Seeking Advice - IIS 5.0 or Apache

Looking for advice, thoughts, pros & cons, etc. I'm considering
setting up a web server, at home, on a third PC running Win2K Pro and
either IIS 5.0 or Apache software.

The server would be connected to the net via my router and a cable
modem and I am thinking of trying out the TZO.com premier package that
would give me a static IP address.

There's no particular reason to do this as opposed to using a web
hosting service other than I just want to learn about web servers,
email servers, etc. Maybe even do some small scale web hosting of my
own - again just for the experience. I have no prior experience with
web servers, but I would like to check them out.

So, my questions would seem to be:
1) Am I nuts? (Not a general question, just confined to this project)
2) Should I use IIS 5.0 or Apache? (Leaning towards IIS 5.0)
3) Any particular hardware considerations? (Currently have my old
game machine available - 1.8GB P4, 512MB RAM, two 60GB
HDs (IDE) with Win2K installed). Sufficient to task? More RAM?
4) Any other considerations?

Any and all feedback appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Bivar

Ken
Thu Jan 29 23:29:32 CST 2004

I doubt you'd need more RAM. You outgoing bandwidth is unlikely to allow you
more than a few dozen simultaneous connections (and that's assuming a fairly
fast SDSL broadband connection, eg 1.5 Mbps), and 512MB of RAM is fine for
that.

Cheers
Ken


"Bivar" <jthoma22.at.tampabay.rr.com> wrote in message
news:hhnj10l48kmon9p46vtbiqenv6lmadc772@4ax.com...
: Looking for advice, thoughts, pros & cons, etc. I'm considering
: setting up a web server, at home, on a third PC running Win2K Pro and
: either IIS 5.0 or Apache software.
:
: The server would be connected to the net via my router and a cable
: modem and I am thinking of trying out the TZO.com premier package that
: would give me a static IP address.
:
: There's no particular reason to do this as opposed to using a web
: hosting service other than I just want to learn about web servers,
: email servers, etc. Maybe even do some small scale web hosting of my
: own - again just for the experience. I have no prior experience with
: web servers, but I would like to check them out.
:
: So, my questions would seem to be:
: 1) Am I nuts? (Not a general question, just confined to this project)
: 2) Should I use IIS 5.0 or Apache? (Leaning towards IIS 5.0)
: 3) Any particular hardware considerations? (Currently have my old
: game machine available - 1.8GB P4, 512MB RAM, two 60GB
: HDs (IDE) with Win2K installed). Sufficient to task? More RAM?
: 4) Any other considerations?
:
: Any and all feedback appreciated.
: Thanks in advance,
: Bivar

Tom
Fri Jan 30 07:25:41 CST 2004

"Bivar" <jthoma22.at.tampabay.rr.com> wrote in message
news:hhnj10l48kmon9p46vtbiqenv6lmadc772@4ax.com...
> Looking for advice, thoughts, pros & cons, etc. I'm considering
> setting up a web server, at home, on a third PC running Win2K Pro and
> either IIS 5.0 or Apache software.
>
> The server would be connected to the net via my router and a cable
> modem and I am thinking of trying out the TZO.com premier package that
> would give me a static IP address.
>
> There's no particular reason to do this as opposed to using a web
> hosting service other than I just want to learn about web servers,
> email servers, etc. Maybe even do some small scale web hosting of my
> own - again just for the experience. I have no prior experience with
> web servers, but I would like to check them out.
>
> So, my questions would seem to be:
> 1) Am I nuts? (Not a general question, just confined to this project)
> 2) Should I use IIS 5.0 or Apache? (Leaning towards IIS 5.0)
> 3) Any particular hardware considerations? (Currently have my old
> game machine available - 1.8GB P4, 512MB RAM, two 60GB
> HDs (IDE) with Win2K installed). Sufficient to task? More RAM?
> 4) Any other considerations?

The general answer is to go with what you're most comfortable with. IIS or
Apache? It really doesn't matter as either can do the job on a server. In
this case, though, because you're limited to 10 connections in IIS under W2K
Pro, you may find Apache more suitable.

--
Tom Kaminski IIS MVP
http://www.iistoolshed.com/ - tools, scripts, and utilities for running IIS
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/community/centers/iis/

jcochran
Fri Jan 30 07:46:49 CST 2004

On Thu, 29 Jan 2004 23:45:36 -0500, Bivar
<jthoma22.at.tampabay.rr.com> wrote:

>Looking for advice, thoughts, pros & cons, etc. I'm considering
>setting up a web server, at home, on a third PC running Win2K Pro and
>either IIS 5.0 or Apache software.
>
>The server would be connected to the net via my router and a cable
>modem and I am thinking of trying out the TZO.com premier package that
>would give me a static IP address.
>
>There's no particular reason to do this as opposed to using a web
>hosting service other than I just want to learn about web servers,
>email servers, etc. Maybe even do some small scale web hosting of my
>own - again just for the experience. I have no prior experience with
>web servers, but I would like to check them out.
>
>So, my questions would seem to be:
>1) Am I nuts? (Not a general question, just confined to this project)

No, just curious.

>2) Should I use IIS 5.0 or Apache? (Leaning towards IIS 5.0)

Absolutely. Unless you use something else.

Really. Use what you want to learn. Then if this is a learning
experience, switch to the other and use it too. One isn't better than
the other in this respect, though IIS has a more comfortable Windows
environment and Apache doesn't have the limitations of IIS on a
workstation OS.

>3) Any particular hardware considerations? (Currently have my old
> game machine available - 1.8GB P4, 512MB RAM, two 60GB
> HDs (IDE) with Win2K installed). Sufficient to task? More RAM?

I have only one web server which exceeds these specs, you'll be fine
with this.

>4) Any other considerations?

Learning curve, future learning opportunities, comfort level with
Windows administration, etc.

Jeff

webmaster
Fri Jan 30 13:11:05 CST 2004



----- Bivar wrote: -----

There's no particular reason to do this as opposed to using a web
hosting service other than I just want to learn about web servers,
email servers, etc. Maybe even do some small scale web hosting of my
own - again just for the experience. I have no prior experience with
web servers, but I would like to check them out.

So, my questions would seem to be:
1) Am I nuts? (Not a general question, just confined to this project)
2) Should I use IIS 5.0 or Apache? (Leaning towards IIS 5.0)
3) Any particular hardware considerations? (Currently have my old
game machine available - 1.8GB P4, 512MB RAM, two 60GB
HDs (IDE) with Win2K installed). Sufficient to task? More RAM?
4) Any other considerations?

Any and all feedback appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Bivar

Apache or IIS depends on what technology you are using for the applications on your webserver, Active Server Pages (ASP), PHP or Perl.

IIS: ASP, MS Access, MSSQL
Apache: PHP, Perl, MySQL

For a newby IIS is easier to install and to configure. Apache mostly run on Linux/Unix production systems. If you only want to learn webserver you can go both ways. Actually you can install both server on the same machine. One server runs with standard port 80 and the other with for example port 8080.

Regards,
Thomas Bruehlmann
http://www.webmeister.ch - intranets quick and easy

Jerry
Sat Jan 31 04:00:27 CST 2004

Your fine with the specs you have - Either IIS or Apache will do fine..

Heres a useful URL for you: http://www.dslwebserver.com/

Excellent site - info and forums specifically on this topic.

Good Luck
Jerry
"Bivar" <jthoma22.at.tampabay.rr.com> wrote in message
news:hhnj10l48kmon9p46vtbiqenv6lmadc772@4ax.com...
> Looking for advice, thoughts, pros & cons, etc. I'm considering
> setting up a web server, at home, on a third PC running Win2K Pro and
> either IIS 5.0 or Apache software.
>
> The server would be connected to the net via my router and a cable
> modem and I am thinking of trying out the TZO.com premier package that
> would give me a static IP address.
>
> There's no particular reason to do this as opposed to using a web
> hosting service other than I just want to learn about web servers,
> email servers, etc. Maybe even do some small scale web hosting of my
> own - again just for the experience. I have no prior experience with
> web servers, but I would like to check them out.
>
> So, my questions would seem to be:
> 1) Am I nuts? (Not a general question, just confined to this project)
> 2) Should I use IIS 5.0 or Apache? (Leaning towards IIS 5.0)
> 3) Any particular hardware considerations? (Currently have my old
> game machine available - 1.8GB P4, 512MB RAM, two 60GB
> HDs (IDE) with Win2K installed). Sufficient to task? More RAM?
> 4) Any other considerations?
>
> Any and all feedback appreciated.
> Thanks in advance,
> Bivar

Bivar
Mon Feb 02 20:15:35 CST 2004

Thank you all for the good advice - I think I'll just start out with
IIS and then switch to Apache just to get the feel of both. I agree
that I will be more comfortable starting out with a Windows type
server. That should make switching over to Apache a little easier in
the future.

Thanks again,
Bivar

On Thu, 29 Jan 2004 23:45:36 -0500, Bivar
<jthoma22.at.tampabay.rr.com> wrote:

>Looking for advice, thoughts, pros & cons, etc. I'm considering
>setting up a web server, at home, on a third PC running Win2K Pro and
>either IIS 5.0 or Apache software.
>
>The server would be connected to the net via my router and a cable
>modem and I am thinking of trying out the TZO.com premier package that
>would give me a static IP address.
>
>There's no particular reason to do this as opposed to using a web
>hosting service other than I just want to learn about web servers,
>email servers, etc. Maybe even do some small scale web hosting of my
>own - again just for the experience. I have no prior experience with
>web servers, but I would like to check them out.
>
>So, my questions would seem to be:
>1) Am I nuts? (Not a general question, just confined to this project)
>2) Should I use IIS 5.0 or Apache? (Leaning towards IIS 5.0)
>3) Any particular hardware considerations? (Currently have my old
> game machine available - 1.8GB P4, 512MB RAM, two 60GB
> HDs (IDE) with Win2K installed). Sufficient to task? More RAM?
>4) Any other considerations?
>
>Any and all feedback appreciated.
>Thanks in advance,
>Bivar