Windows Web Solutions UPDATE, January 28, 2003

Windows Web Solutions UPDATE—brought to you by Windows Web Solutions, the Windows & .NET Magazine print newsletter with tools and solutions for managing your Web site.
http://www.windowswebsolutions.com

THIS ISSUE SPONSORED BY

PacWest Security Road Show
http://www.winnetmag.com/roadshows/security2003

SPONSOR: PACWEST SECURITY ROAD SHOW

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND—DON'T MISS OUR SECURITY ROAD SHOW EVENT!

If you missed last year's popular security Road Show event, now's your chance to catch it again in Portland and Redmond. Learn from experts Mark Minasi and Paul Thurrott about how to shore up your system's security and what desktop security features are planned for .NET and beyond. Registration is free so sign up now!
http://www.winnetmag.com/roadshows/security2003

January 28, 2003—In this issue:

1. COMMENTARY

2. KEEPING UP WITH IIS

3. ANNOUNCEMENT

4. RESOURCES

5. NEW AND IMPROVED

6. CONTACT US

1. COMMENTARY

Have you ever wondered just how many companies are running Microsoft IIS? Netcraft, a UK-based Internet company, has published many reports throughout the years showing the market dominance of the Apache Software Foundation's Apache HTTP Server. Netcraft's recent reports show a 62 percent market share for the Apache HTTP Server compared with IIS's 27 percent market share ( http://www.netcraft.com/survey ). For the past 5 years, I've accepted Netcraft's reports and watched as IIS slowly gained market share.

This month, Port80 Software, a San Diego-based software company, electronically surveyed the Fortune 1000 to find out exactly which companies are running IIS and which aren't. Port80 Software's online tool queries the HTTP request header returned by a Web server to determine which Web server software is running. The server header, which is part of the HTTP request header, is an optional header that's usually used to identify the Web server software's vendor and version.

Port80 Software's survey returned some interesting results. You can read more about Port80 Software's survey of the top 1000 corporations and run its tool at http://www.port80software.com/servermask/top1000webservers . Contrary to Netcraft's results, Port80 Software's Fortune 1000 survey shows a 54.1 percent market share for IIS, 21 percent share for Sun Microsystems' Netscape Enterprise Server, 17.6 percent for the Apache HTTP Server, and 7.3 percent for all others.

Several factors could be causing vastly different results between the Netcraft and Port80 Software surveys, yet both results have validity. Consider the fact that that Netcraft's results measure all domains on the Internet (approximately 33 million) and Port80 Software's results measure only the public Web sites of the top 1000 companies. A plethora of servers run Sun and Apache that are hosting hundreds, if not thousands, of Web sites on single computers. IIS has been historically bad at hosting large numbers of sites on the same box. In fact, you simply can't host enormous numbers of sites on one Internet Information Services (IIS) 5.0 or earlier server in a farm (whether it's load balanced or not), which explains Netcraft's results that single machines (Sun and Apache) are hosting thousands of static Web sites.

When you visit the Netcraft site to review its survey results, also take note of its report about an IIS 5.0 Web server that went without a reboot for more than 2 years. The IIS server ( http://www.byteandswitch.com )has been running continuously since November 2000. The industry seems to have a negative perception of the stability of IIS. That perception certainly was valid with Internet Information Server (IIS) 4.0 and earlier, but not with IIS 5.0. In the hosting industry, Microsoft partners Interliant and divine each have sites that haven't been rebooted in more than a year. Microsoft also has run several of its sites for more than a year between reboots. Such facts will go a long way toward dispelling the myth of IIS instability.

2. KEEPING UP WITH IIS

Question: We're trying to enable Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) on our site. We've installed a certificate, but we can't create a secure connection. The site works fine with HTTP, but when we use HTTP Secure (HTTPS), the Web browser waits for a long time, then times out and says it can't reach the server. Click here for Brett Hill's solution to the problem:
http://www.winnetmag.com/articles/index.cfm?articleid=37815

The voting has closed in the Windows & .NET Magazine Windows Web Solutions channel's nonscientific Instant Poll for the question, "Do you use Microsoft SharePoint Team Services?" Here are the results from the 70 responses:

The next Instant Poll question is, "How much confidence do you have in your organization's security plan?" Go to the Windows & .NET Magazine Windows Web Solutions home page and submit your vote for a) I'm very confident that our users and systems are protected, b) I feel pretty good about our company's plan, or c) I'm a little nervous about our ability to protect users and systems, or d) What plan?
http://www.windowswebsolutions.com

3. ANNOUNCEMENT
(brought to you by Windows & .NET Magazine and its partners)

Microsoft ASP.NET Connections + Visual Studio .NET Connections + SQL Server Magazine Connections equals the largest gathering of Microsoft product architects and independent technology gurus. Four days of hard-core drill-down sessions. The Microsoft product team delivers 35 of the more than 100 in-depth sessions. This conference will save you months of trial and error. Go to
http://www.devconnections.com

4. RESOURCES

April 14 through 17, 2003
San Jose, California
http://www.internetworld.com/events/spring2003

Internet World Essentials is for you if your job description involves building, maintaining, or managing a sizable Web site. Session topics include Banners and Pop Ups: Why You Should Love Them; Search Engine Marketing Workshop; 10 Important Lessons Online Marketers Can Learn from Traditional Direct Mail; Advertising Strategies to Drive Web Traffic; Essential Internet Marketing Tools; Web Site Security: A Practical Primer; XML Syntax and Schemas; and Flash and Broadcast Media: The Dream Project.

For other upcoming events, check out the Windows & .NET Magazine

Events Calendar.
http://www.winnetmag.net/events/calendar

Forum member Donk is running Microsoft SharePoint Team Services, but documents that he uploads to a library don't show up in the All Documents View. Microsoft recommends a solution that relies on SQL Server Enterprise Manager; however, SharePoint Team Services doesn't come with Enterprise Manager, and Donk doesn't want to purchase $10,000 worth of software. To lend Donk a helping hand, click the following URL:
http://www.winnetmag.com/forums/rd.cfm?cid=41&tid=53322

5. NEW AND IMPROVED
(contributed by Sue Cooper, [email protected])

Paessler announced Webserver Stress Tool 6.0, software that simulates many users accessing your Web site. The software uses HTTP and HTTP Secure (HTTPS) requests, including images and redirects, to test server-side scripting. Supported test types include performance, load, stress, and ramp tests. You don't install the software on the server, so you can test any HTTP servers accessible through TCP/IP. Webserver Stress Tool 6.0 supports all Windows clients, although the vendor recommends Windows XP or Windows 2000 systems. For pricing, contact Paessler at [email protected].
http://www.paessler.com

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].

6. CONTACT US
Here's how to reach us with your comments and questions:

(please mention the newsletter name in the subject line)

Receive the latest information about the Windows and .NET topics of your choice. Subscribe to our other FREE email newsletters.
http://www.winnetmag.net/email