How to Use
Mac OS Personal Web Sharing

Before you turn on Web Sharing

Personal Web Sharing needs an active TCP/IP network connection to operate. It is not recommended for use over a modem.

Important: Before you turn on Web Sharing, make certain that you have an active TCP/IP network connection by checking your computer's TCP/IP configuration. (If you need help determining whether you have an IP connection, consult a network administrator.)

Once you've installed the software and verified that you have an active TCP/IP network connection, you can turn on Web Sharing (by clicking the Start button in the Web Sharing control panel) and begin using your server immediately. The server will use the control panel's default settings, which are listed in the next section, "Configuring Your Web Server." Two of these settings include read-only access for all visitors to your server and displaying the contents of your Web Pages folder (the default server) as a list, rather than showing a specific home page.

Configuring your Web server

You can change the default settings for your Web server by using the Web Sharing control panel's options and the Preferences command in the Edit menu when the control panel is open. The default settings are listed in the table below.

Default settings for Personal Web Sharing
Setting	Default value	Options
In the Web Sharing control panel
Web Folder	Web Pages folder on hard disk	Choose another folder
Home Page	None (Personal NetFinder displays server items as a list)	Choose an HTML document as the home page
Give everyone read-only access	On	File-sharing privileges for visitors to the server (file sharing must be on)
Use File Sharing to control user access	Off	Start/stop
In Web Sharing Preferences (Edit menu of the control panel)
Web Sharing Log	Off	Turn on or off and adjust size
Web Sharing Port	80	Change number (Note: Numbers below 80 may not be accessible from some browsers; numbers below 1000 may be reserved for other services.)
Allow Aliases to open items outside the Web folder	Off	Allow access to items outside server folder by means of aliases
Allow guests with write access to replace files in the Web folder	Off	Available only when file sharing access is on
Memory Allocation	1200 K	Change to another available size. (Note: A higher number could improve performance but requires more RAM.)
MIME Types	Standard set provided	Edit, add, or delete MIME types
Actions (control panel's method of handling CGI)	Interface for adding, editing; none supplied	Actions can be configured as pre-process, post-process, launch at suffix, or filter

Follow the instructions below to configure each of the preferences for Personal Web Sharing. (See the next section, "Using Personal Web Sharing," for instructions on using the control panel's settings.)

Open a log of server activity

To open a log for the first time, follow these steps.

1. Open the Web Sharing control panel and choose Preferences from the Edit menu.
2. Click the Options tab (if necessary).
3. Click to put an X in the box labeled Web Sharing Log.
4. Click Save.

To view the log after the server has been used, open the log (by opening the Web Sharing control panel and choosing Open Web Sharing Log from the File menu or choosing Preference in the Edit menu and clicking Open Log). When you open the log for the first time, you see the Mac OS Easy Open dialog box, which lists the text-editing applications available to open the log. Choose the application you want to use.

Note: Because SimpleText cannot open text files larger than 32 kilobytes (K), you should not use this application for the Web Sharing log. The record of server activity is likely to be larger than the SimpleText size limit.

The Web Sharing log is stored in the Web Sharing folder in the Preferences folder (which is in the System Folder).

• To stop using the log, click to remove the X from the box labeled Web Sharing Log in the Options section of Preferences and click Save.

Change the server's port number

To change the port number for the Web server, follow these steps.

1. Open the Web Sharing control panel and choose Preferences from the Edit menu.
2. Click the Options tab (if necessary).
3. Select the number in the Web Sharing Port section and type the new port number you want to use.
   (Note: Numbers below 80 may not be accessible from some browsers; numbers below 1000 may be reserved for other services. Certain port numbers are reserved for specific types of devices; if you enter one of these numbers, you'll see a message advising you to use a different number.)
4. Click Save.

Note: When the port number is different from the default, the number appears at the end of the Web server's address. You can check this in the Web Sharing control panel.

• To restore the default port number (80), click the Use Defaults button and click Save.

Tip: If you have other Web server software (in addition to Personal Web Sharing), you can set up more than one server and use a different port number for each one. (Personal Web Sharing supports only one Web server, however.)

Allow access to items outside the Web folder with aliases

To allow access to items outside the Web server folder through the use of aliases, follow these steps.

1. Open the Web Sharing control panel and choose Preferences from the Edit menu.
2. Click the Options tab (if necessary).
3. Click to put an X in the box labeled "Allow Aliases to open items outside the Web folder."
4. Click Save.
5. Create an alias for each item to which you want to provide access and put the aliases in your Web server folder.
6. Either set the home page to None in the control panel (so that visitors see a list of items in the folder) or put links to the aliases on the home page or on other HTML pages linked to the home page.

Using an alias is the preferred method for sharing the contents of a CD or other locked volume.

Important: You might inadvertently share items you don't want others to see if you turn on access by means of aliases. For example, don't put an alias of your hard disk in the Web server folder unless you want to share the disk's contents through your server. Check all items that have aliases in the Web server folder to verify that you want to share them. (The default setting for access through aliases is off to prevent inadvertent sharing of items outside the server folder.)

Tip: You can use an alias to serve files or a disk outside your Web server folder. For example, if you want to include the contents of a CD in your server, mount the CD, make an alias of it, and put the alias inside the Web folder. The simplest way to ensure that visitors to the server can see all contents of the CD is to set the home page to None in the Web Sharing control panel.

Allow guests with write access to replace files in the Web folder

To allow guests who have write access to replace items in the server folder, follow these steps.

1. Open the Web Sharing control panel and choose Preferences from the Edit menu.
2. Click the Options tab (if necessary).
3. Click to put an X in the box labeled "Allow guests with write access to replace files in the Web folder."
4. Click Save.
5. Make sure file sharing is turned on in the File Sharing control panel.
6. Make sure that the Web server folder is shared (select the folder, then choose Sharing from the File menu).
7. Use the Users & Groups control panel to turn on Guest Access (open the Guest icon, choose Sharing in the pop-up menu, and click to put an X in the box labeled "Allow guests to connect to this computer").
8. Set access privileges for the server folder (select it, then choose Sharing from the File menu and use the pop-up menu to give guests write access).

Change the server's memory allocation

To change the server's memory allocation, follow these steps.

1. Open the Web Sharing control panel and choose Preferences from the Edit menu.
2. Click the Options tab (if necessary).
3. In the Memory Allocation section, choose a size from the pop-up menu.
4. Click Save.

Note: A higher memory allocation could improve the server's performance but requires more RAM.

Modify a MIME type

A MIME types is information associated with a file that tells the server and the visitor's browser the kind of file they're looking at and which application or plug-in is the right one to open the file.

Personal Web Sharing has a standard set of MIME types that should include all the types you'll need for your Web server. If necessary, you can modify, add, or delete a MIME type. If you're not sure whether to modify a MIME type, consult an expert or reference source before making changes.

Tip: The server applies MIME types in the order listed in the Preferences section of the Web Sharing control panel. Duplicates are ignored.

To modify a MIME type, follow these steps.

1. Open the Web Sharing control panel and choose Preferences from the Edit menu.
2. Click the MIME Types tab (if necessary).
3. Click the MIME type you want to modify and click Edit.
4. In the MIME Types dialog box, select the text you want to revise and type new text to replace it. (You can change any or all of the items: File Suffix, MIME Type, Filetype, and Creator.)
5. Click OK when you've finished revising the MIME Type.
6. Click Save.

Note: You can reset the MIME types to the default set provided with Personal Web Sharing or to the set saved most recently.

• To restore the default set of MIME types, click the Defaults button.
• To revert to the set of MIME types saved most recently, click the Revert button.

Important: If you restore the default MIME types (by clicking the Defaults button), you will lose any modifications you're made to the original set.

Add a MIME type

To add a MIME type, follow these steps.

1. Open the Web Sharing control panel and choose Preferences from the Edit menu.
2. Click the MIME Types tab (if necessary).
3. Click New.
4. In the MIME Types dialog box, enter the text you want for the Suffix, MIME Type, Filetype, and Creator.
5. Click OK when you've finished entering the text.
6. Click Save to save the new MIME type.
   The new MIME type is added at the top of the list (if no item is selected) or below the item selected in the list.

Tip: The server applies MIME types in the order listed in the Preferences section of the Web Sharing control panel. Duplicates are ignored.

Note: You can reset the MIME types to the default set provided with Personal Web Sharing or to the set saved most recently.

• To restore the default set of MIME types, click the Defaults button.
• To revert to the set of MIME types saved most recently, click the Revert button.

Important: If you restore the default MIME types (by clicking the Defaults button), you will lose all new MIME types you've added and any modifications you're made to the original set.

Delete a MIME type

To delete a MIME type, follow these steps.

1. Open the Web Sharing control panel and choose Preferences from the Edit menu.
2. Click the MIME Types tab (if necessary).
3. Click the MIME type you want to delete and click Delete.
4. Click Save.

Important: Do not delete the MIME types that end with :"html" or "htm." These MIME types must be listed in the control panel's Preferences for your Web server to deliver HTML pages correctly to a browser application.

Note: You can reset the MIME types to the default set provided with Personal Web Sharing or to the set saved most recently.

• To restore the default set of MIME types, click the Defaults button.
• To revert to the set of MIME types saved most recently, click the Revert button.

Important: If you restore the default MIME types (by clicking the Defaults button), any MIME types you've deleted will be restored.

Personal Web Sharing can handle a maximum of 64 MIME types.

Add an action (Common Gateway Interface file, or CGI)

Actions allow the Web server to launch a Common Gateway Interface (CGI), Asynchronous CGI (ACGI), or other application. You can add four types of actions to your server:

• pre-process actions, which the server launches before it processes a URL;
• post-process actions, which the server launches after processing a URL;
• launch at suffix actions, for which the server uses the suffix in a URL to determine the application to launch; and
• filters, which the server uses to launch a filtering application before processing a URL.

A variety of CGIs are available from independent vendors; none are supplied with Personal Web Sharing. Consult the documentation or descriptive information provided for the CGI to determine how to use it with your Web server.

To add an action (CGI) to your Web server, follow these steps.

1. Check the documentation for the CGI you want to add to see what type it is and how to use it.
2. Open the Web Sharing control panel and choose Preferences from the Edit menu.
3. Click the Actions tab (if necessary).
4. Click New.
5. In the Action dialog box, select the type of action from the pop-up menu.
6. Click Select and use the navigation buttons and menus to locate the application to launch.
7. Click Open when the desired application is selected.
8. Click OK to add the new action to the list.
9. Click Save.

Note: You can restore the most recent set of actions.

• Click the Revert button to restore the set of actions saved most recently.

Modify an action (Common Gateway Interface file, or CGI)

To modify an action, follow these steps.

1. Before modifying an action, check the documentation for the CGI to determine how to configure it with Personal Web Sharing.
2. Open the Web Sharing control panel and choose Preferences from the Edit menu.
3. Click the Actions tab (if necessary).
4. Click an action to select it.
5. In the Action dialog box, select the type of action from the pop-up menu.
6. Click Select and use the navigation buttons and menus to locate the application to launch.
7. Click Open when the desired application is selected.
8. Click OK to add the revised action to the list.
9. Click Save.

Note: You can restore the most recent set of actions.

• Click the Revert button to restore the set of actions saved most recently.

Delete an action (Common Gateway Interface file, or CGI)

To delete an action, follow these steps.

1. Open the Web Sharing control panel and choose Preferences from the Edit menu.
2. Click the Actions tab (if necessary).
3. Click the action you want to delete and click Delete.
4. Click Save.

Note: You can restore the most recent set of actions.

• Click the Revert button to restore the set of actions saved most recently.

Personal Web Sharing can handle a maximum of 32 Actions.

Using Personal Web Sharing

Turn Web Sharing on

Important: Make sure your computer is connected to a network and TCP/IP is properly configured and active before you turn on Personal Web Sharing.

1. Open the Web Sharing control panel (in the Control Panels folder).
2. Check the Web Identity section of the control panel to verify that the Web Folder and Home Page are the ones you want. (If you have not designated a folder and home page, Personal Web Sharing uses the Web Pages folder it created as the Web server and uses a list view of the server's content instead of a home page.)
3. In the Web Sharing section of the control panel, click the Start button to turn on Web Sharing.
   A message confirms that sharing has been turned on or reports any problem that occurs. A message may tell you that you need to install part of the networking software or reconfigure one of the networking control panels. (If you need help with this procedure, consult your network administrator.)
4. Once Web Sharing is on, copy the server's address so you can give it to others on the network. (Users can connect to your server using either the domain name or the IP address for your server.)

To get a domain name, consult the person who set up the TCP/IP network.

• To copy the domain name and address, you can write them down or use the Copy My Address command in the Edit menu of the Web Sharing control panel.

About your IP address and domain name: Your Web server is identified on the network by its IP address. Once Web Sharing is turned on, the IP address appears in the Web Identity section of the control panel. Make a note of this address; if you have a domain name, it is displayed in addition to the IP address. (An IP address is always a set of numerals, separated by periods. A domain name is text.)

Examples of the IP address and domain name for a server are:

http://130.43.2.2/
[example using IP address]

http://yourserver.yourcompany.com/
[example using domain name]

Tip: You can also copy the address by choosing Copy My Address from the control panel's Edit menu, and you can paste the address into any document.

Important: If you assign an IP address to your server as part of configuring the TCP/IP connection, use only a standard IP address. Some IP addresses ("0.0.0.0" or "1.1.1.1," for example) are reserved for network hardware such as routers and gateways. If you are not sure how to assign an IP address to your server, contact your network administrator.

On your computer, you can specify a folder other than Web Pages (the default) as your server, change to a different home page or select no home page (the default), and add or delete items in the server.

Select a server folder

To select a server folder, follow these steps.

1. Open the Web Sharing control panel (in the Control Panels folder).
2. In the Web Identity section of the control panel, click the Select button to the right of Web Folder.
3. Use the buttons and menus to locate the folder you want to use as your Web server and click its name.
4. With the folder's name selected, click the Select button at the bottom of the dialog box.

The control panel now lists your hard disk's name and the folder you selected as the server.

When you change the Web server folder, you need to select a new home page. If you don't select a home page, visitors to your server will see a list of items in the server folder.

Note: When you select a folder as the Web folder, Personal Web Sharing creates a folder in it (PNFIconGraphics) to hold icons. A copy of the icon folder is created in each Web folder you select.

Select a home page

1. Open the Web Sharing control panel (in the Control Panels folder).
2. In the Web Identity section of the Web Sharing control panel, click the Select button to the right of Home Page.
3. In the dialog box that appears, select an item in the list and click Select, or click None if you want no home page specified.

Note: If you select None, no home page will be displayed. Instead, people who visit your server will see a list of the folder's contents, similar to the Finder's list view of a window's contents. This built-in listing feature, called Personal NetFinder, can sort the list of items in the server folder by name, date, size, or kind of file.

If you want to use a home page instead of the list view, you can select "Default.html" (in the Web Pages folder) as your home page. You can revise this page to include the information and links you want to share with visitors to your Web server.

The control panel now lists the home page you selected.

You can also create your own home page or locate an HTML document and drag it to the Web Pages folder. Then repeat the selection procedure.

You can adapt the pages in the Sample Files & Templates folder, included with the server software, to start building your own library of Web content. If you can't locate the sample pages folder, open the WebScript document to start the Installer program, use the Custom Install option in the pop-up menu, select "Documentation Package", and click the "Install" button to install the sample files.

Adding or removing items in the Web folder

The folder you specify as your Web server is like any other folder. You can add items, remove items, and edit any of the folder's contents. You can control access to the folder and to other folders inside it by using the standard file sharing privileges (see the next section of these instructions).

Important: Certain characters should not be used in document names on your Web server. Don't start a name with a period (.) or use a dollar sign ($) or slash (/) anywhere in a name; if you use these characters, a browser may not be able to locate or open the file.

Controlling access to your server's content

Once you specify a folder as your server and turn on Web Sharing, the items in that folder are available to anyone who connects to your server. The information is protected and can't be changed. You can add security to some or all of the server's contents by using the access privileges provided with Mac OS file sharing.

For complete instructions on using file sharing and assigning access privileges, see the topics listed under "Sharing Files" in Mac OS Help. The list below summarizes these procedures.

1. Turn on file sharing in the File Sharing control panel.
2. Establish any special users and groups you want in the Users & Groups control panel.
3. Share the Web server folder (by selecting it, choosing Sharing from Get Info popup in the File menu, and putting an X in the box labeled "Share this item and its contents")
4. Share individual folder items in your server folder and assign access privileges to them by selecting each folder item and then using the Sharing command in the Get Info popup in the File menu.
5. Select the "Use File Sharing to control user access" option in the Web Sharing control panel.

Important: Once you use file sharing's access privileges for any items in your server folder, you must leave file sharing turned on. If you turn off file sharing, everyone who tries to connect to your server will be denied access. (As soon as you turn file sharing on, others will again be able to connect and the security you established through access privileges will be in effect.)

Getting the most from your server

Using the list view and toggling the list view on and off

You can set up your server so that visitors always see the Personal NetFinder (PNF) list view--the default setting for Personal Web Sharing. If you want to keep your server primarily in PNF view, select None (rather than the name of a home page) in the Web Sharing control panel.

Tip: You can give users of your server an easy way to switch to list view by including a link to PNF on your home page. Two examples of the link appear below. The first example shows the domain name of a server and the second example shows the IP address of the server. Either type of link will work (assuming that your server has a domain name, which you can obtain from the person who set up the TCP/IP network).

http://yourserver.yourcompany.com/PNF:
[example using domain name]

http://130.43.2.2/PNF:
[example using IP address]

(Note that a colon is the last character in both examples.)

Tip: If you want users to see a list of items in a single folder that's inside your Web server folder, you can create a link to that folder using the PNF view. This is a good way to limit access by preventing users from seeing all the items in your entire Web folder. (When the server's content is displayed by means of links from a home page, users see only the files that are linked to the home page.)

Note: When you create a a PNF link to a subfolder in your Web folder, the subfolder's name should appear after the "PNF:" part of the address. The examples below show two correct versions of a link of this type and one incorrect version:

http://yourserver.yourcompany.com/PNF:subfoldername/
[example using domain name - correct format]

http://130.43.2.2/PNF:subfoldername/
[example using IP address - correct format]

http://130.43.2.2/subfoldername/PNF:
[example using IP address - incorrect format]

Although "PNF:" can't appear after a subfolder name, you can use the address without "PNF:" and still link to a subfolder, with its contents displayed in list view. The example below shows this alternative format.

http://130.43.2.2/subfoldername/
[example using IP address, without "PNF:" - the subfolder contents are displayed in list view]

Visitors can switch between home page and list view with the home page link and the Back and Forward buttons of their browser.

Tip: If you want to present a list view of server items and a message or banner like that on many home pages, you can add a header or footer or both to Personal NetFinder. When you add files named "folder_header.html" and "folder_footer.html" to a server folder, Personal NetFinder reads the contents of those files and puts the text before or after the folder listing. When you add "text_header.html" and "text_footer.html" to a server folder, Personal NetFinder will read the contents and add them to the beginning and end of any SimpleText document that it translates into HTML.

Note: When you create a header or footer file, that file must not have the standard HTML tags at the beginning ("<HTML>") or the end ("</HTML>").

You can use this header and footer capability to display graphics, provide your own tool bar, include a link to your top-level web page, or whatever you choose to make your site better.

Important: Remember that using the list view for your server allows everyone to see everything in the Web Pages folder. You can use file sharing privileges to allow or deny access to folders inside your server, however.

Downloading files from the server

Visitors to your Web server can download files from the server by dragging them to their desktop or hard disk. You can use this feature of the Web Sharing software to distribute documents to others who are connected to your server's network.

To download a file, a visitor simply clicks it (in list view). An HTML or image file appears in the browser window. Applications are compressed (using binhex) before they are downloaded. Other files are usually copied, though some variations may occur, depending on how the MIME types are configured in Personal Web Sharing and in the visitor's browser.

Visitors to your server can save a file by dragging it to their desktop.

Note: When files are displayed as a list (PNF view), a visitor must drag the link (name of file), not the icon; otherwise, only the icon for that file will be copied.

Editing and uploading files to the server

If you use file sharing privileges to control access to the server and give guests or registered users write privileges, they can download a file, edit it, and copy the file back onto your Web server. The file's name must not be changed, however.

The visitor's browser must support uploading of files.

Improving server performance with increased memory allocation

If many people are visiting your Web server, you may want to increase the amount of memory the software can use. This allows for efficient operation as people connect to your server and sample its contents.

To increase the memory allocation, follow these steps.

1. Open the Web Sharing control panel.
2. Choose Preferences from the Edit menu.
3. Click the Options tab.
4. In the Memory Allocation section, choose a larger number from the pop-up menu.
5. Click Save.

Sharing files on a CD or other locked disk

To assure that users can open and copy files on a locked disk, such as a CD, be sure to create an alias of the CD or disk and put that alias in your Web folder. If you choose the actual CD or locked disk as the Web folder, users who connect to your server will see an error message when they try to open some of the files on the CD or locked disk.

Important file you should know about

The Personal Web Sharing software recognizes a certain type of file that can make for efficient operation of your server.

• If there is a file named "index.html" in the Web server folder, that file is automatically displayed as the home page when "None" is selected as the home page in the Web Sharing control panel.

Quick access to Web Sharing with the Control Strip

Personal Web Sharing includes a module for the Control Strip. Once the module is installed, you can use it to turn Web Sharing on or off, open the Web Sharing control panel, and check your server's IP address.

Learning more about Web Sharing

You can use the sample Web pages and templates provided with this software to fashion your own Web content. These files are in the Sample Files & Templates folder, which is inside the Web Sharing folder. (If you can't locate the sample files, use the Installer program's Custom Install option to install the "Documentation Package".) The folder also contains instructions and tips for using the sample files in the document "Using Sample FilesTemplates.htm."

In addition, you can visit some of the many Web sites that offer great advice and examples for creating Web pages. Some of these useful sites are listed below; visit them to learn more about providing content for Mac OS Personal Web Sharing.

Web design guidelines from Apple's Human Interface group: Excellent advice for planning Web content of any size or scope.

HTML tutorials: A set of documents on various aspects of hypertext markup language (HTML).

The Web Developer's Virtual Library: Depth and breadth about Web topics, standards, scripting languages and technologies, and much more.

Yahoo Web design topic list: A rich set of resources for all aspects of Web design and related topics.

Yale style guide for Web design: Comprehensive design information and resources.

Troubleshooting

- Others can't find my server on the network:

• Make sure Web Sharing is turned on (in the Web Sharing control panel).
• If your server is set to use file sharing privileges, make sure file sharing is turned on (in the File Sharing control panel).
  Important: If file sharing is not turned on and your server uses file sharing to provide access to visitors, no one (including you) will have access to the server.
• If your server is set to use file sharing privileges, make sure the Web folder is shared (using the Sharing command in the File menu).
  Important: If your Web folder is not shared and your server uses file sharing to provide access to visitors, no one (including you) will have access to the server.
• The TCP/IP connection may not be set up correctly--check with your network administrator if you need help.
• Visitors may not be using the correct address for your server. Make sure they have the correct domain name or IP address.
• Your server may be using a port number other than 80 (the default). Send others the complete address using Copy My Address in the Web Sharing control panel's Edit menu. (If the port number has been changed from 80, the new number appears at the end of the IP address.)
• To ensure that the correct content is served, the Web Pages folder (or other server folder) should be located no more than five levels below the root level of the hard disk.
• Every Personal Web Sharing server needs a unique assigned IP address. Do not use nonstandard IP addressing with your server. Some IP addresses ("0.0.0.0" or "1.1.1.1," for example) are reserved for network hardware such as routers and gateways. If you are not sure how to assign an IP address to your server, contact your network administrator.

- Others report seeing a message that Authentication Failed when they try to view an item:

• Make sure Web Sharing is turned on (in the Web Sharing control panel).
• Make sure the server folder containing the desired item is shared.
• Make sure that others have access privileges for the shared item.

- I'm using FileMaker Pro on my server (or another Web server on my computer) and I see an error message related to that program:

• FileMaker Pro has a dedicated port number. If you use FileMaker Pro with a server on your computer, use a different port number for your Personal Web Sharing server to avoid a conflict with the port number for FileMaker Pro. (You can't change the port number for FileMaker Pro.) Check the documentation for FileMaker Pro for more information about using this application with a Web server.

  Note: If you've changed the port number to a number other than 80, you can see the new number at the end of the address in the Web Sharing control panel.

- Files on the server are not displayed as expected.

• One of the MIME types may have been changed to include incorrect information. If you have the correct information, modify the MIME type that is causing a problem.
• If you can't correct the problem by modifying an individual MIME type, you can restore the default set of MIME types supplied with Personal Web Sharing.

Important: If you restore the default MIME types (by clicking the Defaults button), you will lose all new MIME types you've added and any modifications you're made to the original set. Any MIME types you've deleted from the original set will be restored.

To restore the original set of MIME types, follow these steps.

1. Open the Web Sharing control panel and choose Preferences from the Edit menu.
2. Click the MIME Types tab (if necessary).
3. Click Defaults.
   The original set of MIME types is restored.

- An error message reports that the port is in use:

• If you see a port-in-use error message, another application may be using the same port number as Personal Web Sharing. Change one of the port numbers. (Also see the item above about FileMaker Pro.)

- I can't upload a file to the server.

• If you can't upload, your browser may not support uploading files.
• The file you want to upload may be an application, which can't be uploaded.
• If you've changed the file name after downloading a file, the browser may not recognize the file it is trying to replace on the server. Change back to the original name.

- The computer seems to "hang" when I turn on Web Sharing in the control panel, or when the computer is starting up with Web Sharing already turned on.

• If your computer's TCP/IP configuration is set to acquire an address dynamically, Personal Web Sharing tries to get the address over the network. If the TCP/IP connection is not active or no address can be obtained, Personal Web Sharing continues to seek an address for up to 3 minutes.
• To avoid this situation, do not turn on Web Sharing unless you already have an active TCP/IP connection.

- My system locks up unexpectedly when the server is on.

• If your computer is using OT/PPP 1.0, there is a known problem with Personal Web Sharing. Personal Web Sharing runs as a background application, which conflicts with the dialog box that PPP tries to display when reconnecting (if the connection has been broken). This can cause your system to crash. To work around this problem, turn off the automatic reconnect option in the PPP control panel.

Follow these steps to turn off the automatic reconnect option:

1. Open the PPP control panel.
2. Click the Options button.
3. Click the Connection tab.
4. Click to remove the X from the box labeled "Connect automatically when starting TCP/IP applications" and click OK.
5. Close the PPP control panel.

- Others report slow performance of my server.

• Some computers providing a server may experience slower performance overall during times of heavy activity on the Personal Web Sharing server over LocalTalk.

- Visitors who use other types of computers or non-English system software report problems viewing some documents.

• Personal Web Sharing allows you to publish documents across multiple platforms. Because character sets may differ from one platform to another, you may notice a difference in how data is displayed on some other types of computers on the network. To get a more accurate representation of HTML documents in a cross-platform environment, we recommend that you use Personal NetFinder to display the documents on your server.
• File formats also vary from one type of computer to another in a cross-platform environment. Each computer on the network should have its browser's helper applications configured correctly for the types of files your server contains before connecting to your server.
• Mac to Mac: If your server contains non-English-language pages, the client's browser should be set to the appropriate document encoding option. Please review your browser documentation for more information on document encoding.
• Mac to non-Mac: If your server contains non-English-language pages, a non-Mac OS computer will encounter some incompatibilities. For example, character sets may differ from one type of computer to another.
• Personal NetFinder displays header information in the language of the Finder (part of the system software) used by the server.

Glossary

action - the feature of Personal Web Sharing that allows the Web server to launch a Common Gateway Interface (CGI), Asynchronous CGI (ACGI), or other application.

access privileges - part of Mac OS file sharing, in which settings are established for individual users, groups, and guests ("Everyone") that determine whether they can see or change content on a server.

browser - the application that allows visitors to see the contents of the a Web server. Microsoft Explorer and Netscape Navigator are examples of browsers.

CGI - Common Gateway Interface, an application that the server software launches, such as when the server displays a form that a visitor fills out and sends to a data storage area.

domain name - the name associated with a Web site, ending with a suffix that identifies the type of content or organization it contains (such as "com" for commercial, "edu" for education, "gov" for government, "org" for nonprofit organization).

Everyone - the category of access privileges for Mac OS file sharing that applies to guests (anyone not registered by name).

File Sharing control panel - the control panel used to turn file sharing on or off.

guest - anyone who connects to a server without supplying a name; guest access can be turned on or off as part of Mac OS file sharing.

home page - the HTML document displayed when a visitor connects to a Web server.

HTML - acronym for Hypertext Markup Language, a method for preparing text files so they can display content and link to other files on the World Wide Web.

intranet - a network-based collection of Web servers and sites, usually concentrated within one company or other organization.

Internet - the massive global assemblage of interconnected computers and communications hardware and software that links World Wide Web sites and other services, such as e-mail, discussion groups, and FTP servers.

IP address - acronym for Internet Protocol, a specification for transfer of information across computer networks; the IP address, which identifies a specific computer, consists of a four-to-twelve-digit number separated into four sections by periods (for example, 130.43.2.2)

MIME type - information associated with a file that tells the server and the visitor's browser what kind of file they're looking at and what application is the right one to open the file. (Acronym for Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions,)

network - an interconnected group of computers that use specialized software and hardware to share and transfer data.

owner - in Mac OS file sharing, the person who controls a specific folder (such as the Web server when file sharing is in use).

Personal NetFinder - a component of Personal Web Sharing that displays the content of a Web folder as a list.

port - the address of the server on your computer; a browser uses the port to locate the server. By default, browsers look at port 80 for a Web server.

registered user - in Mac OS file sharing, the name of a person who has access privileges associated with that name.

SimpleText - a simple text-processing application supplied with Mac OS computers that is used to view and save HTML files from a Web server.

TCP - acronym for Transfer Control Protocol, a specification for data transfer over the Internet.

URL - acronym for Uniform Resource Locator, the "address" or location of a Web site.

Users & Groups control panel - in Mac OS file sharing, the control panel used to specify registered users, groups, and guests.

Web page - any HTML document on a Web server.

Web server - a computer that contains software to share HTML and other files by means of the Internet (or on an intranet).

Web Sharing control panel - the server software for Personal Web Sharing.

Web site - a collection of HTML files and other content that visitors access by means of a URL.

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