You have to be dead to miss the emphasis on Windows NT Server as an Internet and intranet Web server. You have to be only half conscious to notice the overwhelming number of Web server products that are competing for your attention and acceptance. When we looked at Web servers a year ago in "Commercial Web Servers for Windows NT" (September 1995), we reviewed six products. This year we found more than 25 and reviewed 16. You can attribute some growth to the popularity of Windows 95 (many products target both NT and 95) and some to the burgeoning intranet trend.
Having so many Web server products on the market is not necessarily good. First, that the market can support so many products is hard to believe. Second, most companies have a hard time thoroughly evaluating so many products. By the time you complete a comprehensive evaluation, new products are on the market and some that you just looked at have gone away.
To help you survey the current Web server market, the Windows NT Magazine Lab staff tested all the NT-oriented Web server products we could get our hands on. We must note that some vendors refused to cooperate with our evaluation, we omitted packages that had Web server functionality but not as their primary goal, and chances are great that by the time you read this, more packages will be on the market.
We reviewed Web server packages in every class, from enterprise to small scale. See the sidebar, "Editor's Choice," to see how we decided on an Editor's Choice winner. We evaluated each product solely on its feature set, user friendliness, and performance (see Table B in the sidebar, "Feature Comparisons," on page 64). We evaluated installation and configuration, interface, tools included, functionality, documentation and online Help, and performance (see "Running Them Up the Flagpole" on page 67 for the results).
Alibaba 2.0
Computer Software
Manufaktur's Alibaba 2.0 comes out of Austria to open the door to the Web.
Alibaba isn't well known in the US, but it's a leading Web server software
package in Europe.
Screen 1 shows Alibaba. It doesn't include a lot of add-ons or auxiliary services but does the job as a basic Web server. Alibaba has all the features you need for remote administration (through both an Internet connection using a browser and a direct LAN or dialup connection), basic authentication, and more.
Alibaba installs as an NT service, and its administration tool has the familiar tabbed dialog look. With this tool, you can map directories, gather statistics, and view hyperlinks. A handy feature is Alibaba's customizable error messages, which let you use Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) to specify what messages or graphics appear on the client browser after an error on the Web server. Administrators will also appreciate this server's abilities to generate HTML page headers and footers.
Alibaba supports Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) for secure transactions and includes a custom scripting environment, the Alibaba Authorization API. It consists of programming interfaces and an environment for building client authorization applications. Alibaba's Authorization Tool manages basic authentication and access control. The Alibaba Statistics Tool lets you log and display server statistics.
Alibaba is a good, no-nonsense server package. The documentation doesn't translate into English very well--it's cryptic and confusing--but full listings show how to use the scripting language (without significant examples, though). You'll want to consider it.
| Alibaba 2.0 |
|
System Requirements: 386 or higher, 16MB of RAM, 8MB hard disk (16MB during installation) for HTML pages, 3.5" floppy for installation Computer Software Manufaktur (Austria) * 43-1-513-4415 Web: www.csm.-usa.com Email: [email protected] * [email protected] (US sales) Price: $99 |
Commerce Builder Pro 1.51
The Internet Factory's Commerce Builder Pro 1.51 solution consists of Commerce
Builder, the main Web server component; Catalog Builder, an application for
developing online catalogs; and Server Macro Expansion (SMX), a macro language
for creating dynamic HTML documents. This package has all the tools for a basic
Internet presence, with secure transactions through SSL (fully RSA-compliant for
generating digital certificates and key pairs).
Commerce Builder installs easily as a Control Panel applet from two floppies and presents no surprises in configuration. Screen 2 shows the GUI administration tool, a tabbed dialog where you set all server attributes such as file mappings and MIME types. Commerce Builder supports standard HTML pages and data files.
Catalog Builder is a standalone application that installs from two floppies and lets you develop online catalogs with security and database connectivity. With Catalog Builder, you can create online stores that Web clients can access and order from. This application offers full protection of credit card numbers and other important user information and uses The Internet Factory's SMX language for development.
The SMX API is worth noting. This API is a scripting environment that lets you add database connectivity or create custom Web server applications without the need for a third-party add-on.
Documentation is reasonable. Each of three books covers one of Commerce Builder's three major pieces in detail. Although this package contains no wizards for HTML authoring or other functions, Commerce Builder is a straight-forward package that's easy to set up and use. If you want to conduct business on the Web, give it a look.
| Commerce Builder Pro 1.51 |
|
System Requirements: 486 or higher, 12MB of RAM (16MB recommended) The Internet Factory * 916-939-1000 or 800-229-6020 Web: www.ifact.com Email: [email protected] Price: $495 |
Infobase Web Server 1.0
An
infobase is a collection of folios (which store fully indexed, highly
compressed, and multiuser editable text and multimedia information). If you use
infobases, this server is your only choice for presenting that data on the Web.
Infobase Web Server 1.0 lets you publish existing infobases by clicking one button and functions as a basic Web server. If you don't have infobases, Infobase Web will not be your primary Web server. It includes no niceties such as authoring tools, software development kits (SDKs), scripting support (besides Common Gateway Interface--CGI), or services you expect from Web software. It does one thing well--infobase publishing on the Web.
The package includes the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) server (the interface to the Internet) and the infobase server, which interfaces to your infobase. The result is seamless browsing of infobases from any client Web browser. You search and display your infobases using a Folio Views-looking interface, so your data on the Web appears just like your originals. Infobase Web converts infobases into HTML on the fly and can present rudimentary statistics. Basic authentication and access control lists provide security, and the infobases are read-only, so you don't have to worry about users messing with data.
Screen 3 shows the two administration tools: the HTTP Service Manager and the Data Source Manager. They let you set attributes, such as where and how data sources are connected, for your Web server and infobases. Infobase Web is also a proxy server for incoming and outgoing Folio and Web requests and can translate HTML pages so that a Folio viewer can read them. Infobase Web has no remote administration capability.
Infobase Web is easy to set up. You must have Folio Views on your Web server to use the online documentation, which you view through a Web browser. Folio will release a new version of Infobase Web this month.
| Infobase Web Server 1.0 |
|
System Requirements: 486 or higher, 24MB of RAM, 5MB hard disk, Folio Views 3.1 Infobase Manager (for Web Server online documentation) Folio * 800-543-6546 Web: www.folio.com Price: $6995 |
Internet Information Server 2.0
You won't hear
about NT 4.0 Server without hearing about Internet Information Server (IIS) 2.0
(or IIS's younger sibling, Peer Web Services, free with NT 4.0 Workstation).
Microsoft is pushing this combination as the Internet solution for the 90s, and
it fits the bill pretty well. IIS runs on NT 3.51 and 4.0, and best of all, it's
free with NT 4.0 Server (and via download).
The package is not fancy. IIS has no authoring kit or wizards (you have to buy a separate tool such as Microsoft FrontPage for HTML authoring), special tools (such as online database connectivity for dynamic page generation), or add-ons (no full-text search engine). However, IIS supports almost every standard, scripting environment, API, and add-on available. IIS's tight integration with the OS lets it run best under NT--it's not just another kludge that covers both Win95 and NT.
IIS runs as a service, and its simple GUI administration tool, which you see in Screen 4, lets you set server attributes, manage the server (or servers, if you run multiple sites on the system), and remotely administer the server over your LAN or remote dialup connection. NT handles the Web server's file management and security. Server security allows IP and domain restriction, access control and basic user authentication, and SSL for digital certificates.
IIS is easy to install and configure, and advanced functions such as running virtual servers are equally straightforward. Documentation is primarily online Help files. The printed documentation is typical of Microsoft's style: It tells you what you need to do, but not how to do it.
IIS will best serve those who are new to NT, don't want a huge investment either in money (it's free, you know) or time, and just want to experiment with connecting to users and business clients. If your Web presence grows, IIS can grow with you.
| Internet Information Server 2.0 |
|
System Requirements: 386 or higher, 16MB of RAM, 5MB hard disk Microsoft * 206-882-8080 Web: www.microsoft.com Price: $99.95 (for CD and documentation. Check out the free download at www.microsoft.com/Infoserve/IISInfo.htm) |
Internet Server 1.0
After you get
past Internet Server's strange initial interface (which you see in Screen 5)
with its oversized buttons, Cyber Presence's Internet Server 1.0 is a decent,
basic Web server package. It's easy to install (three floppies) and configure,
and its GUI tool is well laid out and easy to use.
Cyber Presence offers four versions of Internet Server: Introductory, Personal, Corporate, and Enterprise. The performance varies from version to version: Beginning with the Enterprise version, each one sustains fewer connections and runs slower than the previous one.
We received the Introductory version to test. It had all the features of the Enterprise version, but didn't run our tests.
Internet Server offers all the Web basic features, but you have to look elsewhere for add-ons such as scripting support and services. You get some handy features such as page headers and footers, virtual servers with a wizard for creating them, and a built-in search engine for small setups (1MB to 6MB of HTML and text files). Miniwizards let you change server settings such as the platform (laptop, desktop, or server) and the OS (NT Workstation 3.51 or Win95), Internet domain, root directory, and home page.
If you add the SSL option, which costs extra for each version of this product, the certificate manager lets you generate certificate requests, so you can perform secure transactions. Internet Server also has basic logging and statistics capabilities, a performance tuner (thread priority), access control (basic authentication and IP restriction), and Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) support. The documentation is poorly written, but the information is there. You may be better off playing with the interface to find what you're looking for.
| Internet Server 1.0 |
|
System Requirements: Recommended: 200MHz Pentium Pro, 128MB of RAM, 2GB (minimum) disk space Cyber Presence International * 415-638-2582 Web: www.cyberpi.com Price: $99-$1699 |
InterWare 2.1
InterWare 2.1 from
Consensys gives you complete Internet functionality, but you have to add some
effort. Read the documentation before you proceed because configuring InterWare
can be confusing. The manual covers InterWare's extensive feature set well, but
read carefully to understand why and when you must follow certain steps.
Installing the package is easy, but making it work is difficult. InterWare's uses realms (collections of users and groups that you can apply to areas of your Web server) so for an existing Web site, you need to tweak the realm settings. For example, directory mapping won't work with default realms. This limitation can hinder you from implementing a Web server with existing data and pages. We had to delete the default realms and create new ones to get the server to display icons on the pages, because a security conflict was in the default settings for normal Web client use.
On the positive side, realms let you run multiple sites on the same server (you can assign a group of users to a realm and keep its data separate from other groups' data). However, this approach complicates configuring a small single-server setup.
One useful tool you get is a full-text search engine. It is supposed to return results in order of confidence percentages and file sizes, but we had problems getting it to work properly: You must create a realm for the search engine to work. The search engine doesn't let you pick and choose which directories on your server to index, and the engine creates an index file about the same size as the pages you're indexing.
The package supports database connectivity through a CGI gateway, but no wizard is available--in fact, InterWare 2.1 includes no setup wizards, authoring tools, or remote administration capabilities. The absence of such features in an otherwise complete package is strange.
InterWare has what you need to connect to the Web. However, the product's confusing layout and configuration practices take it out of the running for Editor's Choice.
Screen 6 shows InterWare's Administration Tool. It lets you access all server attributes and settings and user and group access control, file management, and so forth. But in the end, the complexity of server administration with InterWare and its too-steep learning curve keep InterWare from being the most attractive choice.
| InterWare 2.1 |
|
System Requirements: 486 or higher, 16MB of RAM Consensys * 905-940-2900 Web: www.consensys.com Email: [email protected] Price: $1495 |
Purveyor Encrypt WebServer 1.2a
Purveyor
Encrypt WebServer 1.2a is a straightforward, no-nonsense secure Web server.
(It's an extended version of Process Software's older WebServer package.)
Purveyor gives you several options for publishing and receiving secure
information through SSL, with encryption, authentication, and access control
services.
WebServer contains the Purveyor Administration Tool, Log Viewer, the Purveyor Key Management Tool, Database Wizard, and online Help. The Administration Tool (in Screen 7) and the Key Management Tool are Control Panel applets, and the Log Viewer, Link Browser, and Database Wizard are standalone applications.
The Purveyor Administration Tool lets you administer your Web server remotely with any Web browser after you configure the server to accept remote server management, set up access control, etc. The Log Viewer displays server statistics in a text format (you can also graph hit statistics and generate spreadsheets). The Purveyor Key Management Tool lets you handle public and private encryption keys, certificates, and digital signatures. The Link Browser lets you verify hyperlinks you assign to text and objects. The Database Wizard is similar to Allaire's Cold Fusion Pro or Aspect Software Engineering's dbWeb and lets you turn SQL databases into dynamic HTML pages without manual coding.
Installing Purveyor was less than a snap: The server program comes on 11 floppies plus a CD that contains the helper applets (SDKs, authoring tools, etc.). The administration applets are both tabbed dialogs. Their GUI only gives you a place to type everything, instead of providing hierarchical displays for drag-and-drop object management. However, this approach makes using the applets easy and straightforward.
Purveyor is a full-featured, comprehensive package. It includes support for everything from File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and proxy-serving to the most current CGI and HTML standards and search engines. Its SSL capabilities let you process both secure internal corporate and external customer transactions in an Internet or intranet setting. Purveyor is integrated with NT's File Manager, so intranet applications can use NT's built-in file security (Purveyor still has its Web user-management facility for basic authentication and doesn't apply existing NT user account information for intranet users).
Although we didn't care for Purveyor's setup routine, this package is worth considering for Internet and LAN deployment--Purveyor's definitely ready for large-scale applications. We had some problems with the cryptic administration tool and getting the server to link icon graphics and serve our default home page, but we found solutions by reading the extensive documentation. Purveyor may not be pretty, but it does the job.
| Purveyor Encrypt WebServer 1.2a |
|
System Requirements: 386 or higher (486 or Pentium recommended), 16MB of RAM, 24MB hard disk Process Software * 508-879-6994 or 800-722-7770 Web: www.process.com Email: [email protected] (domestic) or [email protected] (international) Price: Purveyor (standard) $495; Encrypt $795; Encrypt Upgrade $399 |
SPRY Web Server 1.2/SPRY SafetyWeb Server
Spry
Software Corporation's SPRY Web Server, as you see in Screen 8, is not a fancy
do-everything Web server, but it contains all the important features and
support. Installation and configuration is easy (you can download a timed
evaluation version on the Web), and the documentation, albeit short, is clean
and usable. SPRY SafetyWeb Server is the fully secure (SSL), bigger sibling of
SPRY Web Server, with additional features, integrated services, and enhanced
performance.
The GUI administration tool lets you choose which server to administer: either multiple servers on the same system or remote ones on your LAN--but not over the Internet. The tool has tabbed dialogs for most attributes and special hierarchical displays for files and directories, statistics, and other functions. The product's file security administrator is separate from the NT file security model, which defeats the purpose of using NT as a Web server OS.
SPRY Web Server is a good, straightforward software package with an easy-to-use interface. CompuServe's backs it, so you're not as likely to be out in the cold a year from now when some smaller packages go away.
| SPRY Web Server 1.2/ SPRY SafetyWeb Server |
|
System Requirements: 386 or higher, 16MB of RAM (32MB recommended) Spry Corporate Software * 800-447-2971 Web: www.sprysoft.com Email: [email protected] Price: SPRY Web Server $245; SPRY SafetyWeb Server $895 |
Netscape Enterprise Server 2.0
Netscape's
Enterprise Server is a definite front runner for Editor's Choice because of its
ease of installation and use. SuiteSpot includes Enterprise Server, Mail Server,
News Server, Catalog Server, and LiveWire Pro for online development and content
authoring, and Netscape Navigator Gold--a combination Web browser and HTML
authoring tool.
You have to set up Navigator Gold before you can install the Enterprise Server (note: Enterprise Server requires Service Pack 4 or later, or Windows NT 4.0). The process is clean and simple, with no surprises other than a dialog reporting that the installer is optimizing some TCP/IP settings in the Registry. To configure the server, you follow the defaults, enter your sample Web page \wwwroot\docs directory name, and restart the system. With our predesigned pages from the Windows NT Magazine Web site, installing the package took us fewer than five minutes. The Web server had trouble displaying page icons until we mapped the default icons directory to the \wwwroot\icons directory.
You administer your Web server by connecting your Web browser, as in Screen 9, to your server's administration port (a number you assign) and entering a username and password. The server offers special pages for all administrative functions so you can use any Web browser, not just Navigator, from any local or remote location.
Web masters will like Netscape's straightforward administration and page-generation features. For example, you can set up a page footer to place the same information (such as email addresses, dates, etc.) on every document the server displays without using server-side includes. You also get version control for your custom application and user management for Web-based subscriber services. These features differ from the user management in some other Web server software. Netscape uses NT's file security and user accounts for server management and provides separate user accounts for Web clients to access special content such as online magazines. Basic authentication prevents users from administering the Web server; they can only interact with it.
Netscape's documentation is extensive and clear, and online Help is available through a Java applet on the server. We liked how easy this package is to configure and use. Its range of features and standards support make it ideal for most Internet and intranet applications. For example, Web sites with large numbers of files and contributing members will appreciate an embedded cataloging feature that can help manage, organize, and index information on the server. Netscape also offers FastTrack Server 2.0, which doesn't have Enterprise Server's advanced management capabilities.
| Netscape Enterprise Server 2.0 |
|
System Requirements: 386 or higher, 32MB of RAM, 30MB hard disk Netscape * 415-937-2555 Web: home.netscape.com Price: Netscape SuiteSpot $3995 (includes LiveWire Pro and choice of Enterprise Server, Mail Server, News Server, Catalog Server, or Proxy Server); Enterprise Server $995; FastTrack Server 2.0 $295; FastTrack with LiveWire $495 |
SuperWeb Server 1.1
SuperWeb
Server 1.1 from Frontier Technologies contains every component you need to set
up a Web site or corporate intranet server: WebMaster for administering
your server, WebDesigner for Web authoring, ImageMaster for assigning hyperlinks
to image maps, and Hypercheck for verifying hyperlinks to other Web pages and
URLs.
To administer your Web server, you run WebMaster from any LAN-connected or remote system (either dialup or over the Internet). WebMaster is convenient for administering multiple Web servers remotely, and its interface is easy to understand, once you get used to it. Screen 10 shows WebMaster's GUI with its Win95 Explorer format for managing files, users, and individual sites (when you're running multiple servers). To add HTML or image files to a Web site, click the View icon to open the NT File Manager. From the File Manager, drag files and directories to SuperWeb's hierarchical file store (this approach creates multiple copies of files on your disk--an administrative hassle).
On the intranet side, your Web master can assign administrators and users to different portions of the Web server, such as an engineering group and accounting group. Each group can own its pages, which can be useful for managing a large Web site. You can also use this feature for basic Web-user authentication services.
We liked SuperWeb's easy-to-use interface, page preview capabilities through the WebDesigner tool, and the easy authoring through WebDesigner and ImageMaster. Administrators will appreciate that SuperWeb runs as an NT service and comes with a tutorial and online Help. Although the package was easy to install, we had to reboot twice during configuration to get SuperWeb to run.
We had some other problems. We knew SuperWeb was a Win95 program with an NT label when it said it couldn't find (and subsequently created) an autoexec.bat file that has to run before the system boots. Also, when we were importing files into the datastore, SuperWeb crashed on large groups or directories--it was squirrely about which directories it copied. Last, the documentation explains the Internet and how to use HTML and CGI but doesn't tell you how to make the program work or how to debug it.
Although SuperWeb will fit into small corporate LANs as an intranet and Internet server, we're not convinced it's ready for high-volume Internet Web sites that require easy administration and short configuration times. Also, for this package to serve large-scale Web sites, Frontier Technologies needs to link the file and user management for multiple administrators to NT's internal user and file security.
| SuperWeb Server 1.1 |
|
System Requirements: 486 (Pentium recommended), 16MB of RAM (32 recommended), 10MB hard disk (will vary with needs) Frontier Technologies * 800-929-3034 Web: www.frontiertech.com Price: $795 |
Web Commander 1.0
Web Commander is one of the strongest Web server packages we tested. The
documentation is comprehensive and covers everything from configuration to
sample HTML and Perl code, without a lengthy introduction. Luckman Interactive
uses InstallShield to set up Web Commander, which helps minimize the time from
opening the package to having a running Web site.
Web Commander is optimized for NT. Web site configuration can be quick and dirty--just tell the installer about your root document directory (so you can easily integrate existing files), company name, etc. Or you can go through each administrative setting to customize your server (you can configure any setting at any time, but using the defaults gets you up and running quickly). A handy tool, the Domain Name Wizard, helps you create the file you must email to InterNIC to obtain a domain name for your Web site. You still have to pay the $100 registration fee. (For more information on InterNIC, see Richard Reich, "Registering a Domain Name Is Easy," page 88.)
Web Commander includes everything you need to connect to and run on the Internet: Web Commander for administering your Web server, WebMap for assigning hyperlinks to image maps, WebStudio for HTML and forms authoring, the WebPage wizard for quickly setting up Web pages, Excite for adding search capabilities on your site, and browsers for your Internet and intranet clients. You also get a wizard for setting up a secure Web server and getting certified for Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol (SHTTP) and SSL--Web Commander is fully RSA compliant--and WebCharge for secure credit card transactions. For development, you get SDKs for Java, Internet Server API (ISAPI), CGI, and Perl 5.0. A wide-area Internet search (WAIS) toolkit for searching full-text databases and ODBC for creating dynamic pages from database information are also included.
The administration tool has an easy-to-understand GUI, as in Screen 11. It shows active servers running on the system and provides access to all runtime application features. Unfortunately, you have to run the Web Commander administration tool for your Web server to operate (you can minimize the administration tool, but don't exit it when you finish setting up). By default, Web Commander server doesn't run as an NT service. However, you can manually install Web Commander as a service: Start the administration tool, go to Control Panel/Services, and click Install Service. After NT detects Web Commander running and sets it up as a service, you can set boot-time attributes.
Web masters will appreciate Web Commander's wealth of HTML features such as page footers and other Internet necessities. One glaring omission in Web Commander's feature set is a remote tool for administering a Web site if you're not sitting in front of the console. Web Commander's user and group management is separate from NT's security database (individuals can manage their pages with security, but this feature adds another layer of administration when you're creating a corporate Web server). This feature lets you manage subscriber or Web-user access to restricted pages and data (basic authentication).
Web Commander is a strong contender for Editor's Choice, but its lack of remote administration is a serious strike against it. This package's many features make it worthy of consideration for any Web site.
| Web Commander 1.0 |
|
System Requirements: 486 or higher, 16MB of RAM, 30MB hard disk Luckman Interactive * 213-614-1929 or 800-711-2676 Web: www.luckman.com Price: $249 |
WebSite Professional 1.0/ WebSite 1.1
Another-front runner for Editor's Choice is WebSite Professional 1.0, an
excellent combination of features, performance, and usability that's missing in
some Web server packages. Installation and configuration were simple, and we had
a working Web site in the time it took to load the software onto the hard drive
and type in a few commands. As you see in Screen 12, WebSite Professional is a
beefed-up, secure version of O'Reilly & Associates' WebSite application.
WebSite Professional includes several components. The WebSite Pro Server launches the background service. The Server Administration Tool lets you manage server attributes. Certificate Manager has a wizard to generate and manage digital certificates. WebView lets you log statistics and manage server text, data, and image files, and has links to other wizards such as a template HTML page generator. ImageMap Editor lets you assign hyperlinks to bitmap images. WebIndex tracks indexes and hyperlinks to other URLs. HotDog HTML Editor is a complete HTML authoring tool. Monitor Server is a link to NT's Perfmon and has added counters such as Requests per Second and Average API Time. And, if you move your WebSite server to another system, you can use WebSite's uninstaller.
O'Reilly, a longtime book publisher, provides comprehensive documentation on WebSite's basics and advanced features, with programming examples, statistics, etc. WebSite supports all the popular new standards, authoring tools, and scripting languages, and provides SDKs for Java, Visual Basic (VB), WebSite API (WSAPI), and Perl 5.0.
Administrators and MIS managers with an eye on dynamic page generation for online catalogs or other database-oriented functions will appreciate the inclusion of Cold Fusion Standard with WebSite Professional (for a review of Cold Fusion, see Joel Sloss, Tim Daniels, and T.J. Harty, "dbWeb 1.0 and Cold Fusion Pro 1.5," April 1996). You can perform remote administration by running the Server Administration Tool locally and accessing a remote server, either on the LAN or over an Internet or dialup connection. Although WebSite Professional is missing some integrated Internet services, it can simulate an FTP server through directory mapping with an upload facility.
WebSite hits the mark--an extensive Web server feature set, remarkable ease of use, and helpful online and printed documentation. Wizards help with everything from creating your first page to managing server security. This package requires serious consideration for corporate use. O'Reilly also offers a revamped version of its WebSite 1.1, a nonsecure Web server that offers most of the goodies (except application development tools) of WebSite Professional at a lower price.
| WebSite 1.1/WebSite Professional 1.0 |
|
System Requirements: WebSite 1.1: 386 or higher, 16MB of RAM, 7MB disk space; WebSite Professional 1.0: 486 or higher, 32MB of RAM, 40MB disk space O'Reilly & Associates * 707-829-0515 Web: www.ora.com Price: WebSite 1.1 $249; WebSite Professional 1.0 $499 |
Corrections to this Article:
- "Web Server Software Roundup," by Joel Sloss, T.J. Harty, and Dean Porter, included some errors about Netscape's Enterprise Server package. The article incorrectly states that Enterprise Server supports the Internet Server API (ISAPI) and fails to credit Netscape's product for including the Verity search engine and supporting SQL calls for database conectivity. Based on these corrections, Netscape's score for the review is 31 by our criteria, not 30. The article mentions that Netscape's SuiteSpot included all the Netscape packages as a complete back-office soluiton, but we need to point out that Enterprise Server is a SuiteSpot component, not the entire package. SuiteSpot's price is $3995 for any five of the site's nine servers and LiveWire Pro, and Enterprise Server alone is only $995 (including LiveWire). You can read more about SuiteSpot in our December issue's focus on back-office alternatives. The phone numbers for the Internet Factory's commerce Builder Pro 1.51 are incorrect. The correct numbers are 510-426-4463 and 800-233-8335. Also, The "Windows NT Magazine" Lab Editor's Choice logo did not appear on the Feature Comparison Chart or on the review of one of the Editor's Choice winners, Process Software's Purveyor Encrypt. WebServer 1.2a.
