configuring local networked machines to load website on hard drive

[Guest]

My family has our computers networked together on a small network. On the
primary computer (192.168.2.10) I have our family website saved which is
periodically replicated to our family website domain via Frontpage. Each
computer on the family network is setup to load the family website as the
home page. These views are currently being done via the shared internet
connection which places an unnecessary load on the bandwidth. Is there a way
for me to setup each web browser on the home network such that when someone
types in the family website address (www.wdeertz.net) that it loads the files
on the main computer rather than going out to the pages on the actual
website? All computers are running WinXP Pro but none are running a web
server or anything else.

Any guidance or direction will be appreciated. I think I saw a posting
indicating that I'd need to run the IIC sharing software on the main pc which
has the website pages but beyond this I am clueless.

 

[Robert L [MS-MVP]]

not sure the issue, but you may try to create another network place. to do that, go to the prperties of my neywork places.
For more and other information, go to http://howtonetworking.com.

Don't send e-mail or reply to me except you need consulting services. Posting on MS newsgroup will benefit all readers and you may get more help.

Bob Lin, MS-MVP, MCSE & CNE
How to Setup Windows, Network, Remote Access on http://www.HowToNetworking.com
Networking, Internet, Routing, VPN Troubleshooting on http://www.ChicagoTech.net
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties.
I recommend Brinkster for web hosting!

My family has our computers networked together on a small network. On the
primary computer (192.168.2.10) I have our family website saved which is
periodically replicated to our family website domain via Frontpage. Each
computer on the family network is setup to load the family website as the
home page. These views are currently being done via the shared internet
connection which places an unnecessary load on the bandwidth. Is there a way
for me to setup each web browser on the home network such that when someone
types in the family website address (www.wdeertz.net) that it loads the files
on the main computer rather than going out to the pages on the actual
website? All computers are running WinXP Pro but none are running a web
server or anything else.

Any guidance or direction will be appreciated. I think I saw a posting
indicating that I'd need to run the IIC sharing software on the main pc which
has the website pages but beyond this I am clueless.

 

[dg1261]

My family has our computers networked together on a small network.
On the primary computer (192.168.2.10) I have our family website
saved which is periodically replicated to our family website domain
via Frontpage. Each computer on the family network is setup to load
the family website as the home page. These views are currently
being done via the shared internet connection which places an
unnecessary load on the bandwidth. Is there a way for me to setup
each web browser on the home network such that when someone
types in the family website address (www.wdeertz.net) that it loads
the files on the main computer rather than going out to the pages on
the actual website? All computers are running WinXP Pro but none
are running a web server or anything else.

Any guidance or direction will be appreciated. I think I saw a
posting indicating that I'd need to run the IIC sharing software on the
main pc which has the website pages but beyond this I am clueless.

Bill,

I don't use Frontpage, so don't know if there would be any
Frontpage-specific issues, but in general it depends on how complex your
webpages are. If you're using advanced features (like cgi, SSI, et al) it
won't work unless you're running a webserver to generate the on-the-fly code
such features require. If you're using all static html code and images are
called via relative references, it should be mostly okay. A cursory look at
the code behind a couple of your pages suggests that your pages are simple
enough that it may work.

To load the homepage in the browser, try sharing the root directory of the
local website (just for a fictitious example, share c:\frontpage\mysite as
"website"), then load the url as \\192.168.2.10\website\index.html (note
backslashes instead of forward slashes) and see if it works. You could run
into annoying issues with permissions and such, but with work you could
tweak firewalls or security settings to fix those. Some parts of some pages
may not work (such as, perhaps, the search button at the bottom of your
homepage), in which case you'd probably need to install IIS or other
webserver software to get broader functionality.

If you want to translate http://www.wdeertz.net to
\\192.168.2.10\website\index.html), perhaps you could tweak the hosts file,
but you'd have to do it on each PC, and I wouldn't recommend it anyway.
Doing that would mean you'd never be able to get to your real Internet page
to check whether everyone else is seeing it as you intended. Instead,
create two shortcuts, one to www... and the other to 192..., and that way
you can get to either version of your homepage.

Having said all that, though, it may be more confusion and hassle than it's
worth. If all you're worried about is Internet bandwidth, you're probably
not using as much as you think because pages and pictures that haven't
changed are probably coming out of your browser's cache instead of being
re-downloaded over the Internet. There are a couple reasons one might need
to access a local copy of a website--perhaps you want to see the page when
your Internet connection is down, or perhaps you want to preview your site
before uploading to your Internet host. I don't know if either of these is
an issue for you. I have an Apache server running on my home network that I
use when developing/debugging pages, but find it easier just to have my
family's PCs use the Internet site as their homepage.