Help me turn my mac mini into a home web and file server

The easiest way (though not the cheapest) would be to upgrade to OSX Server; the server edition has a built-in web server with a GUI administration tool. This is the setup I've used (also with a PowerPC Mac Mini) for a couple of years, and it has worked great. I use Remote Desktop when I need graphical access to the machine, otherwise just ftp and ssh for deploying website updates. If you have another Mac (besides the one you want to use for a web server), then you can also download Apple's Server Admin tools, which will allow you to monitor the server from that computer (over you home wired/wireless network). As long as you have a static IP address, there's no reason you can't use the "regular" (non-server) edition of OS X, but you'd have to download and install the web server of your choice; I'm afraid I've never done that, so I don't have any pointers there. If you can afford to upgrade to OS X Server, that would be my recommendation. If you decide to go that route, feel free to email me directly (address is in my profile), and I can walk you through setting everything up.

Hi that_girl, this sounds awesome. I've had a little experience setting up Apache (web server) on Apple computers, as well as a nice horrendous little boo-boo where I opened up mod_proxy on the configuration and had hundreds of computers from around the world using my poor little web server as an anonymous proxy. So I definitely recommend you take the time to learn how to secure your Apache installation, and that you keep it up-to-date, preferably with a package like Fink that automatically takes care of upgrades for you. The biggest thing you should learn is a little about the command line (Applications/Utilities/Terminal.App). Although there's a GUI equivalent for just about everything these days, you can do a lot of important work like quickly inspecting files (cat) or quickly turning the apache server on and off using this tool. You will need to be able to get files on and off your Mac using either SFTP or SCP. I recommend either a GUI Tool like Transmit, or learning how to use these at the command-line (scp), and (sftp). You will need to be able to work remotely, that's where (ssh) or vnc come in. This is your choice depending on how you want to work. As you know, you'll need to be editing a fair amount of text files. TextEdit really should be sufficient for most things, but consider an Integrated Development Environment if you decide to do any serious programming. I haven't used this http://switch.richard5.net/isp-in-a-box-v2/installing-mysql-on-mac-os-x/, but apparently it will solve your PHP installation problems for Mac. On Preview: I have no familiarity with OS X Server but it does seem like a nice for-money solution.

Get http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-macosx.html, setup ssh (system preferences > sharing > remote login) server for remote logins. XAMPP is not secure at all by default, but it can be tightened up.

http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-macosx.html "XAMPP for Mac OS X is the simplest, most practical and most complete webserver solution for Mac OS X. The distribution includes an Apache 2 web server, integrated with the latest builds of MySQL, PHP (both 4 and 5) and Perl. It comes as a Mac OS X Installer package which contains all the necessary files and requires no dependencies." I've seen it recommended quite a few times on here.

Another note about OS X Server edition-- it also comes with MySQL pre-installed, and configurable through the Server Admin app (though I've never used it; I prefer PostgreSQL instead). As others have mentioned, there are plenty of possibilities for setting up a web server on your existing OS, but I thought I'd mention the server edition because I've found the built-in features to be a huge time-saver.

While OS X Server sounds quite nice, it's perhaps above and beyond for my needs (seeing as I'm just trying to set up something largely personal with preexisting equipment). As for other things, I remember running into problems with VNC if I tried to start up my mini without peripherals (like the monitor and keyboard etc.) attached, i.e. it didn't transmit any video output. Is this expected, or weird? I'm pretty sure xampp was one of those things I tried where I still ran into the php-not-working problems. I'll try again, but I think my current installation of apache might mess things up, so here's a basic-er mac question: how do I get the stuff already there Off Again? I need to have a way of editing files that doesn't use ssh as my workplace blocks port 22. FTP should work--what do I need to do to set up an FTP server? onalark:these are more or less the sorts of things I know, and so I'm more looking into the How of the doing, not of the What to do.

http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html it. As Gordon Ramsay would say: "Done!"

that_girl: sorry, sometimes it's hard to get a read on what people are actually asking here. I need to have a way of editing files that doesn't use ssh as my workplace blocks port 22. FTP should work--what do I need to do to set up an FTP server? I HATE it when companies do this. You don't want to run a basic FTP server because they're extremely insecure, see if you can figure out what ports are still open and then set up your sshd to listen on them. Two infrequently blocked ports are 8080 (alternative http) and 443 (secure http). Another good port for you might be 110 (POP Mail), but all of this depends on your host. Note that you only want to use secure http if you aren't using it already for your web server, however it is almost never blocked. Also, once you have ssh working, you get scp and sftp for free since they all work over the same layer. As for getting Apache off, it depends on how you installed it. Different installers will put Apache in different locations. Most of the time, turning it off is sufficient as a new install will either pay no attention to your old install or overwrite all the required files.

Oh, yes, MySQL doesn't come with OS X (last time I looked). You'll need to download it from the MySQL site, but the installer's a breeze. Just secure it afterwards.