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The LC 475 Web Server
The original inspiration for this LC 475 web server came from the Old Apple Web Server Directory, which provides an extensive list of some of the 68K Macs serving web pages today. After looking at various people's web sites served up by these old Macs, I decided that I would like to do the same myself.
But where to start? The obvious thing to do first was find a Mac that was suitable for use as a server. Fortunately, as a Mac collector, that was not much of a problem but the main issue was picking out the best Mac for the job. Since I intended to use Mac HTTP under the Mac OS, certain specifications were required, namely a minimum of 4MB RAM and System 7. Also an ethernet connection was necessary to physically attach the server to my ADSL router. My initial choice was the IIcx, mainly because there seem to be very few, if any, IIcx servers on the web. However, my IIcx has been slightly troublesome in the past and I wasn't too sure how such a machine would fare under always-on conditions, especially given it's age and slightly weak internal components. A quick check of Mactracker also revelaed that the IIcx can consume up to 159 Watts, which would give my electricity bill a noticable increase.
Eventually I settled on the LC 475 for a number of reasons:
1. Low power requirement. The LC 475 only uses 30W, which is half the consumption of an average household light bulb.
2. Fits all requirements for MacHTTP.
3. Ethernet is easily added with an LC PDS network card.
4. Very small, perfect for tucking away unobtrusively.
5. I had one spare!
It maybe wasn't the most original 68K server, (there are already a number of LC 475 and Quadra 605 servers), but it was the most logical choice.
I set to work preparing the server and the first thing I did was wipe the hard drive and do a fresh install of System 7.5.3. That done, I installed a few other things, notably Open Transport, RAM Doubler, Dynamic DNS Client, Timbuktu and of course MacHTTP. Next I set up a number of aliases in the Startup Items folder so that, in the event of a power cut, the server could on re-establishment of the electricity supply restart and begin serving pages again without my intervention. Since the LC 475 is hard-powered, (ie. has a rocker power switch), it will automatically switch on and off as the electricity supply dictates.
Next I went about the obvious bit: writing the web pages!
The final thing to sort out was location. I wanted to put the machine somewhere where the noise from the fan and hard drive wouldn't cause a disturbance, and also where other people and pets wouldn't interfere with it. After much head-scratching, I discovered that the LC 475 was almost exactly the same size as the drawers of the desk in my study - it fitted perfectly! I cleared out the bottom drawer and put the LC 475 inside. After running the power and network cable in I tried it out. It was fine but the noise of the fan and hard drive was still very audible, even with the drawer closed. This was mostly being cause by reverberation off the thin bottom of the drawer so I found an old bit of carpet and lined the drawer with it. A vast improvement - with the drawer shut you can hardly hear it at all. I did a trial run for a day whilst closely monitoring the temperature of the LC 475 to make sure that its enclosed location didn't cause it to overheat. The temperature remained at a steady 32 degrees Celcius which is within the acceptable operating temperature. There is in fact a narrow slit under the handle of the drawer that provides sufficient ventilation.
Finally the machine was ready to go live. After laying a cable to my ethernet switch and ensuring that the whole setup was tidy, I powered the server up on the evening of December 12th, 2007. Since then it has been dishing out pages all over the world and has run practically uninterrupted. The odd power cut and network issue have knocked it offline occasionally, but this is infrequent and is generally resolved quickly. I can keep an eye on the server log using Timbuktu and can update web pages over AppleTalk.
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Long may the LC 475 server continue!