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Intranets in an instant

Wouldn't it be great if intranet servers were really easy to use, set up and manage? And what if you could buy one of these devices today, for a pittance? You'd be happy, right?

Well, put on your dancing shoes, because you can pick among four products that meet these requirements. Cisco Systems, Inc., Compact Devices, Inc., Microtest, Inc. and Webtronics, Inc. have each released what amounts to a Web server in a box.

These "information appliances" for the intranet are small, simple and cheap, which makes them perfect for hosting workgroup and departmental intranet content. But there is a downside: Only one of the products provides the ability to run back-end scripts. Without this capability, you'll run into problems if you need to serve forms on the intranet.

"Zerving" the intranet

Microtest's history of providing information appliances dates back to 1989 with the release of the LANPort network printer. In September, it threw a Web server, called WebZerver, into the company's product mix.

WebZerver is a small box, measuring approximately 9 1/4 by 6 by 2 /4 inches, powered by a 12V adapter. WebZerver's back panel sports only the power connector, a 10Base-T/ 100Base-TX port and a SCSI connector. The front panel has four lights - one each for status, network activity, network speed and drive activity - and a reset button.

Internally, WebZerver has an Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. 486133MHz processor with 8M bytes of RAM and a 2.IG-byte disk drive. The SCSI port allows the attachment of up to seven devices, including disk drives, CDROMs, DVD drives, Magneto-optical, EZFlyer, SyJet, JAZ and ZIP drives. This allows for a wide range of storage options.

The device runs Linux, a Unix clone, and the Apache Web server software, both available in the public domain, as well as a File Transfer Protocol (FTP) server. Bundled with the system are a number of utilities, including EazyPrint, which provides a Windows driver so applications can print documents directly to Web server storage, EazySite, for controlling content style, and an FTP client.

WebZerver also supports conferencing, so users can exchange and review comments. It also provides the standard Web server Basic Auth-entication that allows access control by user name and password.

Configuration and management is done through a Web interface and, if your network is already running Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), the WebZerver will autoconfigure its address accordingly. Installation, including time for reading the manual, takes 20 minutes at most.

A compact device

Compact Devices because the main competitor in the Web appliance market when it launched Twister in May. From a more modest platform than WebZerver - an Intel Corp. 80186 running at 40MHz with 1M byte of RAM - Twister provides excellent performance using its own operating system and server software.

Among the services the device can deliver are HTTP, FTP, Trivial FTP, which is a simpler version of FTP, and telnet, for remote console access to the system for configuration.

Like WebZerver, Twister is small -- approximately 8 by 7 by 2 1/4 inches. It has a 1.2C-byte internal hard disk with expansion via a SCSI connector on the back panel. Expansion options allow for a single SCSI or ZIP drive and up to five CD-ROM drives.

The back panel also has a serial port for setup purposes if required (setup usually is done across the network using the device's Web-based management interface) and a network port for 10Base-T connections.

Twister can be automatically configured, and Compact Devices tops that capability with a neat feature for sites that don't use DHCP, BOOTP or Reverse Address Resolution Protocol to allocate IP addresses. The product includes a utility that emulates DHCP from a Windows 95 workstation for automatically assigning an IP address to a new unit.

Twister has a more complex options and management set than WebZerver and provides more flexibility. Compact Devices includes Net-It Software Corp.'s Net-It Now documentto-Web converter for Windows applications and Claris Corp.'s Home Page editing tool for Windows and the Macintosh.

The Twister Web server supports Basic Authentication and provides detailed configuration of user page content and styles.

"For IT departments that are short-handed, this box is truly plug and play," says Tony Bilyj, chief of network management for the Department of Veteran's Affairs (VA).

Bilyj installed Twister several months ago to serve 270 intranet users. He hasn't had to monkey around with the product since. "It's a pleasant change that we haven't had to touch the hardware," Bilyj says, adding that the VA may need to install more Twister servers if interest in the intranet continues growing.

Cisco also sees potential in this market. It offers Micro Webserver, which is Compact Devices' Twister technology on Cisco hardware. However, Cisco has stripped down Twister so the main storage is a lOOM-byte ZIP drive, which gives somewhat lower performance, and bundles in different add-on utilities.

Out of the box

Webtronics WebBox is a new entrant in this arena. This product is based on a Motorola, Inc. MC68EN RISC processor running at 20MHz with 4M bytes of RAM.

WebBox is unique in that it is solid state: The storage is 512K bytes of read-only memory (ROM) and 4M bytes of flash ROM, expandable to 20M bytes, with no options for adding other storage devices. A plus for the WebBox is its support for scripting, although you'll need to be proficient in Tool Command Language, commonly known as Tcl.