Cisco
Micro Webserver 100

The Cisco Micro webserver may well be one of the smallest internet appliances ever made. Out of the box it functions as a webserver and ftp server. This is the model 100, later Cisco marketed an upgraded version in a new case called the Micro Webserver 200 which also featured a built in hard drive. My Cisco 100 is extremely quiet since the only moving part is the Zip drive the only time the server makes any noise is when the drive is being accessed otherwise it sits quietly in standby mode.

It was also the first with removable media. Cisco incorporated a 100MB Zip drive as the primary drive containing your web pages and other files.

The Zip drive is the largest part of the unit.

The rear of the unit has a SCSI port, terminal port, two toggle switches that are used to set certain functions of the server, ethernet port, power plug and on/off switch. Searching the web turns up very little useful information on how this server works. If you did not receive a Zip disk with the webserver software on it you might have a hard time figuring it out. Even with the disk it takes a bit of head scratching to get her sorted out.

If you are lucky enough to get your server with the Zip drive you and insert it into a Mac and copy off some of the read me files which will give you some clues as to the setup.

The most frustrating thing I discovered was that you had to reset the IP address of the server using the rear dip switches. In normal operation the switch closest to the ethernet jack is in the down position. BUT if you need to reset the IP address of the server you need to clear the internal memory. This requires you to turn off the server, set that switch to the up position then power on the server. As soon as the network LED's start flashing you must flip this switch up and down for a minimum of twelve times, eg 6 up 6 down.

Now comes the tricky part, on that Cisco disk you have is a zipped file containing the images of two floppies. On these floppies are some configuration utilities, at this stage the most important one is the BOOTP Server utility but you should load all the utilities at this time. These can also be found on two floppies supplied with the Micro webserver.

Once you have reset the IP address you must run the BOOTP Server utility you have loaded on your PC. I used a Toshiba laptop running XP and a crossover cable. Start the laptop or PC first and open the BOOTP Server. You will need to know the MAC address of your Micro webserver, this is located on a sticker on the bottom of the unit. In the lower field of this utility you must enter the MAC address which is called Ethernet address in the top field, below it you will have to enter the IP address assigned to the server or if you are using a DHCP server the IP address assigned to the unit. Finally enter the Node Name and click ok.

Now start up the Micro webserver with it attached to the PC or laptop with the crossover cable. If all goes correctly after a few seconds you will see the Host Name, Ethernet address and IP address pop up in the Assignment history. If this matches the lower screen you have successfully reconfigured the IP address on the Micro webserver!

If all went well above you should be able to connect the Micro webserver to your network. To log into the server you enter it's IP address in your web browser plus the directory /serverhome. If everything is working correctly you will see the login screen above, you will also be asked to log into the server which is root and no password hopefully.

I posted some of the pages that are loaded on the Zip disk here these should help you through the configuration process if you did not receive the Zip disk.

If you click on the Config icon you will get a list of pages that will be used to configure the root directory and general setup of the server.

The fields on this page can be used to set up the network as well as turn on/off features of the server.

I should mention that all the pages you are currently accessing are stored on the Micro Webserver itself and not on the Zip disk. By usin the tools on this page you can format a Zip disk for use on the server as well as to assign a directory where you will be uploading your web pages.

Uploading pages is pretty straight forward, this can be accomplished via ftp or via a tool included with the server utilities called Micro Webserver File Transfer Utility. This utility will allow you to select and copy files to and from the server from your PC. A third utility is also included called Form Builder.

At this writing Cisco still had the user manual online as a series of web pages and as a series of downloadable PDF files. These can be found here, http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/iaabu/mweb/index.htm . Cisco produced two versions of the Micro Webserver the version discussed here was the Micro Webserver 100 which only has the built in Zip drive. A second more advanced device called the Micro Webserver 200 came out later and has a built in hard drive, upgraded case and a different power supply.

For it's time it was a pretty neat piece of gear, and actually serves up pages fairly quickly given it's limitations (zip drive). Documentation is somewhat obscure and finding the utilities online seems to be impossible so make sure your unit comes with the Cisco Micro webserver Zip Media Software ver 1.1 disk which has a part number of 80-1237-02. I accessed the files from my Mac which was how I was able to figure out how to set up the server finally. The missing piece of the puzzle was figuring out that you needed to point to the /serverhome directory in order to access the built in configuration tools on the server!

I used my Mac for the bulk of the setup of the server and for testing but you will need to use Firefox as Safari will not work correctly with the server. From a PC I use Internet Explorer.

Comments? Feel free to e-mail me at kevino@newsroom.net.