Workgroups, see the benefits of building your own Web site
Did the LAN administrator have a panic attack when your workgroup requested a Web site for leaving or retrieving messages remotely? If so, just consider the booming market in firewalls. Security breaches have plagued many administrators who linked their office networks to the Web or provided dial-up access for employees.
Did the LAN administrator have a panic attack when your workgroup requested a Web site No need to give the LAN manager nightmares or expose the office to viruses or junk mail You can restrict access to authorized users, but if the site has no sensitive Need public access for a demonstration project or a place where local citizens can Caution: This approach is only for branch offices, individual projects or small A small public or private Web site can host real-time text conferencing, provide e-mail Such a site could replace the office newsletter, display opening hours and vacation If you like the idea but dont have a budget, keep reading. Sites are free at Tripod pages at the Lycos site have a pop-up advertising window. Excite Community pages The free sites are automatically formatted, generated and accessible via the usual I tried setting up a Yahoo Club page and an Excite beta Community page. The Community Customizing does require a feel for HTML programming, but a power user could probably It took me about 20 minutes to initialize my first Tripod page, including signing up, I installed a page-hit counter, built a link to a Lycos-provided guest book for Setting up one of these free sites is a good way for beginners to gain experience at Its difficult to see how any virus or other attack could ever reach your local John McCormick, a free-lance writer and computer consultant, has been working with
for leaving or retrieving messages remotely? If so, just consider the booming market in
firewalls. Security breaches have plagued many administrators who linked their office
networks to the Web or provided dial-up access for employees.
overload. Instead, build an independent, private Web site that functions in many ways like
an intranet.
information, you could also ignore the access issue. After all, there are millions of Web
sites. Choose a vague-sounding uniform resource locator, and dont promote it to
Internet search engines. Probably no outsiders will visit even if access is completely
unrestricted.
contact your small office online? Build a site the same way, but publicize it.
workgroups. Its not appropriate for anything larger, and be sure to get management
approval first.
links and public information, display maps or other images, and do most things you see on
other Web sites except for commercial transactions.
schedules, show maps for visitors, track a projects progress, promote safety,
provide links, post frequently asked questionsjust about anything.
several Internet search engine sites. Yahoo, Excite and Lycos all provide free personal or
small-business Web pages they refer to as clubs or communities. The only drawback for a
small government office is that the free sites might contain some advertising.
were in beta form when I wrote this, so I dont know what sort of advertising will
appear there to support the project. Yahoo Club pages carry no advertising other than a
permanent button for downloading a Yahoo utility.
http://www addresses. Most of them require a password for access. Visitors can be invited
or can surf in, depending on how you configure the site.
page was very easy to configure and could post uploaded images. The Lycos Tripod page
built itself automatically from the templates provided or could be customized via
Hypertext Markup Language.
cut and paste everything, adding some of the provided clip art or uploading custom images.
keying in a fair amount of text, building links to my books at Amazon.com and posting a
few digital images.
visitors messages, and added survey questions and an interactive newsletter.
HTML coding. Most Internet service providers supply free Web pages for subscribers, but
few are as convenient and powerful as these metasite community pages.
network, because the free site is hosted by a third party. Even the most skilled cracker
would find it difficult to locate, let alone penetrate your LAN when your workgroup merely
picks up e-mail from a completely independent Web site.
computers since the early 1960s. E-mail him at powerusr@penn.com.