Is there a definitive guide for setting up Mamp Pro so local network users can view/edit sites?

Question

I've been researching how to setup a LAN Mamp Pro server so local users can edit/view sites - but there seems to be a lot of confusion (at least I'm confused based on why I've read).

Specific questions:

Running Apache/Mysql as www/mysql: When I switch the users to www/mysql I see permissions issues and can't login to my CMS from the machine running Mamp Pro. What's the best way of fixing this or running Mamp Pro - taking into consideration permissions when using pushing to DEV and LIVE servers using Git and Github.

Ports: What is more secure, running Mamp Pro using ports 8888/8889 or the defaults of 80/3306? And is the only difference adding/not adding port numbers when viewing sites?

Access to sites by users on the same LAN: What are the steps for getting this working - the firewall on the MAMP Pro machine is currently off to test the basic setup but no one on our local network can connect to the sites - have tried 192.168.0.1:8888 & virtualhostname:8888

Sorry if this is easy but for a paid product, Mamp Pro help and support is pretty scarce and I suspect this stuff is easy if you know how to setup a linux server - but if you don't know how to do this, it's why you purchase MAMP Pro right?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Cheers

Ben

Answer 1

Here's what I did:

Setup:

• I'm developing the site on my local computer

• Mamp Pro is running on my local computer

• I would like other people on the local network to login to the CMS on my computer and update the CMS

Server settings:

• Use the default ports 80/3306 (just don't have web sharing turned on in OSX prefs) - I'm sure you could use the MAMP ports if you want

• Run Apache/MySQL server as users www/mysql

Virtual host settings:

• Give your server a name

• Leave local name resolution on

• Add the IP address of the computer Mamp Pro is running on e.g. 192.167.1.1

• Add a port number (this will be the unique way of identifying sites on the LAN - see below for more) I just used port 8888

• If you had a site setup prior to switching the Apache/MySQL users, click the "Permissions" button under the disk location and set owner to www and the group to admin so your local admin account has access - click "Set"

• If the above step doesn't work properly, you'll now need to CMD + I the website directory and ensure your local machine admin has rights to read and write to the directory - be sure to click the cog and select "Apply to enclosed items" so the rights get applied to the directories inside

• Start the virtual host

Accessing the site from another machine on the same LAN:

• Enter the IP address of the Mamp Pro machine followed by the port number you entered

• e.g. http://192.168.1.1:8888/

• If you have multiple sites, just enter a different port number in the setup

This works for me and staff can now edit the CMS and view the site but it seems a bit 'hacky' to me using a different port for each site as the way to differentiate sites in development.

Please sing out if there's abetter way - this is just how I got it working.