sonepoxy2015:1435257775 wrote
I tried to use the DokuWiki on a stick
That should definitely work well enough on your local machine. Not sure how well it works inside a local network.
sonepoxy2015:1435257775 wrote
and that worked but then I was told to upgrade (I got all kinds of scary security warnings) which I then did and that 2009 version doesn't work
2009? Where did you download your version from? Please always download from
http://download.dokuwiki.org/, that will always give you the latest version.
sonepoxy2015:1435257775 wrote
it looks as though I have to install separately php and apache I think and the micro versions for those leads to all sorts of overly complex (for me!) pages.
Whatever you do, you need Apache and PHP but there are various solutions which bundle those two and more. Have a look at the
alternative install methods. Maybe a
Bitnami Stack would be the best for you.
sonepoxy2015:1435257775 wrote
Basically at this point I have no idea if it's possible to install to a local server/desktop computer for testing between a few PCs on the LAN
It most definitely is possible. The question is how easy or difficult it will be for you.
Don't you have an existing school server for things like this? School was a long time ago for me, but I would assume various web applications would be part of modern school life?