Windows Web Solutions UPDATE—-July 29, 2003
1. Commentary: Web Server Market Share and HTTP Compression
2. Keeping Up with IIS - NLB and WLBS - Results from Last Issue's Instant Poll: Clustering - This Issue's Instant Poll: SharePoint Portal Server 2003
3. Announcements - DevConnections: 4 Conferences for the Price of 1 - Learn More About the Security Risks in Exchange 2003
4. Resource - Featured Thread: Can't Process ASP Pages
5. Event - New--Mobile & Wireless Road Show!
6. New and Improved - Create SVG Smart Graphics - Submit Top Product Ideas
7. Contact Us - See this section for a list of ways to contact us.
Editor's Note: We'd like your opinion about Windows Web Solutions UPDATE! To improve the editorial quality of this email newsletter and determine the best delivery format, we need your feedback. Please take some time to answer our online survey. The survey gives you the opportunity to provide feedback in one online survey about all the Windows & .NET Magazine Network newsletters to which you subscribe. We appreciate your time, and we look forward to reading your comments. To answer the survey, go to http://websurveyor.net/wsb.dll/12237/editorsemail.htm
1. Commentary: Web Server Market Share and HTTP Compression
by Tim Huckaby, [email protected]In January, I wrote about an interesting Port80 Software survey that concluded that IIS is the dominant Web server platform for Fortune 1000 companies' public Web sites. Port80 conducted another survey this month and again concluded that IIS dominates the Fortune 1000 market. The new survey's results indicate that IIS has 53.7 percent of the market share. The next closest competitors are Netscape and Apache Web servers, with 18.6 percent and 16 percent of the market, respectively. Netscape continues to decline as a Web server choice for Fortune 1000 companies, losing 2.4 percent in the July survey. The survey data also indicates a general shift from Internet Information Server (IIS) 4.0 running on Windows NT 4.0 systems to Internet Information Services 5.0 (5.0) running on Windows 2000. IIS 6.0 running on Windows Server 2003 appears on the survey, but only at 0.5 percent. I'll be interested to see how the IIS 6.0 number jumps when Port80 conducts its next survey.
Another result to note is the Other category, which consists of IBM, Lotus, unknown, and other Web servers and which jumped significantly to 11.7 percent. I'm guessing that the "other" option in the Other category comprises variants of Linux-based Web servers. You can check out the most recent survey results at http://www.port80software.com/surveys/top1000webservers .
Port80 also recently completed a survey about HTTP compression, an underused technology for accelerating Web sites and Web-based applications. When IIS receives a request, HTTP compression checks to determine whether the browser is compression-enabled. IIS then checks the filename extension to determine whether the requested file is static or contains dynamic content. If the file contains static content, IIS checks to determine whether the file was previously requested and has been stored in a compressed format in the temporary compression directory. If not, IIS sends the uncompressed file to the browser, compresses the file, then adds the compressed copy to the temporary compression directory. If the file was previously requested and is already stored in a compressed format, IIS sends the compressed file to the browser. In some cases, HTTP compression technologies can make Web applications and sites run dramatically faster, reducing bandwidth costs. To learn more about HTTP compression and how to enable it in IIS, click the following URL: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/prodtechnol/windowsserver2003/proddocs/standard/qos_utilbandwdth.asp?frame=true .
Very few of the Fortune 1000 companies--only 2.9 percent--realize HTTP compression benefits. Port80 speculates that the Fortune 1000 could save more than 25 percent in bandwidth costs (millions of dollars annually) and more than 30 million bytes of data on their home pages alone by using HTTP compression. As you might expect, Internet-savvy companies such as Google, Amazon, and Yahoo! use HTTP compression.
IIS 6.0 has HTTP compression built in, which contributes to its fantastic performance. Chris Page, chief technical information officer (CTIO) for Web-hosting provider MaximumASP, understands the importance of HTTP compression technology. He said, "Prior to upgrading to Windows Server 2003 and IIS 6.0 as our hosting platform, MaximumASP closely evaluated several third-party HTTP compression technologies and found that HTTP compression actually improves the performance of the IIS Web server while significantly reducing the bandwidth required to deliver content. At that time, we chose to wait until we moved to IIS 6.0 to start utilizing HTTP compression, which has excellent HTTP compression built in, but there's no question in our minds that any Web server not running IIS 6.0 will benefit from employing third-party HTTP compression tools."
A list of the top 10 companies that would benefit the most and least from HTTP compression among the Fortune 1000 is available on the Port80 Web site, and I bet that some of the companies on the list will surprise you ( http://www.port80software.com/surveys/top1000compression/toptencompression ). If you want to see the individual statistics for each company on the survey or test your own site's HTTP compression, visit the following URL: http://www.port80software.com/surveys/top1000compression .
===============
==== 2. Keeping Up with IIS ====
NLB and WLBS
Windows NT Load Balancing Service (WLBS) adds fault tolerance to Internet Information Server (IIS) 4.0 installations. WLBS's successor, Network Load Balancing (NLB), is available for Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 and IIS 5.0. To learn more about how NLB compares with WLBS, click the following URL:
http://www.winnetmag.com/windowsserver2003/index.cfm?articleid=23812
Results From Last Issue's Instant Poll: Clustering The voting has closed in the Windows & .NET Magazine Windows Web Solutions channel's nonscientific Instant Poll for the question, "Does your company use clustering technology to provide fault-tolerant Web services?" Here are the results from the 36 responses: - 47% Yes - 53% No
(Deviations from 100 percent are due to rounding error.)
This Issue's Instant Poll: Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2003 The next Instant Poll question is, "Does your company plan to use Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2003 in the near future?" Go to the Windows & .NET Magazine Windows Web Solutions home page and submit your vote for a) Yes, b) No, or c) Not sure; we need to do more research. http://www.windowswebsolutions.com
==== 3. Announcements ==== (from Windows & .NET Magazine and its partners)
DevConnections: 4 Conferences for the Price of 1
DevConnections = Microsoft ASP.NET Connections + Visual Studio Connections + SQL Server Magazine Connections + Microsoft Office System Connections. Over 170 sessions! Learn from the Microsoft architects who built these technologies plus world-renowned third-party gurus. The $300 early bird discount expires July 31, and if you register now, you'll get access to all four events for the price of one. Go online or call 203-268-3204 or 800-899-5325 for more information. http://www.devconnections.com
Learn More About the Security Risks in Exchange 2003 Videotaped live at Microsoft TechEd 2003, this free archived Web seminar delivers an introduction to the new security features and enhancements of Exchange Server 2003, including the new security APIs that can minimize virus risk and spam traffic. Plus, you'll discover more about the future of the messaging industry and what's on the horizon in assessing risk. Register today! http://www.winnetmag.com/seminars/securityrisks
==== 4. Resource ====
Featured Thread: Can't Process ASP Pages Forum member sachin is using Windows 2000 Server. Sachin's Web server works for HTML pages but can't process Active Server Pages (ASP) pages. No error appears in Event Viewer. To lend this forum member a helping hand, click the following URL: http://www.winnetmag.com/forums/rd.cfm?cid=41&tid=61325
==== 5. Event ==== (brought to you by Windows & .NET Magazine)
New--Mobile & Wireless Road Show! Learn more about the wireless and mobility solutions that are available today! Register now for this free event! http://www.winnetmag.com/roadshows/wireless
==== 6. New and Improved ==== by Sue Cooper, [email protected]
Create SVG Smart Graphics Corel released Corel Smart Graphics Studio 1.1, a development platform that speeds the creation of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)- based smart graphics. Smart graphics are a new type of enterprise-class, graphically rich applications built using open-standard SVG to transform XML and legacy data into intranet and extranet applications. Corel Smart Graphics Studio capabilities include better control over assets and objects, advanced debugging, support for Oracle-stored procedures, and more advanced caching capabilities on the server. Pricing starts at $1049. For more information or to download a trial version, visit http://www.corel.com/smartgraphics . http://www.corel.com
Submit Top Product Ideas Have you used a product that changed your IT experience by saving you time or easing your daily burden? Do you know of a terrific product that others should know about? Tell us! We want to write about the product in a future What's Hot column. Send your product suggestions to [email protected].
==== Sponsored Links ====
AutoProf Jerry Honeycutt Desktop Deployment Whitepaper http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;5790077;8214395;s?http://www.AutoProf.com/Update_TextLinks_2003_06_23.html
CrossTec Free Download - NEW NetOp 7.6 - faster, more secure, remote support http://www.crossteccorp.com/w2kmag.htm
==========
==== 7. Contact Us ====
About the commentary -- [email protected] About the newsletter -- [email protected] About technical questions -- http://www.winnetmag.net/forums About product news -- [email protected] About your subscription -- [email protected] About sponsoring UPDATE -- [email protected]
==================
Manage Your Account You are subscribed as #EmailAddr#.
To unsubscribe from this email newsletter, send an email message to mailto:#mailing:unsubemail#.
To make other changes to your email account such as change your email address, update your profile, and subscribe or unsubscribe to any of our email newsletters, simply log on to our Email Preference Center at http://www.winnetmag.com/email .
Copyright 2003, Penton Media, Inc.
