Running multiple web sites

[Doudar]

I have been asked to install an internal web server so that students can publish there ccpurse web sites for testing and evaluation. I have some experience installing and using Windows Sever 2003 as a web server for a single web site but have never used it to host multiple sites.

The server will have a single network card with a static IP address 192.168.1.5. Am I right in thinking that students will publish/access the website as follows:

http://192.168.1.5/website1
http://192.168.1.5/website2
http://192.168.1.5/website3
http://192.168.1.5/website4

If so, can anyone give me some pointers on the best way to go about doing this.


Thanks


John D

How will they be publishing the websites?

[beeswax]

I reckon so long as "website 1" etc are separate folders then that should work.

[Doudar]

How will they be publishing the websites?

Frontpage and in the future Dreamwaver.

[apeo]

Sounds alright to me, the only thing I'd say is that you dont need a full blown w2k3 server as the web server if your intention is to just display a few student sites.

[apeo]

How will they be publishing the websites?

Frontpage and in the future Dreamwaver.

Yuk Frontpage.

[dodgydave]

If you want to be flash you can put Host (A) records in your DNS server and use host headers to link to each site eg we have Host (A) records for helpdesk, Roombooking & Moodle all hosted on the same server ( so they all have the same IP address). If you need the helpdesk you can just type helpdesk into the address bar and your in. To edit the sites you can just copy the files to the correct folder.

[Doudar]

If you want to be flash you can put Host (A) records in your DNS server and use host headers to link to each site eg we have Host (A) records for helpdesk, Roombooking & Moodle all hosted on the same server ( so they all have the same IP address). If you need the helpdesk you can just type helpdesk into the address bar and your in. To edit the sites you can just copy the files to the correct folder.

Thanks, have tried host headers on my test server at home and it works great. Will try it on the school CC3 network next week.


John D

[u8dmtm]

You could just create one 'Web Site' in IIS 6 and create virtual directories within that which point to set folders on your server that are within each student's work area (e.g. http://192.168.1.5/student1 or even http://studentsites/student1 could point to \\sch-sr-002\studentusername$\My Website\).

For security I would also ensure that the student cannot run server scripts (like ASP) in that virtual directory.

The DNS stuff above is nice but not neccesary for this task.

BTW. These days Frontpage is OK, as so long as you don't let it create your web site or use any frontpage features (i.e. if it's purely used for source coding and layout).

[Ric_]

If you have a *nix box with all the kiddy accounts on it, Apache will happily create the directories for you so that you have http://servername/~username - this feature doesn't exist in the Windows version.

You would need to speak to a more Linux-minded type to help you link your Windows users and the *nix box.