How To Set Up webERP to run on a Local Area Network
This Question came up on the webERP Mailing List
> > I would like to find out if it is possible to run a weberp set up like a
> > normal networked office accounting system.
> >
> > I mean to say, several computers in an office using their browsers through
> > the office network, to access weberp locally at
> > http://localhost/weberp/index.php hosted on one of the computers . Just as
> > they would if weberp was hosted on the internet. If so, is it advisable to
> > run such a setup as an organizations main accounting system ?
> >
This is perfectly ok - but you will need to give your computer a name as
all computers normally in windows and *nix are given the name localhost.
I suggest that for a small network you give the computer that is running
the web-server possibly using XAMP WAMP, Apache2triad or similar has an
entry in its hosts file to uniquely identify it - say weberp_server -
say this computer has an ip address of 192.168.1.1
All other computers on this 192.168.1.* network on your LAN would then
need an entry in their hosts file under windows I think it's
C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts - you can edit it in notepad and add a
line for
192.168.1.1 weberp_server
under linux or unix it's normally under /etc/hosts
now you will be able to access http://weberp_server/ from a browser on
this machine. You need to edit the hosts file on each machine (unless
you set up a local DNS (Domain Name Server) and have a DHCP (Dynamic
Host Configuration Protocol) server automatically giving out the address
of your DNS - most internet routers have a DHCP server built in and you
can modify the settings easily using a web-interface normally - if you
set the first DNS server to 192.168.1.1 your weberp_server, (you will
need to make sure the second DNS server is the router otherwise your
machines won't be able to access the internet) then I think it will just
use it's hosts file if a DNS is not set up.
The IP address used for the weberp server is irrelevant, but needs to be consistent with the rest of the network. Typical local LAN ranges:
192.168.x.x
10.x.x.x
172.16.x.x
Where the x is a 0-254.
Each machine needs a unique IP address, but the SAME subnet mask as the rest of the network PCs that communicate with it.
Subnet Masks typically:
255.255.255.0
255.0.0.0
255.255.0.0
As for above IP addressing ranges.
Much can and does go wrong with Window's networking. Viruses/trojans love to manipulate the hosts file and the registry to stuff up networking. You don't want your accounting system to be compromised by a virus. So if you can avoid Windows as a server, and load Linux instead, then do so.
One of the easiest to install and administer is Ubuntu. Instructions for the webserving setup here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ApacheMySQLPHP