Start Web Sharing in OS X Mavericks & Mountain Lion the Easy Way with a Preference Panel

Sep 7, 2012 - 3 Comments

Web Sharing preference panel in OS X

Many people have noticed the simple web sharing option was pulled from System Preferences in OS X Mavericks and Mountain Lion. The server software still exists and you can start Apache server on your Mac yourself within a minute or two of mucking about in the Terminal, but for some people the command line is just too much of a hassle.

If you’d rather have an easier approach to starting the hidden web server in Mac OS X, grab a free third party preference with the most obvious name ever, WebSharing.

WebSharing preference panel works in OS X Mavericks and Mountain Lion, and it basically automates the stuff you’d otherwise be doing yourself from the command line to tweak the apache servers, much like what used to exist in the “Web Sharing” preference setting that was once contained within the Sharing prefs of OS X.

Double-click to install the preference pane, and then starting Apache becomes just a matter of flipping a big ON and OFF switch, acting as a front-end to apachectl in the command line. Once it’s running everything else is the same, the directory being served is still your user ~/Sites/ folder so toss in an index.html file and have at it.

Thanks to Jason for the tip

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Posted by: Paul Horowitz in Mac OS, Tips & Tricks

3 Comments

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  1. Michael Pickard says:

    The Web Sharing panel is no longer available. Instead, there’s a $49 commercial product from the same developer.

  2. Jane says:

    I can’t get the darn PHP to work. I can’t uncomment it either in the file to save or to do it via the terminal.

  3. olmo47 says:

    Thanks Jason.

    say can you send my way more info. how to make it work?

    I use tether program thru my cell phone (no internet in home) and like to connect my iPad via laptop, can this preferences help? I have a Macbook pro mid 2011 iPad 3, Mountain Lion, any help are welcome.

    thanks

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