Question : Intranet

I am working on installing an intranet for our company (DataGate Connector). My question is simply, how does an intranet work?

We are installing the program on our Linux RH8 server. 10 Windows machines are connected by SAMBA. How does each individual access and update the intranet? Do they do it through a HTML program? Is it difficult? Please give me any information possible.

Thanks,

Answer : Intranet

Congratulations on your descision to start an intranet.

Here's a run down of what you need and how it works. In beginnger language.

1. Computer(Sever) - Which you said you have and it runs linux. It doesn't have to be a server. Just about any PC will work.
2. WebServer(Software) - Which is software that runs on the computer(server) - If you are running Linux, it more that likely has a webserver already. Most installations of linux allow you to run APACHE. Apache is a webserver and its free. If you don't have it look here http://www.apache.org to get it.
3. Desgin Software - This can be alot of things if you know html, notepad will work but it can get tedious. The two of the most popular web design software avaiable is Macormedia Dreamweaver. http://www.macromedia.com/ or Microsoft Front page. http://office.microsoft.com/home/office.aspx?assetid=FX01085802. For the novice i would recomend Front page. For the intermedieate, I recomend Dreamweaver. You then design your site then upload it to your webserver.
4. Browser - This allows you to view your site.  Ie. Internet explorer, Netscape.

Thats all you need to start your intranet.

Now there are many pre-built packages avaiable. Where you just run a setup program that copies all the files to your web server and then gives you a web page that has administrative functionality. These can go anywhere from free to really expensive. The expensive one give you the tech support options. The free ones give you a push and hope you don't crash.

What you need to consider is. What do you want to do with this intranet.  Becasue the sky is the limit.

As to how users View your intranet.
Your WebServer will have a name. Once you've uploaded your site to your web server your users will open there internet brower and enter the name of the server in the address bar. It should take you to the default page of your webserver

As to how to users update the intranet.
This can be accomplished a number of ways.

1. For a small company, one might designate a Web Administrator. In this case all request for updates are sent to the Web Administrator and that person makes the updates. This is the least favorable option but the easiest. Because it only requires one person to know the Web's Basic's. And allows one person to keep control of it. thus avoiding accidently mishaps.

2. For a mid-size company - one might designate department heads to update there own section of the intranet. This is often done by the web administrator creating a template that matches the site's look and feel. The update the template and upload it to the web server. This might intel each user then having there own copy of the design software. (DW or Front Page).

3. For a large company - one should design the site to allow the department heads to update there own sections of the intranet. However, the Department head can delagte that responsability to others below themselves. This type of site is usually database driven. Meaning just about everything is stored in a database. and the web pages them selves are actually updateing the database. Createing a site like this can take a lot of time and knowledge. And usually requires the knowledge of a Web language like PHP http://www.php.net/ , ASP, or ASP.NET http://www.microsoft.com

Datagate would fit more into catagory 3
Upon looking at datagate, it looks pretty good except for this one qutoe from their web page.

"The software itself is excellent. It is visually attractive, easy to use, feature rich, and reliable. It has only one drawback - a new release will never come and you can't modify the source code yourself. "

To me, this places you in a corner that as your intranet grows, that will be hard to get out of.

But then you can look at it this way. Datagate is a great starting point. As your needs of the intranet grow hopefull your skills a web designer will. At that time, hopefully you do redesign and put your new skills to the test.

I am sorry to say that I do not have time to download and test the datagate software. But from a quick look, it looks like a good place to start.

Good luck