goes to my computer and I have to "send it on its way" again? Sorry, I'm completely out of knowledge here, so I just make metaphores with school crossing guards ^^

I did not figure out yet, what this address is, but since the normal IP works fine too, I can use this. Luckily I don't have two Macs trying to WebShare.

I don't really need a dyndns service, since I'm not really hosting a website there (hey I'm at Xisto :â)). It's just a good and fast way of sharing files with people without computer knowledge or without suitable programs.

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No, it will not slow anything down and it will not do anything at all except when you actually serve a page to someone. TCP/IP is designed for lightning fast routing for these kinds of situations. The only annoyance you will get is the innevitable mass of script kiddies and zombies trying to connect. If you keep up to date, they should not be able to hurt you, but it will make your router work a little harder than having all ports closed.

Well I guess if I use my IP only casually to share files etc. I won't be noticed by big masses of script kids. I don't want to put up a real full-time server.

Port 80 us for incoming requests.How Does Personal Web Sharing For Mac Work ?Replying to rubenReplying to rubenOkay, since nobody else has the common senseTo answer this, opening port 80 will not at all slow down your network's user's Internet connection. This simply allows all incoming ( From the public, outside your network) requests on port 80 to be sent to your pc. So the outgoing ones will not even look at this.