The Linux Intranet Server HOWTO: Introduction

1. Introduction

In simple terms, the Intranet is the descriptive term being used for the implementation of Internet technologies within a corporate organisation, rather than for external connection to the global Internet. This implementation is performed in such a way as to transparently deliver the immense informational resources of an organisation to each individuals desktop with minimal cost, time and effort. This document attempts to explain in simple terms how to setup an Intranet using tools which are readily available and are generally costing little or are free.

This document assumes that you already know how to install TCP/IP on your Linux server and connect it physically to your LAN using an Ethernet network card. This also assumes you have some basic knowledge of Netware, WinNT and Mac systems. The configuration of the Netware server has been shown using version 3.1x as the basis. You can also use INETCFG to achieve the same result. On the client side the discussion is with respect to Windows 3.1x, Windows for Workgroups and Win95, WinNT and the Apple PowerMac.

I am using the private network addresses (RFC-1918) of 172.16.0.0 and 172.17.0.0 only as examples. You may choose suitable addresses depending on your configuration.


       Linux       Netware      WFWG/WinNT
       Server      Server       Server
      172.16.0.1   172.16.0.2   172.16.0.3
         |           |           |    172.16.0.0
   ------+-----+-----+--------+--+--------------
               |              | 172.16.0.254
             W/S 1          Router
           172.16.0.5         | 172.17.0.254
                              |
                    ----------+-------+--------
               172.17.0.0             |
                                    W/S 2
                                  172.17.0.5

1.1 What is required

You will need the following software before attempting the installation.

the HTTP server software which can be downloaded from OneStep NCSA HTTPd Downloader at http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/docs/setup/OneStep.html page.
The Novell Netware Client available from HTTP://support.novell.com/ (The TCP/IP files are included with the client).
The Microsoft TCP/IP client available from HTTP://www.microsoft.com/
The Apple MacTCP client available from HTTP://www.apple.com/
WWW Browsers like Netscape at HTTP://home.netscape.com/ or MS Internet Explorer at HTTP://www.microsoft.com/ or NCSA Mosaic from http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/Mosaic/NCSAMosaicHome.html

1.2 New versions of this document

New versions of the Linux Intranet Server HOWTO will be periodically posted to comp.os.linux.announce and comp.os.linux.help. They will also be uploaded to various Linux FTP sites, including sunsite.unc.edu.

The Latest version of this document is available in HTML format at http://www.inet.co.th/cyberclub/karnadp/http.html

1.3 Feedback

If you have questions or comments about this document, please feel free to mail Pramod Karnad, at karnad@indiamail.com. Suggestions, criticism and mail are always welcome. If you find a mistake with this document, please let me know so I can correct it in the next version. Thanx.

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