How do I setup CalDav and CardDav servers on my Mac to enable local 'cloud' syncing in Mavericks

emorig helped with the sudo command.

Unless you are connected directly to the internet, then your router is intercepting anything that would have any ability to get into your Mac. You are not connected to the internet if your IP address on the Mac starts with 10., 172.16, or 192.168, then you are on a private network behind a router.

The web server doesn't do anything unless something tries to talk to it. It is "listening" for those conversations, but I don't think that uses much of anything.

Thank you emorig and Barney.

The tip to enable Administrator privileges in a Standard account is great and will be useful in this case and other situations.

I am no longer concerned with Baïkal using system resources but the security one remains. I often connect to the Internet in public places (ethernet or wi-fi) and don't have control over network administrations. Chances of being hacked may not be very high but I guess disabling the server if it's easy wouldn't hurt.

Automator looks like a great option but I am not familiar with it. It could end up being another learning curve. Would it be possible to automate:

1- Enabling administrator privileges in a Standard account with a prompt for the admin password (wouldn't want to preset the password), followed by:

2- Starting or stopping Apache, followed by:

3- Disabling administrator privileges in the Standard account

I found this searching for a solution:

http://clickontyler.com/web-sharing/

I tried it out and it works fine to start and stop the web server (which is hosting the Baïkal server).

When you install it (by double-clicking the download), it will ask if you want to install it for all users. Make sure you choose that option.

When you switch it on or off as an unprivileged user, it presents the standard authentication dialog for you to enter your admin user name and password.

Thanks again Barney. This works like a charm.

This sort of completes my experiment with the Baïkal server sync solution for now. I know that it can be done when starting on a clean slate and when following Barney's instructions carefully. I have yet to implement it on my current system. I messed up my Apache setup and will need to start with a clean install of Mavericks which I am not yet ready to do. I will probable wait for 10.9.2. Who knows, maybe Apple will surprise us with some solution. Otherwise, Baïkal will be the way to go.

Thanks James for the suggestion. These commands won't help. They return "No such file or directory" as I don't have a "httpd.conf.defaultserver" or a "sites" folder. I had already replaced the config and some extra files in the apache2 folder with originals as recommended in a different thread but I still can't get the server to run. I think I really messed it up with some other experiments. I don't know if it makes a difference but I am currently running Mountain Lion.

I would feel more confident to succeed with the Baïkal installation after cleaning up the system with a Mavericks clean install. Plus, it will allow me to create a missing Recovery Partition. I guess it's time to clean up the house.

I am going on a vacation and won't use my computer for at least a week. Hence the desire to not make any big changes for now.

Best wishes to all for the new year!

Today is Friday 24 january. Suddenly my contacts stopped synching via Baikal server. Now my phone contacts is empty. I did a test entry on my phone and on my mac for the calendar and it is still working.

The only thing I did this morning was install the latest version of itunes as prompted. But surely that would not cause this? If it did it is a sinister thing to have done.

Restore your backup copy.

I have discovered that I can no longer connect to the baikal server - http://localhost:8080 ???

Is apache running?

Try

sudo apachectl start

If it is already running it will tell you. Otherwise, it will start up.

You might also consider the Preference Pane I posted earlier.

The only thing I did this morning was install the latest version of itunes as prompted. But surely that would not cause this? If it did it is a sinister thing to have done.

It didn't stop anything on my Mac, nor did it affect my Baïkal server.

I tried to install Baikal Server today. I followed the instructions by Barney-15E at https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6311 and got as far as the end of the "Create Self-signed SSL Certificates". I was unable to find and (quote) "delete the files created in your home folder (server.crt, server.key, server.key.org, server.csr)".

When I tried to run the command "apachectl configtest" at the beginning of the "Start the Web Server (and your new CardDAV and CalDAV servers)". I ran into a lot of trouble. Syntax was not OK.

Does anyone know where I can get advice? I am concerned that all the changes I've made may cause problems if I don't get this set up. I'm assuning there is no way of asking Barney-15E about this.

Using: MacBook Pro Retina 15" running 10.9.1

Post the response to the configtest.

I think some of those key files listed were an error. Did you find any of them?

To restore the original config:

All of the orginal config files are in the /etc/apache2/original folder.

Copy (don't move) them from the original folder to where they are in the apache2 folder.