blog.macip.net

As always I would like to make something in combination with a web server. Until now my best effort in running a web server on an old Mac is on my Macintosh Plus. I managed to run a web server on a minimal System 7.0 disk with Httpd4mac running on a separate external disk drive. With the help of IPNetrouter the Macintosh Plus is running TCP over LocalTalk. See my article about this one on:
http://www.webservermuseum.org/?p=10
I can also run the web server with a external 40MB hard drive with system 7.0 on it and a DaynaPORT SCSI adapter.

I would like to use the Macintosh as a content management system for the web server on the Plus. On a Macintosh you cannot use any kind of file sharing so I knew that my only option to move files to the Plus would be MacTerminal or equivalent. This was the first telecommunication and terminal emulation application software program available for the Macintosh.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacTerminal

So I made a setup to make this possible. First of all I needed a suitable null modem cable. All Macintosh printer cables are null modem cables, so I used one with a DB-9 to DIN-8 connector. On the Macintosh I have a external Apple 3.5 drive, so my storage total is around 1.2 MB. I use the internal drive to boot System 1.0 with Finder 1.0. On the external Apple 3.5 drive I have a disk with MacTerminal 1.1E and MacWrite on it. The settings I use on MacTerminal are:
Connect to other computer, 9600 Baud, 8N1. On the Plus I use Z Term and I use the setting Local Dial without telefone number to connect to the Macintosh. To send a file to the web server I use Xmodem protocol to send and recieve. The file is downloaded in the root directory of the web server. It is also possible to send the files back to the Macintosh.
If I want to edit the html files I use MacWrite. MacWrite can save as text only, so perfect for HTML.
I start Z Term and Httpd4mac from a mounted share on the Plus. On my Quadra or on a Netatalk share on my Linux box.

The only problem in the setup is that in the communication so characters are added to the html file. I’m not sure where this happens, but I guess it is a xmodem problem. The gibberish is added at the end of the text, so the html is still valid and a web page is shown. Any one who knows something about this problem is welcome to give a solution! For now I will xmodem my html file to a mounted folder on my Slackware Linux virtual machine with Netatalk on it. I can make a small cronjob which runs a shell script to clean the html of rubbisch. This wil probably use sed. The command will be someting like: sed -e ’s/<\/html>.*/<\/html>/g’

I send the file 128k.html to the Slackware mounted disk on the Plus and it is immidiatly visible on the webserver.

My next setup will be running a FTP server on a Mac 512Ke. In my next posting I will tell all about it.