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Web Site Server Software

E

EmosOohay

Member
I'm researching hosting a web site from my home office and would like to get some suggestions from those with experience in this area on which web server software they would recommend.

I'd like to stay with XP Pro and don't mind spending a few bucks, but not thousands. Email functionality and the ability to host multiple domains would be a plus.

I don't anticipate a lot of traffic, but would like to host it myself for workflow reasons. I have a computer background, and I'm currently administrating a couple of sites with Studio MX.

Thanks for any help!
 
You may need other software too such as php or perl, but this depends on what you are hosting on your server.
 
If you have a business broadband connection (that allows incoming port 80 and port 25), you could consider just picking up a low-end Dell or Gateway server with SBS 2003 Standard Edition pre-installed. I've seen these for $600 for the whole package.

That'll give you:
IIS
Exchange Server (Read your email from anywhere, including PDAs and SmartPhones.)
SharePoint (which can be used to host external sites, too)
Full (secure) remote access to your desktop
Wizards for managing the Server.

You can use host headers in IIS 6.0 (included) to host as many web sites as you want. We host ten sites from our SBS Server, and have had zero problems with hosting and email the past two-plus years (ever since SBS 2003 came out).
 
Originally posted by: RebateMonger
If you have a business broadband connection (that allows incoming port 80 and port 25), you could consider just picking up a low-end Dell or Gateway server with SBS 2003 Standard Edition pre-installed. I've seen these for $600 for the whole package.

That'll give you:
IIS
Exchange Server (Read your email from anywhere, including PDAs and SmartPhones.)
SharePoint (which can be used to host external sites, too)
Full (secure) remote access to your desktop
Wizards for managing the Server.

You can use host headers in IIS 6.0 (included) to host as many web sites as you want. We host ten sites from our SBS Server, and have had zero problems with hosting and email the past two-plus years (ever since SBS 2003 came out).
Click to expand...

Wow, sounds nice, a package ready to run. I'll check into it.

About how much is the above sw if purchased separately from the Dell?
 
Originally posted by: EmosOohay
About how much is the above sw if purchased separately from the Dell?
Click to expand...
Newegg has SBS 2003 Standard Edition for around $450-$500, depending whether you get OEM or Retail. The $600 combos are special deals they run occasionally. I've seen those three or four times over the past year. Historically, you could pick up a Dell SC420 with 80GB HD and 512MB of RAM for about $300 and stick SBS on that.

I strongly recommend that people buy Retail SBS whenever possible, so you can legally move it to another server when you want.

We ran SBS 2003 on an old Dell P4 1.8GHz with 512MB and a single IDE drive for almost two years. It worked fine for us (with only a couple of users), on a Qwest DSL connection. We host our web sites, VPN in, synchronize files with our home PCs, and make full use of the Exchange Server,

 
what i have had good luck with is apache w/ php, mysql and perl. you can really move a lot of data on a home connection, i have had site hit 1M hits w/ 1500user in 1 day on a 256Up connection, although it was a little slow...(this is when i was testing this stuff out)

and for a mail server, i have used alt-n mdaemon, which worked excellent and had webmail too.
 
You indicated that it is Home office.

I do not know what is the nature of the Office aspect. If it is a serious thing, you have to look at it from a broader perspective, like who are the clients, what are the current and future expectations, what is the prospect to grow and thus scale.

If none of the above applies, it does not matter what you ?play? with.

Otherwise, you have to go with what the mainstream of your type of business does and Not with what is popular with the Geeks.

:sun:
 
XP is probably the worst choice you could make for a server, it's got crippled networking and loads of overhaed. If you plan to buy a new box (or even build one out of old parts, a P3 would do it) you will find it cheaper and better performing on Linux.
 
Originally posted by: halfadder
If you're using Windows you may as well use IIS.
Click to expand...
Unfotunately, Windows XP Professional only supports IIS 5.x, which doesn't support Host Headers, which will be needed to support multiple web sites on the same TCP port.

 
Originally posted by: bob4432
unless he has a server version, he will be limited to 10 connections at a time
Click to expand...
That's ten AUTHENTICATED connections. XP Professional can host as many simultaneous, anonymous web connections as you want.
 
Originally posted by: RebateMonger
Originally posted by: bob4432
unless he has a server version, he will be limited to 10 connections at a time
Click to expand...
That's ten AUTHENTICATED connections. XP Professional can host as many simultaneous, anonymous web connections as you want.
Click to expand...

seriously? i could have sworn i either read or tested it and some type of limit was hit with iis on win2kpro and xp.... did 2kpro have a limit?
 
Originally posted by: bob4432
Originally posted by: RebateMonger
Originally posted by: bob4432
unless he has a server version, he will be limited to 10 connections at a time
Click to expand...
That's ten AUTHENTICATED connections. XP Professional can host as many simultaneous, anonymous web connections as you want.
Click to expand...
seriously? i could have sworn i either read or tested it and some type of limit was hit with iis on win2kpro and xp.... did 2kpro have a limit?
Click to expand...
You've got me checking on this. I'm trying to find MS documentation on this. The standard XP Professional connection limit pertains only to authenticated connections (file shares, for instance).

HOWEVER, I'm seeing some postings that indicate that Microsoft may have coded IIS 5.x to check whether it is installed on a Server or Workstation and may, independently, limit the number of anonymous connections. You can install Apache, for instance, on XP Professional, and it will do more than ten connections. But IIS may be a special case.

I'll post back when I confirm whether there's a limit or not.....

Edit:
It appears that there IS a built-in IIS 5.1 limit that applies to XP Pro and 2000 Pro. This Microsoft-supplied download states that IIS contains a metabase key that limits connections to ten on workstations, but, apparently, can be modified to 40 (maybe...).

So, it appears that I was wrong. Sorry!

I never recommended IIS 5.x, though. It's not nearly secure as IIS 6.x. And you can't do Host Headers on an XP IIS 5.x web server.
 
Originally posted by: RebateMonger
Originally posted by: bob4432
Originally posted by: RebateMonger
Originally posted by: bob4432
unless he has a server version, he will be limited to 10 connections at a time
Click to expand...
That's ten AUTHENTICATED connections. XP Professional can host as many simultaneous, anonymous web connections as you want.
Click to expand...
seriously? i could have sworn i either read or tested it and some type of limit was hit with iis on win2kpro and xp.... did 2kpro have a limit?
Click to expand...
You've got me checking on this. I'm trying to find MS documentation on this. The standard XP Professional connection limit pertains only to authenticated connections (file shares, for instance).

HOWEVER, I'm seeing some postings that indicate that Microsoft may have coded IIS 5.x to check whether it is installed on a Server or Workstation and may, independently, limit the number of anonymous connections. You can install Apache, for instance, on XP Professional, and it will do more than ten connections. But IIS may be a special case.

I'll post back when I confirm whether there's a limit or not.....

Edit:
It appears that there IS a built-in IIS 5.1 limit that applies to XP Pro. This Microsoft-supplied download states that IIS contains a metabase key that limits connections to ten, but, apparently, can be modified to 40.

So, it appears that I was wrong. Sorry!

I never recommended IIS 5.x, though. It's not nearly secure as IIS 6.x. And you can't do Host Headers on an XP IIS 5.x web server.
Click to expand...

no probs, thanks for cheking into it, personally i like apache, but haven't used win2k3, so am not familiar with iis6...
 
Is Small Business Server 2003 Standard Edition a fairly usable product?

Meaning will it support multiple domains, lots of connections, etc.
 
Originally posted by: bob4432
Originally posted by: skyking
If you must use XP, here is a very helpful link for setting up the whole suite of server software.
http://www.devside.net/
Click to expand...

that is a nice setup...
Click to expand...

It is. the big advantage is getting to learn the big commercial packages without full immersion in linux. there are some really stripped down apache configs there, 100 lines versus 1200 in a default, to try and sort through.
 
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