XAMPP for production in Intranet only

[ajaykumarmeher]

Hello

I have read in quite a places that XAMPP can not be used for production as it has many security flaws.
However I would like to use it in my intranet for hosting a few php applications for almost 700-800 users.
My network is very well protected and t will be totally isolated from outside world.
In that case do you guys suggest me to use XAMPP (just ignore the security flaw)

I basically like to know if it has any issues with crashng or hanging or any operational issues for use in an environment of upto 1000 users.

Please help me...

[wannamartin]

Not sure how you are set up, you are much larger than we. But we are having a hard time using XAMPP as a production server for a very small intranet (2 people).

We have two web designers who have to collaborate on projects. We loaded XAMPP onto one of the designers PCs, loaded Joomal, and got everything working on localhost. Our issue is when the other designer tries to access the files via a browser on another computer. The designer can connect and view the Joomla web site, but had difficulty when using the administrator area. They can login, and get to a few of the pages within the admin area, but the problem is that the browser keeps jumping back to a URL with the name "localhost" instead of the IP address of the real localhost computer with XAMPP installed.

We have tried to adjust the Apache httpd.conf file to listen for the IP addresses and ports we think should be set. Of course the localhost works great, but the other computer on the network has problems keeping IP address for the localhost computer.

Here is what we have:
- PC1 = the localhost's IP address which is 192.168.5.199 (has XAMPP installed)
- PC2 = the IP address is 192.168.5.113 (no web server installed)

PC1 enters into the browser: http://localhost/websitename/administrator And logs in and gets the admin web site and all is well.
PC2 enter into the browser: http://192.168.5.199/websitename/administrator. Logs in, but whenever they make changes and save, the URL in the web browser switches to
http://localhost/websitename/whatever... and stops working. ***Notice that the URL changed from 192.168.5.199 to show localhost instead.

So...How do we make the localhost on PC2 (the one with no web sever running locally) change the URL it keeps changing to http://localhost/ to remain entered as http://192.168.5.199/ (where the real XAMPP web server is running)?

[Altrea]

Looks like a configuration Problem with Joomla, not Apache.
Can you define a root-directory in Joomla? or root-url or something like that

[wannamartin]

Looks like a configuration Problem with Joomla, not Apache.
Can you define a root-directory in Joomla? or root-url or something like that

I was thinking about this last night as I tossed and turned and my mind running 100mph. I will test this today and report back so others following this will know the results. Thanks for the fast reply!

[kenmcd]

Sounds like you have Joomla configuration set to localhost/websitename.
This will only work for the user actually on the localhost.
localhost is always the user's own system, so the server cannot be accessed by another user via localhost.
localhost to them is their own system.

Change the Joomla configuration to be a location which can be accessed by all users.
Such as the XAMPP server's internal LAN IP address: 192.168.5.199/websitename/
Then all users access via this address, not localhost.

There is no way to access Joomla via multiple addresses without hacking the core.

[wannamartin]

Well, we kind of got this working. We altered the configuration.php file in Joomla to show var $live_site=' '; instead of var $live_site='http://192.168.5.199/website';.

Now, our issue is that when we click on any links on the joomla made pages, the URL changes to show a double IP address. Meaning, if I enter http://192.168.5.199/website into the browser from a computer on the lan (other than the localhost computer), I get the home page displaying just fine. However, if I continue and click on one of the links of the menu on the page, the URL changes to http://192.168.5.199/192.168.5.199/website/pageurl.html and the browser gives a 404 error.

Any thoughts?

[kenmcd]

.
That URL looks like the Joomla issue when the live_site setting is missing and SEF is On.
That and pageurl.html looks like you have SEF On - turn it Off until you get access working.
That will eliminate an additional factor.

I would set-up a virtual host in Apache.
Then the site would have it's own domain name and Joomla would be happy.
Call it whatever you want - e.g. ourwebsite

Add virtual host to:
C:\xampp\apache\conf\extra\httpd-vhosts.conf

Example virtual host:

##### ourwebsite #####
<VirtualHost *:80>
DocumentRoot "C:/xampp/htdocs/ourwebsite"
ServerName ourwebsite
</VirtualHost>

Make sure to change (in the same file)
#NameVirtualHost *:80
to
NameVirtualHost *:80

Restart Apache


I assume your intranet has some sort of name server.
Point ourwebsite to 192.168.5.199
Or if you have just a few computers, just add it to their hosts file.
hosts file example:
192.168.5.199 ourwebsite

Restart their computers to read the hosts file changes.


Joomla config file
var $live_site='http://ourwebsite';

Then all users just enter:
http://ourwebsite

.

[wannamartin]

Thanks Kenmcd. I will work on your suggestions this week and see how it goes.