Newbie alert: Apache on Mac

I hope it's OK posting these questions here even if this hosting is very private, i.e. the localhost I use for testing web sites.

Let it be known that I'm a complete newbie.

I'm having issues grasping how the server on my Mac actually works, and to no avail, I have been reading tutorials and explanations until my face turned blue.

I'm on OS 10.3.7 on G5 1.8 single prop with 1Gb SDRAM. I'm the only user, and have a dozen sites stored in user/Sites/, meaning that it's not ONE site at root level, but several one step down.

1. Have tried to make the server parse shtml for includes - in vain (e.g. by uncommenting the
AddType text/html .shtml
AddHandler server-parsed .shtml
in file private/etc/httdp/httpd.config
Never made it work. Are there other changes I must make?

2. I can access the sites via three different URIs (I can't get the includes to work in any, even in I see the pages OK otherwise):

http://192.168.0.2/~name/ which is the computer's network IP (generated by a router) this address makes document relative links in the pages turn to root relative (!!!). Hence, Apache reports it can't find the page. Why is the server turning doc relative links into root relative???

http://user-name-computer.local/~username/ is doing exactly the same thing as above: Turning doc related links root relative.

http://127.0.0.1/~username/ This won't even recognize .shtml as file extension but shows pure code when accessing the pages.

3. A non-geeky question: Are there any (free) good control panels for Apache on Mac available? Or do I really have to fiddle with code directly in docs all the time?

I'm more than grateful for help and explanations.

Cheers,
Dan

 

 

 

 

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