Setting up an Inexpensive Intranet

This document  is based on a 1999 article for Login Lite. It was written prior to the new EDWA/Microsoft license aggreement. Government schools can substitute the word "nil" for the cost of NT4 software and licenses. It doesn't get much cheaper!

Until recently I thought intranets were the domain (no pun intended) of the real high fliers. Very expensive to set up and very difficult to maintain. Unless of course your system is based on that colourful alternative where everything comes bundled in wonderful out-of-the-box solutions. Well, even us Wintel people can set up an intranet for a few hundred dollars and a few hours time (paid for of course by our appreciative school community).

I have a suspicion that as soon as I use those magical letters: "NT4", I will lose most of my audience. PLEEEASE don't give in just yet. This really is simple. If you can create a web page and use Windows95 you CAN do it!

First some Pricing, just to show you how inexpensive it can be …
  1. Install NT4 on one of your new systems. Cost: $168. That's actually cheaper than installing original Win95/98!
  2. Pay a $10 "client license" fee for each machine on the network accessing the NT4 server.

That's it! About $500 to set up a network of 30 computers on your very own intranet.

Now for the nay-sayers …

NT4 is superficially just like Windows 95. If you can use Win95, you can use an NT4 system. You don't HAVE to do all the NT4 security stuff. Pretend it's just Win95. You can install most of your Win95 software like MS Office, for example, and use the NT4 system just like any other computer. If you ever want to play with the powerful features of NT4, it will be there waiting for you.

May I reiterate the pricing outline above …. An NT4 license can be cheaper than Windows95/98.

I personally wouldn't make the NT4 system generally available for student use. I'm sure most schools have computers set aside for 'secure' use by staff and 'trusted' students. The NT4 server would fit into that sort of category.

Yes the $10 client license for each machine on the network accessing the NT4 server is an additional cost. I can assure you the benefits far outweigh the costs. Hopefully by the time you have finished reading this article, you will agree.

  1. You don't need to be an NT4 'expert'. Just pretend it's a Win95/98 machine.
  2. You can run most of your Win95/98 software on the NT4 system.
  3. The $10 client fee can actually save you money by eliminating the need for 'zip' drives, extra back-up space, providing printer management, etc.

Now the Nuts and Bolts
  1. Set up one of your new systems with NT4 and install Internet Information Server (IIS). (IIS is built into NT4 and comes FREE.) Most hardware suppliers would do this for you. The process takes a little longer than setting up a conventional system, but it is no more complex. Any supplier who actually wanted your business would be modest in their charges. If I were buying a number of systems off a supplier, I think it would be reasonable to expect the basic NT4 installation to be done for no extra charge.
  2. Create all you web pages and copy them into the NT4 directory called:

    3. C:\InetPub\wwwroot\

  3. Set your Browser to: http://<NTServerName>/default.htm (See below)
  4. Set your Browser to treat intranet addresses differently from normal Internet addresses (see below) and away you go …..

That’s' it! I told you it was simple.

NOTES:

We called our NT Server "room15" (guess why). Our Browser address (point 3 above) is therefore set to:

http://room15/default.htm

As it happens, we consider the system to be so economical we have set up another intranet in another part of the school. In the future we may have half a dozen or so NT4 'intranet' servers set up around the school, each one managed by its own Learning Area. (We might also decide to put all or eggs in one basket and have just one 'master' intranet server. The point is that we can do it either way.)

 

Setting up the Browser …

You need to tell your Browsers to treat your intranet address differently from calls to the wider Internet. In Internet Explorer this means going into View/Internet Options…/Connections and ticking the box that says: Bypass proxy server for local (Intranet) addresses. In Navigator, you have to go into Network Preferences/ Proxies/View and in the "No proxy for:" box enter the name of the server followed by a colon and then the number "80". ie <NTServerName:80>. In our case we entered:

room15:80

There is just one more thing to do. On each of the client machines go into the C:WINDOWS directory and use DOS Edit to create a file called HOSTS (no filename extension). Into the HOSTS file add the line: <NTServer IP address> <TAB> <NTServerName>. In our case it would be: 192.168.0.14 <tab> room15

What Now?

The key to an "intranet" is self-evident. By definition it is an INTERNAL structure. No outside weidos, no doubtful or downright pornographic material. No concerns about publishing student photographs, student work, student names, but best of all - TOTAL CONTROL. You don't even need to be connected to the Internet! You don't need a modem, an ISP account, or a phone line.

Your intranet can run in parallel with Internet access if that's what you want. (That's probably the way most schools would operate anyway.) Students may not even be aware of the line between intranet and Internet.

As a further bonus the files you publish on the intranet will download VERY fast.

Using the Intranet

As a secondary school, we will probably use our intranet/s in a more structured way than primary schools. We intend to publish course outlines, student assessment outlines, on-line tutorials, software guides and so on. I assume primary schools would be more interested in publishing examples of student work, newsletters, notices about special events, coming events, student achievements and so on.

With most of the new systems having hard disks in the order of 6 Gigabytes there's no limit to what could be published. Until quite recently most Internet Service Providers (ISPs) were limited to just a few gigabytes to cater for hundreds of clients (each one could have been the size of a school). Using the intranet approach you will have at your disposal disk space that ISP's could only dream about. No longer will file size and download time be a factor in deciding the content you make available to your students. If it is of benefit to the learning programme, if the picture looks better in its original 16 million colour format, if you want to publish a full-blown 'movie' - go for it!

I do NOT consider myself to be an NT4 'expert'. I am however totally convinced that any computing person with a command of simple networks and Windows95/98 could successfully set up the sort of intranet described above. Give it a try. If you have problems there are lots of people out there who can and WILL help.

Regards,

Jim Fuller

jfuller@southwest.com.au

http://www.southwest.com.au/~jfuller

 

Just one point in conclusion ….

Intranets and massive hard disks open up the opportunity for 'web-wacking' and site 'mirroring' where entire sites are downloaded onto a local disk and then accessed internally. It is my understanding that this is in breach of copyright. It may be possible to obtain written permission from some site owners to allow some form of site duplication, but without such written permission you are toying with a personal law suit. Is it really worth the gamble?

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