Quasatron Systems Co.

About this server....

NOTE: This web site is being hosted on "sitepages.com" and was formerly on my own server when I had DSL. This page is a legacy page I keep around just for posterity sake since it has a lot of info about the floppy web server I used to use.

Up until recently this server was hosted on a Compaq ProLiant DL380 G1 server with dual PIII/933 CPUs and 1 GB/RAM. The base OS was Windows 2003 server and the WEB server was a virtual Windows 2000 server running an Apache WEB server through VMware. This setup had the advantage of allowing me to "snapshot" the server and in the event of an issue I could simply reboot and return the system to a known state. This server also supports my internal network at home. The connection is an ADSL link, not terribly fast, but it's acceptable for my purposes.

A few years ago I was hosting the DOS batch links & utility links that Klaus Meinhard has collected over the years. I was planning on adding numerous things, converting to a PHP based format, automating the updating of the DOS batch links, and others. As life would have it I found I had little time to devote to the WEB server and Klaus's links fell into disrepair. He has since assumed maintenance of them again (see the links on the home page).

When Klaus re-assumed maintenance of his links it gave me the chance to re-evaluate how my web presence is being handled. I would prefer to be able to shut the DL380 down periodically since it heats my den up rather efficiently and I don't always need access to the files stored on it.

I had previously studied numerous small footprint Linux server distros for use as rescue disks and troubleshooting tools. There are actually quite a few available. They are typically geared towards a specific function since they need to be kept as small as possible. A favorite of mine is Tom's RTBT (stands for RooT BooT) which is a single floppy based full Linux distro. It has everything but a GUI desktop.

During my research I came across Coyote Linux which is intended as a single floppy, software based firewall. It works very efficiently on older obsolete hardware. Although it's intended use is as a router some rather clever folks realized that the built in WEB based management console could be altered to function as a WEB server. You can set it up either with one or two network interfaces depending on your needs. By using two you can isolate your management interface from the public facing "Internet" port which adds some extra securityto the setup.

This approach is perfect if you want to put up a quick informational WEB server.  Any old ratty PC stuck in your closet will work just fine since the minimum hardware that will work is a 386sx CPU with 8mb of RAM and no hard disk.  You need to be careful about what goes on the server since you have a single floppy to work with but since most HTML WEB pages are simply text you can do a lot with a little.  If you reuse a standard set of graphics, as I have done here, you can make the server appear to be more than it is.

Here are the locations of the base server and various components to build one of these WEB servers:

Most of the add-ons require you to use Coyote Linux version 2.2 or newer.  Version 2.2 is the current release as of this writing.

The format of the floppy can determine what you are able to add to the server.  Since Windows XP cannot read or write 1.72 mb floppies using a 1.68 mb formatted floppy may be the best bet.  If you use a Linux OS you can format your floppy at 1.72 mb and reliably use it.

Also, Coyote Linux was originally designed as a software based firewall and is preconfigured to use two NICs.  For use as a web server you can either keep both NICs or simply don't install the second one.  This works quite well but depending on your Internet connection can open up your server to higher risks.  Linux by it's nature is relatively secure but anything designed by a human and always be undesigned by another human.

Coyote Linux has a very slick WEB based menu system to allow for remote administration.  Usually this is connected to the internal LAN connection but by using only one physical NIC and setting the TCP/IP address of both the internal and external NICS to the same thing you can get both the WEB server and WEB console at the same time. Ideally you should set up an alias of the first NIC and associate the new HTTP instance with it but I haven't figured that configuration out yet.

To add the WEB server you simply add a line to one of the configuration files to add a second instance of the HTTP server daemon, add some folders to hold the content, and then either FTP the files over or create them from the command line at the server console.  An SSH connection is available so again you can remotely connect to the server console and completely manage the system remotely.  This what I do, I use an SSH connection to log onto the console, create a blank new file, then edit it from the admin WEB console to add the content.

Once I get the server finshed I'll post any specific settings needed here.