IT bods, can you help?
 

My dear boss has asked me to set up an intranet for the office.

OK, I may be bright at times, but I know nurfink about intranet:puzzled:

We have a well maintained system here, fast on line etc, we all operate on W 2000, or the laptops on XP.
Our troubleshooting/maintenance is outsourced. But all minor probs are dealt with by muggins here on a day to day basis.

Now, can anyone start me off where to look, possibly a nudge in the right direction - in EASY words please?

Many thanks,

C:)

IIS

:puzzled:

pardon???

You'll need a server running IIS before you can do anything, it's only a service assuming you have Win2K or 2003 servers you should be OK.

check - all ok:)

have just started to look on google - bit confusing (or is it just my mind wandering as its almost lunch time? )

We already share lots of files etc, on 7 - 10 different drives - so what else is different then?

may seem obvious but go onto microsoft and do the same search.
Like Jon says, IIS. Y'can stick it on your home pc just as easily.

OK, must be a silly woman:rolleye: have looked there, and am now more confuzzled than ever...............

Lunch, chocky, will be back shortly:pig:

Gee, that's a bit of an ask!

IIS is a commonly targeted product for viruses and needs to be setup properly and updated regularly (as new vulnerabilities are discovered - Microsoft patches) to ensure it is secure. I wold be wary of using this unless you were familiar with the product and comfortable you can keep it secure.

I would give some thought to running something like Apache (WTF - From an MCSE!!) which is more secure out of the box (IMO).

To be honest Charlotte, this is going to take a bit of work and education to get going. There's two parts to this equation.

Infrastructure

The website (an intranet is an internal website, not exposed externally - wasn't sure if you are familiar with the term. apologies if I'm telling you to suck eggs) needs to be hosted somewhere. If you have a server in the office it can be as easy as installing Apache or adding the IIS service if you choose that path. You now have the Infrastructure in place to host your website.

Content

Now you need to build the website. The actual look and feel of the website itself. You can use all sorts of programs to help you do this. You may even have Frontpage installed on your PC now which will help. There are plenty of free programs to help you do this - try places like www.download.com or www.tucows.com and have a look around.

Once you have this content you need to move it into the folder structure on the server so that it can be displayed by your chosen web server (Apache, IIS). You will also need to setup your IIS headers etc.

This is an area which I'm not very strong in, I'm an infrastructure guy, but I think I've got the basics covered. There's lots of information on this Charlotte and it can be a bit daunting to get into it. Domski does this sort of thing in his spare time and is more knowledgable than me so I'd ask him to help you out.

Good luck, you'll be a nerd in no time :D

[Edited on 10-5-2005 by TP]

Thank you Tony:)

I do indeed have servers on site- its my 'hidey out' room;) - containing 4 servers:)

so, will try to follow what you say, without doing the full monty just yet - I just need to show the boss what we can do (ha, blind leading blind!:o ) give me minor probs such as staff locking themselves out, tuition needed for local applications etc.....

C:)

I haven't even mentioned 'Availability' or 'Service Levels' yet ;)

It gets scarier then :D

But you can do yourself some huge favours early on by 'managing his expectation' of what you are going to give your boss. Set it low, over achieve :D

On the Content side of things, you should really try and make it easier for yourself by getting everyone else to supply the content. (Works well in theory of course).

Tools like:

A Wiki - A collaborative authoring tool that allows anyone with the right permissions to update the text of a page.

A Blog - Basically an online diary, but useful for teams to make announcements and keep track of progress.

A Content Management System - there's lots of good free CMS packages out there that you can easily download and use. The Desmodue website is run on a product called Drupal http://www.drupal.org This also allows pages to be customised, multiple people to add content etc

IMHO, getting more people involved in compiling and updating the Intranet content will make the whole thing better in the long run as people will feel a sense of ownership.

The easiest thing with the infrastructure side of things is to get a consultant in for a day to set it up for you. I reckon an IT student should be able to do it for beer money ;-)

[Edited on 10-5-2005 by phillc]

are you an IT student then Phil?:saint:

C, now sorting a big mess in accounts on the S drive:(
(come back CEO, I want my usual job back:o )

WTF?!? Talk about confusing the woman!

All you need is the web server software (IIS - Internet Information Server) running on one (any!) of your boxes. This will then allow you to build a website.

IIS is part of the standard Windows build for 2000 / XP but is not installed by default, so you will need to edit your Windows setup (in the Control Panel) to add this in.

If you enable FrontPage extensions for IIS, you can then use the simple FrontPage client (which is installed as part of the Microsoft Office suite) to create web pages in a Word like editor. Then simply point FrontPage at your IIS server and it will update the website.

Nice and easy for an Intranet - no worries about security or anything.

Cheers Ant:D

if you ever need help with any old 600 carbs & engine workings in return, I'm your bird!;)

C:saint:

are you saying a reasonably intelligent PA cant work things out, with a little (lot) of help from her friends?

already half way there, as a youngster in Accounts is doing stuff in return for me sorting his mess out:P

C:smug:

intranet's are a lot more secure than internet sites as due to their nature, there're invisible to the outside world. Wouldn't worry about Dos attacks or any scare mongering. Oh, and don't use frontpage, it creates huge websites - try Dreamweaver if you can get your hands on it. Use style sheets - easy to use. If you need any 3D content just give me a call!

FP extensions is an optional install of IIS, and you may want to check what my particular job is before assuming I don't know what I'm talking about ;)

My point entirely.



Doesn't matter - it's intranet so network speed is not a problem and ease of use is the priority here. Plus all the software can be installed licence free (ie, no cost) and it all works nicely together.

Now if you want a pukka Content Management System with workflow, lifecycles, staging servers, DMZ, and the like then drop me a line ;)

ooooh:o whatBIG words you boys all use:lol::lol:

C, not wanting to be an IT geek, happy to stay as PA please:saint:

C, not wanting to be an IT geek,

No................anything thing but that!!!:frog:

Mine's bigger than all of yours anyway so THERE!!!

:frog:

Tone, back to your beer drinking dear, theres a good chap:P

I was talking about my beer!

What did you think I was talking about? ;)