If these machines are on the Internet and the WWW running as servers of one kind or another, then what makes a computer/server an Internet site?

The minimum requirements for a Web server is the following: a computer with a large hard drive, lots of RAM, and a fast CPU; a modem, a telephone line of some kind (POTS, ISDN, T1 or T3), and a connection to another server site (university, commercial, or military). Considering that Timex/Synclair web-sites are running on a 1 Mhz Z80 cpu, a PowerMac 6500/200 may be overkill; a clock speed of 6 or 25 Mhz with a 68030 CPU would be sufficient.

A Mac Plus or SE will suffice for tiny to small sites where you don't expect to have many hits during the average web-day. Small office networks, college dorm students, and the occasional conspiracy theorist requiring a bit more speed and processing power can start with a Mac SE30 or Mac IIcx. If you want Turbo-charging and 4-wheel drive, start with a Mac IIci or IIx. Anything larger or faster requires a Mac IIfx or Quadra system.

Most server software ranges from 1/2 meg for a simple HTML web page server to 5 Megs for a WWW/FTP/Gopher server with more add-ons than a $45K luxury car. RAM must be sufficient to hold the OS and the Server software as well as the files being served, the pointers to and from the information being sent, and any extensions or programs you need to control the server. E-Mail requires additional RAM.

You'll need a hard drive of at least 500MB for a small web site (such as on a Mac Plus), and at least 1 gig for anything bigger. Besides the OS and Server Software, you need space for all the webpages and downloadable shareware files you want to serve. WebPages, besides their text, contain pictures and backgrounds, which take up more disk space, and e-Mail will require a few dozen more Megabytes.

How is it, you may ask, that a slow machine like a Mac Plus (or even a Timex Sinclair), can be fast enough to be a web site server?

Well, even a slow machine is faster in transferring data from the hard drive into its RAM and sending it down the serial port (to whatever is connected there), than the fastest T1 or ISDN connection. And a faster machine can complete this operation quicker than the best T3 connection. Once your site becomes popular though, you will need a faster machine.

Fernando Gutierrez is the moderator of the Vintage Mac SIG at NYMUG; as head of the Computer Center at the Lincoln Square Neighborhood Center, he has rescued countless Macs and made them useful again. He has also been a NYMUG member for several years.