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Use case : Using UwAmp portable on a portable hard disk drive. It's loaded on a windows computer on a wired LAN network (in a school's computer lab), and UwAmp is launched. There is a static website loaded with educational content (see RACHEL). The IP address is noted using ipconfig and students on other computers type it into their browser to access the site.

Mission: We want to bring in an interactive website here, where users can log in to their accounts and post content, comments, or edit wiki page, etc (nothing on the internet, mind: this is on a LAN).

Challenge: The IP address keeps changing; even the PC at which the portable server is loaded can change at any time. The HDD has to go to another LAN network on the campus on other days of the week. The whole folder will also get copied to other HDDs and travel to other schools and continue operation elsewhere. And so CMS's like Wordpress that seemingly depend on the full URL (which is the old IP address or localhost).. crash.

It's a portable local web server that's supposed to hop locations and not be chained to IP addresses. The solutions I've seen so far belong to completely different use-cases: they involve editing database tables or setting up aliases and editing the hosts file on all the machines including clients, which is just not possible here.

So, requesting help in setting up a changing-IP-address-proof interactive website (php.. wordpress.. wiki.. whatever works!) on a local server like UwAmp, with no configuration changes required when the IP address changes. Thanks in advance!

Nikhil VJ
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  • Just wanted to express a little exasperation at the fact that simple static HTML pages don't mind changing URL paths, load dependencies using relative paths, and are able to flexibly deliver where "no-coding-required" CMS's are crashing. – Nikhil VJ Jan 04 '15 at 13:55
  • Use linux instead, then you can use a cron job to lookup the ip/hostname and run a script to update files and db values. Or simply dont use a CMS that uses persistent urls in a db. – Lawrence Cherone Jan 04 '15 at 13:58
  • Set the portable server's IP address to a static one in the network card's settings. You just have to make sure it has the same `subnet` as the router it's currently connected to. @LozCheroneツ you can do that with Windows Task Scheduler as well! – Sven Jan 04 '15 at 13:58
  • @Svenskunganka yeah but where's the fun in that ;p – Lawrence Cherone Jan 04 '15 at 14:00
  • It really sucks! :P Batch with Task Scheduler is a pain. @OP I really suggest you to just get a live server. If this is something your school provides, their sys admin should be able to identify this portable server on their VPN. – Sven Jan 04 '15 at 14:00
  • @LozCheroneツ that's exactly what I need : "something that doesn't use persistent urls in a db". Thanks for giving the right word. Now, of you know such a solution then please share! – Nikhil VJ Jan 04 '15 at 15:13
  • @Svenskunganka these schools, sysadmins? VPNs? Sorry, we're way on the other side of the digital divide here. No on-demand tech assistance on the field whatsoever. The computers are connected by LAN wires to a plug-and-play LAN router.. that's the maximum techy we can get. The solution needs to be literally plug-and-play. – Nikhil VJ Jan 04 '15 at 16:07

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So it turns out that phpBB and many other forums, as well as Joomla as a CMS/blog alternative to wordpress, have none of wordress's problems with changing URL paths! You have to actually test each one out to find out for sure.. there's seemingly no published parameter that specifies this.

I tested them in UwAmp on my home wi-fi network.. set up the site using "localhost" URL path, then browsed to them from another machine using the IP address. Could browse, register, log in, post.. it all worked fine.

I then moved the whole site to a sub-folder and repeated the test.. no issues. I then changed the folder's name mid-flight (ie, while I was logged on).. and typing the correct path in the URL bar returned me to the forum with the session still active!

The same worked from my small android phone too (on wifi).

Now this is what I call resiliency. Thumbs up for phpBB and family, thumbs down for wordpress. If they don't need full paths to work, neither should you.

Other forums tested that work in this use-case (no-internet, path changing): SimpleMachinesForum, FluxBB, UseBB. There were others that while being path-resilient, failed the test because they needed internet connection or a working SMTP server at user registration stage. (I tested around 7 total including phpBB)

A shout-out to all the questions posted about wordpress crashing on path or server-address change : use Joomla or something instead!

Nikhil VJ
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