Appropriate technologies for an Intranet (?)

figuring out what the appropriate technologies are for an intranet

[bowie101]

setting up an intranet. we are attached to an IIS server, but with the proper persuasion, there is still time to go with apache. But maybe IIS is fine.

Here's my question..

what are the appropriate technologies that will handle my intranet needs? what are the appropriate MS and other proprietary technologies? and, what are the appropriate open-source technologies?

Intranet - 1) certain part of it accessible only by management. other parts accessible by both employees and management. this would be based on their logging in their username and password when they first logged their computer on to the local domain. So, if possible, no password needed once you are on the intranet. All the permissions/access restrictions are "resolved" or in memory, or something like that, before getting onto the intranet. So that on the intranet itself, as I say, you don't need a seperate password.

2) Accessing and sharing of common folders/files/directories that exist on another server somewhere, via the intranet. With various levels of permissions again.

am i being clear? it sounds so elemental, as i type it out. but i think that we are talking about some technology or 2, that i don't know enough about.

Thanks, B

[slade7]

I manage a corporate intranet. I also manage a large data driven web site that runs on Linux/Apache

But for the intranet, we already have Windows server 2003 w/ IIS 6 on it, so I use that

I installed mysql 5 something & php 4 something and phpmyadmin, mysql fron, etc. Works great. I've done this to two different servers, and it's pretty easy to set up.

I use the built in php sessions to handle user auth. No cookies, so they get logged out if they close the browser.

The only problem I have is making PHP's mail function work. It's a no brainer on apache, but with a cranky sysadmin and exchange server, you need to be Windows savvy to make it work (I am not Windows savvy)

[bowie101]

thanks. you don't do the directory/file sharing on other servers via the intranet, do you?

Where can i read more about the php session stuff of which you write about?

Thanks for this.

anyone else?

[pmkpmk]

There's a trend in Intranets towards Wiki technology. Reasons are that its level of acceptance among employees is high and that a critical mass of contribution is reached easily.

Check out Mediawiki as the de-facto standard.

[slade7]

Our windows network admin dude handles the directory sharing stuff. Basically all the resources I use on the intranet web site are stored on the server under the root folder for IIS web site that I set up.

The way our system works is that the users go into "my computer" or network neighborhood, etc and can get to any shares that way. Having the intranet web site site as a central location helps solve some of the problems that causes. I just retrieve whatever resources from the vast array of crap that we have here and there, and deposit it in the iis root site so people can find it.

But mainly we use the intranet site for data - mysql databases.

[slade7]

There's a trend in Intranets towards Wiki technology

Wiki is not a buzz word that I normally think of, but all of our intranet data is managed this way. With our databases, most anyone can change or add to the data... comments, lots of stuff. So the lion's share of our intranet pages are generated from user input - good or bad. It works well for us - we are a small company - around 50 employees.

[pmkpmk]

You CAN use traditional databases in a Wiki way. We relied heavily on Lotus Notes for the last decade, but you see a strong trend towards a "real" Wiki lately. The developers started using it first because - though basically Notes does the same - the Wiki approach seems more liberal and easy. Plus that cross-references in a Wiki are a piece of cake whereas in Notes they are quite painful.

[edited by: pmkpmk at 5:08 pm (utc) on Dec. 20, 2005]

[bowie101]

and with mediawiki, you can can enforce restrictions/permissions?