Open the WinPopup window. 2. Click Send Message.

Chapter 19 ✦ Setting Up an Intranet Figure 19-8: Add a navigation bar or button on each page so that the user can get around the site. Make sure that you add the navigation buttons on each page of the site. You can add a Go Back button, Home button, or an entire set of buttons, as shown in Figure 19-8. Music is another good element to add to your pages. Consider animated clips and video as well. The elements you add depend on the program in which you’re designing the page. Be careful when adding animation, audio, and video files, however; the file sizes can be too large to be practical. Good design You need to take into account some other design considerations when you’re creating a web site. These issues make the page better looking and easier to read. Following are some things to consider: ✦ Be brief. Long paragraphs of text are difficult and tiring to read. ✦ Use several small graphics or images instead of one large one. ✦ Update the content frequently to keep everyone interested and excited about the intranet. Let everyone help with creating content. ✦ Try to use a heading or banner along the top of each page so that the user knows where he or she is in the site. ✦ Use plain fonts, for the most part. Fancy fonts are not always translated in the Web browser. You might need to experiment with different fonts. ✦ Don’t use all uppercase letters; it’s difficult to read in large blocks of text. ✦ Don’t use too much bold or italic text; it’s also difficult to read in large blocks of text. ✦ Don’t use the Courier font; it’s hard to read. Part IV ✦ Adding the Internet, E-Mail, and an Intranet ✦ You can add tables to a web page for easier presentation of information. ✦ Use Graphics Interchange Format GIF or Joint Photographic Experts Group JPEG as your image format. Making the Preparations No matter which method of creating an intranet you use, you need to perform some prepara- tory work. You need to create and share a folder for all intranet documents. You also need to create some content. If you choose to use a Web server with your intranet, you also need to install and configure TCPIP. If you create an intranet using no server, you don’t need TCPIP. Creating content and a folder Your first step is to create a folder in which to store all intranet documents. Locate the folder on a computer that everyone has access to over the network. If you plan to use Web server software, then save the intranet documents and folder on the computer that will be the Web server. You can create your content at any time, but it might be more fun to begin by creating the content. You can discuss the content with your family and decide which topics will make up the intranet. Let each family member create a web page or two as well. A web site is made up of multiple web pages. You can create many web pages and store them in the same folder. For organizational purposes, you should store all text, images, and web pages that belong to one web site in the same folder. Programs like Publisher and PowerPoint enable you to create an entire web site easily, com- plete with multiple web pages, and linked together with hyperlinks and navigator buttons. See the program’s online help for more information. Sharing the folder Make sure that you share the intranet folder so that everyone can access it. You can share the folder by selecting it in the Windows Explorer, for example. Right-click the folder to display the quick menu, and then choose Sharing. You need to share the folder with full access so that users can add web pages to the folder if they want. For information about sharing, see Chapter 12. Installing TCPIP You don’t have to install TCPIP if you’re not going to use a Web server. You can view HTML files in your Web browser, and others on the network can view the web pages, without TCPIP. You also can use links without TCPIP. If you use a Web server, however, you must use TCPIP. Because of its many advantages, TCPIP is the preferred protocol for networking. Even the Mac comes with only TCPIP installed. Windows 2000 and XP are built for TCPIP, so if you’re not using it, you should try to get used to it. Note Tip Chapter 19 ✦ Setting Up an Intranet It’s best if you remove any other protocol you might be using and then install TCPIP. You need to do this on every computer in the network. Before you install TCPIP, you need to understand the configuration. For complete information about installing and configuring TCPIP, see Appendix B. Appendix B suggests some addresses you can use for a private intranet network. Creating a Workgroup Intranet without a Server You can have an intranet on your workgroup network without buying any new equipment or software. If you have Windows on your computers and you have a network, you have every- thing you need to create an intranet. Because you’re not using a Web server, some people might say it isn’t really an intranet. Nevertheless, it will familiarize you with the process of creating web pages and displaying them. Your family will be able to view web pages in a browser and get the experience of work- ing with an intranet. An intranet without a Web server cannot do everything a more equipped intranet can. You cannot have live discussions, for example, over the intranet. However, you can use NetMeeting or a chat program for that. See Chapter 18 for more information. Also, if you expand your intranet later to include a Web server, you can keep the web pages you’re creating now and use them in addition to your new content. Consider using a Web server for any business intranet, even if you think it will be a small intranet. You’ll be surprised at how many uses you find for the intranet and how fast it will grow. You are ahead if you start out with a Web server for your office intranet. Looking at what you need Using Windows to create an intranet is quick and easy. You don’t really need any special tal- ent, and you can have a lot of fun working with the documents and navigating your own intranet. Following are the items you need to build this kind of intranet: ✦ You need a working network, which you already should have in place. Whether your network uses phone lines, wireless connections, or traditional cabling isn’t an issue, although if your network is slow, your intranet also will be slow. See Chapter 6 for infor- mation about network speed. ✦ Windows includes everything else you need. You can create content with Notepad or WordPad, if you want to try your hand at HTML. If, however, you have Word, Publisher, Excel, WordPerfect, or some other application, creating content is even easier. ✦ Finally, you must have an Internet browser for use with the intranet. You already might have Internet Explorer installed; alternatively, you can use another browser such as Netscape Navigator. Any Web browser works well with an intranet. That’s all you need to set it up Small Business Tip Tip Part IV ✦ Adding the Internet, E-Mail, and an Intranet Looking at the basic steps The steps to setting up a serverless intranet are easy. Following is a complete set of steps to setting up this simple intranet:

1. Create the content and save all the documents in one folder. 2. Share the folder.

3. Install Internet Explorer or another Web browser on each computer, if one isn’t

already installed. 4. Open the browser. 5. Choose View ➪ Toolbars ➪ Address Bar, if the address bar is not already showing.

6. Enter the path to any page in your web site. You can enter the name of the default page,

called default.htm, home.htm, or index.htm, depending on the program with which you created your content. Figure 19-9 illustrates the index.html page of a web site created with Publisher. Figure 19-9: Type in the path to a web page. All you do now is click the links and scroll the pages. You also can enter the path to your default page as your home page. This way, each time you click the Home button, the browser jumps back to the same page. To change your home page in the Internet Explorer, follow these steps: 1. Choose Tools ➪ Internet Options. The Internet Options dialog box appears. 2. In the General tab, enter the path to your default page in the Address text box of the Home Page section, as shown in Figure 19-10. Chapter 19 ✦ Setting Up an Intranet Figure 19-10: Enter the home page address shown in Windows 98.

3. Click OK. In Internet Explorer, click the Home button anytime you want to go back to

the home page. Creating a Workgroup Intranet with a Server You can create an intranet within your Windows workgroup network using a Web server. You can find some freeware and shareware Web servers on the Internet that work very well with your home intranet network. You might want to use a Web server for many reasons. Some advantages are as follows: ✦ A Web server stores and manages all the web pages and sites — It provides access to the intranet or the Internet, manages access rights for remote users, enables publishing of file archives by creating links on other computers, and provides Gopher and FTP services. ✦ A Web server enables you to view hot spots on the intranet — A hot spot is a box that appears with the related URL. For example, you may have a photograph on the web page. When the user slides the mouse cursor around the photo, boxes containing URLs and related links appear. If the user clicks one of these links, the hot spot transfers him or her to the related web page. ✦ Java applets are interactive programs that run on a web page — Java is a program- ming language that enables embedded motion in a page, among other things, thus mak- ing a page more dynamic than static. ✦ Play audio and video on pages with the click of a hyperlink — Although you can add these elements to a static page, you can do so much more when you use a Web server. ✦ Use non-Internet applications, such as Word or PowerPoint, to open and display a document within a web page — Instead of jumping to a linked page to show a presen- tation in PowerPoint, for example, the user simply clicks a link and opens PowerPoint to show the presentation from the original page. Part IV ✦ Adding the Internet, E-Mail, and an Intranet Looking at what you need To set up an intranet with a Web server on your network, you need content, Web browsers on every computer, Web server software, and TCPIP. You set up the content as you do for any intranet. Save the content to one folder on the com- puter with the Web server software on it. Although the computer doesn’t need anything more than extra space to hold the content, it may need more power, space, and memory for the Web server software. Check the program’s documentation. You also need to install and configure the TCPIP protocol on all computers on the network. For information about TCPIP, see Appendix B. The Web server software is the last component. You might be able to acquire Web server soft- ware on the Internet that is freeware or shareware. You must choose software that is for a Windows workgroup network, however. Some Web server software must run under a network operating system NOS, such as Windows 2000 Server or Novell NetWare. Looking at Web servers and other utilities Many shareware Web servers and other utilities that you can use in your intranet are avail- able on the Internet. Each has its own special tools or features. You might want to try a share- ware product first before paying a lot more for a Web server program; most shareware prices are between 20 and 100. Search the Internet for “shareware,” and then within the shareware site, search for “intranet server.” Each program includes instructions and help for installation and configuration. Check these sites for information about shareware and freeware: CNET’s download.com, www.zdnet.com, and tucows.com. The following sections discuss some common Web servers you might choose. Abyss Web Server Abyss Web server is a personal web server you can use on your home network. It supports HTTP and Common Gateway Interface CGI scripts, and it includes access control, user man- agement, file indexing, and more. Abyss is freeware, so you can’t really lose. To download it, go to CNET’s download.com. Apache for Windows Apache has long been a Web server for Unix and Linux but now there’s an Apache for Windows. The Web server uses HTTP and is highly configurable, and you can even customize the server, if you know how. A bit more complicated than other Web servers, Apache offers database functions, an index for searches, and other features you can use on your intranet and on the Internet, should you ever decide to go on to the World Wide Web. See CNET’s download.com for more information. Tip