Hey all,
I recently came up with the idea of putting all of my companies policies and procedures on a private wiki rather than having them scattered about in emails and handbooks. To my pleasant surprise, the management folks were immediately receptive to the idea. They want to host the wiki on our VPN, something I have no familiarity with. Anyone know how we could go about doing such a thing?
I’m not sure what you are asking. VPNs aren’t really networks to configure servers on. They are usually software running on a server/gateway that allows remote users to connect and then access the regular network.
If you have an IT department, they would be the best people to talk to. What needs to be done will depend on how your network is setup.
Depending on the specifics of your network setup, you should be able to just setup a server as you normally would. Once users connect to the vpn, they will be able to connect to it as if they are at work.
Clarification: We already have a VPN. What we’re looking for is some wiki software or service that would only allow employees to view the wiki if they’re logged into the VPN.
If we had an IT department, I’m sure they’d be able to help, but alas, we are IT-less.
So, you won’t be hosting this in-house, then? It’ll be on a public Web host?
Does everyone on your VPN have the same IP? (I don’t know if that’s the default action for VPNs…)
If so, you need to add an .htaccess file to your Web site (provided it’s on an Apache server) (which it most likely will be) and set it to only allow the IP(s) used by your VPN.
Does your organization use Google Apps? If so, you can use the wiki feature built into that. It’s not as powerful as MediaWiki (which powers Wikipedia), but it supports different permission levels (such as only logged in users can view it) out of the box, and integrates with your existing user accounts.
Otherwise, MediaWiki can be configured for private usage, but it’s a whole can-o-worms that you’ll have to regularly maintain – whether you host it yourself or get an outside provider to do so. I don’t know how sensitive the information you want to put on there is, but just keep in mind that once stuff is on the internet, it could be exposed accidentally or by malware, etc. Weigh the convenience vs risk for yourselves.
If you want to host it on your own VPN, that should be possible as long as you control the VPN host too (i.e., it’s not third-party VPN service leased to your company). If you do, you can set up a web server on the VPN (there are ready-made software packages, such as WAMP or XAMPP for Windows, or the built-in stuff on OSX or Linux). Configuring them isn’t terribly difficult for someone that knows what they’re doing, as both the server and the MediaWiki software comes with mostly automated installers. You would just configure the web server to only accept requests for internal IP addresses and not the rest of the Internet.
Last option, if you’re willing to pay ($1 to $3 per user/mo), Zoho also offers a private/intranet wiki service. I haven’t tried their wiki service, but their other editors are powerful and relatively easy to use. The nice thing about that is that it’s all hosted and managed by them, so you don’t have to configure the software, just use it.