Chapter 5

Determining and Fulfilling Your Requirements


CONTENTS


Before installing Web server software and developing your Web site, you need to determine and fulfill various requirements, such as an Internet connection and a server to host your Web site. The bandwidth of the Internet connection and the hardware you select is crucial to what you can accomplish with your Web site. Quite often, the biggest bottleneck of a Web site is its Internet connection. This chapter gives you an overview of the various hardware, Internet connection options, and Web servers that you can use to host a Web site with Windows NT. You will be knowledgeable of various hardware platforms that are capable of running Windows NT and also learn about the advantages and drawbacks of selecting one hardware platform over another.

Various types of Internet connections available are also discussed, highlighting their capabilities and price/performance issues. If all you can afford at the moment is a low-speed modem connection, you are shown how to use your modem connection and still provide users near T1 or T3 access to your data. There are currently over two dozen Web servers available for Windows NT. Although this proves the acceptance of Windows NT as an ideal platform to host a Web site, it can make choosing the best Web server very confusing. Five Web servers, including Microsoft Internet Information Server, are discussed in the next two chapters to give you an overview of the strengths and deficiencies of various Web servers. Rather than discuss specific features and capabilities of Web servers, this chapter provides a brief overview of Web servers available to set up a Web site with Windows NT. In addition to hardware, Internet connection types, and Web servers, issues related to choosing Windows NT Server as opposed to Windows NT Workstation are also discussed.

Figure 5.1 contains a list of requirements that need to be fulfilled before developing a Web site with Windows NT. All requirements in Figure 5.1 up to the fourth requirement, "Select Web Server Software," are thoroughly discussed later in this chapter. Installing and configuring the Web server you select is discussed in Chapter 6, "Installing and Using Microsoft Internet Information Server," and Chapter 7, "Publishing on the Web with WebSite, Purveyor, and Netscape."

Figure 5.1: Requirements for setting up a Web site on the Internet with Windows NT.

Choosing the Right Internet Connection

As mentioned earlier, the biggest bottleneck of your Web site is most likely its Internet connection link. When multiple users begin accessing your Web site at the same time, things can get painfully slow if you don't have enough Internet bandwidth to transmit data requested by your users. This section provides you with an overview of various Internet connection types and how to choose the best connection type based on your needs and other factors, such as availability and affordability.

As shown in Figure 5.1, the first thing you should do is obtain an Internet link for your Web site. If you are planning on hosting a Web site for your company, it's best to obtain your own Internet domain name. Because Internet Service Providers (ISP) can take as long as a few weeks to set up an Internet access account and register your domain name, it is best that you contact an ISP in your area and request an Internet connection before proceeding any further. Internet access prices vary from one ISP to another. If there are a number of ISPs in your area, you can save at least a few hundred dollars by shopping around. If all you can afford right now is a 28.8 kbps (kilobits per second) POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) link to the Internet, you will be shown a tip that enables you to provide content to users browsing your Web site at near T1 speeds using your 28.8 kbps link to the Internet in the "Using Another Server" section.

Tip
When selecting an Internet domain name, select a name that is easy to remember. This makes it easy for users to remember your Web site and lets others know about it. Also, be careful when you abbreviate long words. Although you can abbreviate "Internet" with something like "intrnt," "Internet" is much easier to remember than "Intrnt."

Bandwidths of Various Connection Lines

Most likely, your Web server's biggest bottleneck will be the limited bandwidth of your Internet connection. If possible, you should use at least an ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) link to the Internet. As you can see from the chart in Figure 5.2, even a basic, single B channel ISDN line is several times faster than a 28.8 POTS connection.

Figure 5.2: ISDN Internet links have a higher bandwidth than POTS Internet links.

Another reason for using an ISDN link is that it does not need to be up all day for your Internet link; you will be using the line only when data is transferred, so you can disconnect when the line is not in use. Because ISDN lines are typically charged based on usage, this can save you money. This is practical with ISDN lines because of their fast call setup and disconnect times, typically about one second. On the other hand, as you can see in Figure 5.3, a POTS link usually takes about 30 seconds to establish a call.

Figure 5.3: ISDN connect/disconnect speeds are faster than POTS connect/disconnect speeds.

Using Another Server

If you are unable to afford an ISDN or a T1 link at the moment, you can use another server to store all your graphics and other nontext objects and use your POTS link exclusively for transmitting HTML text files.

If you will be starting out with a 28.8 kbps (kilobits per second) POTS link to the Internet, you should not get carried away with too many graphics. However, if you do have a few graphics and you start getting more and more hits, your Web surfers might become frustrated with the slow data transfer rates of your Web server. To avoid this, there is a very low-cost solution. You can simply find a Web space provider with a fast link to the Internet (that is, T1 or T3) who rents out space on a Web server. This service is inexpensive, usually less than $20 a month. Afterward, you can simply move all your graphics files to this Web server. In your page, you can call the graphics files on the other Web server rather than the graphics on your own server. This can make a significant difference because you will be using the slow POTS link only for transmitting HTML files to users who access your Web server. Because large objects such as graphics files can be stored on another server, users will go to the other server for all inline graphics and other large objects. This frees up your relatively limited Internet bandwidth for transmitting plain-text HTML files and processing user input.

Tip
When Internet bandwidth available to you is limited, use a secondary server to distribute relatively large objects such as graphic files.

For example, suppose that you have a local inline image called  WindowsNT.gif that's embedded in a Web page with the following HTML tag:

<img src="/graphics/icons/WindowsNT.gif">

You can free up your bandwidth for this graphic by moving WindowsNT.gif to another server (for example, www.server.com) and changing the preceding tag to the following:

<img. src="http://www.server.com/graphics/icons/WindowsNT.gif">

You can conserve your bandwidth by following this tip because HTTP is a connectionless protocol. Therefore, after a connection is made for a Web page or other object (image, video clip, Java application, and so on), the page or other object is transmitted, and the connection to the Web server is closed. Subsequently, for various inline images and objects of a page, a Web browser can be instructed to go to a different Web server.

Because it's possible to use another server to store your graphics, you might wonder why you shouldn't just store everything on the other server and skip all the chapters until the next section where Web site design issues are discussed. Although it is possible to use a secondary server to store most of your Web site's content, you will be unable to offer your users any kind of interactivity when using another server. Many Web space providers do not allow access to the CGI directory of their Web server because doing so can lead to some very serious security breaches. The CGI directory is where all interactive Web applications are stored. More information on this and other security issues is provided in Chapter 8, "Security Considerations." By setting up your own Web server, however, it is possible to provide users accessing your Web site dynamic information as well as to publish databases on the Internet.

Suitability of Various Internet Connections

Due to its low bandwidth, a POTS link is suitable for only limited Web traffic. By using another server to store your graphics files, you will be able to get the maximum use from your POTS link by using it exclusively for transmitting HTML text files. However, as you get more accesses and the size of your pages increase, a POTS link will no longer be adequate. This is when you need to consider an alternative, such as ISDN.

Although ISDN has been around for a while, it's still not as widely used as it should be. ISDN technology has a lot of potential. If you look at it from your telephone company's point of view, you'll see that providing ISDN is much simpler. Virtually all your phone conversations are transmitted digitally within your phone company's circuits; only the line from your phone company to your site is analog. The phone company actually has to convert digital signals to analog before sending this signal to your site. By using ISDN, you make the job simpler for the phone company because the phone company doesn't need to worry about converting digital signals to analog. Unfortunately, current prices do not reflect this advantage. At the time of this writing, maintaining a 24-hour link to the Internet using a single-channel ISDN link (64 kbps) can cost as much as $650 per month for the ISDN line, plus ISP (Internet Service Provider) charges. Ironically, a second phone line for a 28.8 kbps link to the Internet is only about $17, plus ISP charges. This means that for about twice the bandwidth of a 28.8 kbps link to the Internet, one might have to pay over 38 times! You might want to give your local phone company a call and consider what they want to charge you and what you get in return before going with ISDN.

Note
The previous cost of $650 a month was calculated for a 24-hour single channel ISDN line. Because you can bring down the line when it's not in use, the cost will be lower. However, it can still cost several times more than a regular phone line.

Apart from ISDN and POTS, a third option might be available to you for Internet access. In all likelihood, you can get a much better deal if your local cable company provides Internet access services in your area. Due to the nature of the coaxial cable that delivers cable TV, by choosing a cable-based Internet connection you will typically get a bandwidth of over 4 megabits per second. Such a connection can be up to 350 times faster than a 28.8 kbps dial-up modem connection! For more information about a cable-based Internet access provider, you might want to visit the following URL.

URL
For information about a cable-based Internet access provider:
http://www.tci.east-lansing.mi.us/metshome.htm

Choosing the Right Connection

Choosing the right Internet connection is an equation that depends on several variables, such as your bandwidth requirements, expected Web traffic, availability and cost of ISDN in your area, and, of course, your budget for the Internet link.

Recently, cable companies have been exploring the possibility of providing Internet service. If ISDN prices seem to be too high or unreasonable for you, you might want to check with your local cable company to see if they offer Internet service or if they plan to do so. The bandwidth your cable company can provide you is much greater than what ISDN offers. If cable companies realize the potential of providing Internet services at a reasonable cost, the Internet will become a much nicer place to live!

This section has covered various kinds of Internet connections that are available to connect your Web site to the Internet. The next section addresses hardware compatibility issues as well as advantages and drawbacks of selecting an Intel-based, Alpha-based, or Power PC-based hardware platform to host your Web site.

Choosing the Right Hardware for the Job

The hardware you need for your Web site depends on the kinds of services you will be setting up on your Web server. When you are hosting a Web site, by far the most important factors as far as performance is concerned are input/output performance and the amount of memory available apart from the bandwidth of your Internet connection.

This priority changes somewhat dramatically when you start getting into 40 to 60 simultaneous users running various Common Gateway Interface (CGI) applications. If these CGI programs query and update a database on your server, raw input/output performance and RAM are not going to be enough. In such an event, although adding more memory will increase performance, you will need a powerful server to host your Web server. When choosing your hardware, you need to think about the magnitude of traffic you expect your Web server to generate.

Tip
Regardless of the hardware platform you go with, be sure that your Web server is on an NTFS (NT File System) partition. This will enhance the performance of your Web server as well as provide better security. NTFS, unlike FAT, is also a recoverable file system. In the event of a power failure, when the system comes back online, NTFS is typically able to reconstruct disk volumes and return them to a consistent state within a few seconds.

Performance
To increase performance, if possible, you should set up your Web server on another hard disk (not just another partition on the same hard disk, but a different physical hard disk). For example, if your Web server is set up on the same hard disk as other applications, whenever these applications are used at the same time with the Web server, your Web server will be competing for the attention of the hard drive head along with other applications. On the other hand, if a separate hard disk is used, your Web server will have its own hard drive head for accessing data. For best results, a high-performance SCSI-2 Wide/Ultra Wide hard drive with an RPM (Revolutions Per Minute) rate of 7200 should be used.

Platforms Suitable to Run NT

Although Windows NT runs on several hardware platforms, Intel is the most widely used. Lately, however, Power PC-based and Digital Alpha-based servers have been gaining popularity due to their high performance. Various tradeoffs are involved when choosing one platform over another. Depending on your current and anticipated needs, you need to choose the right server platform. Advantages and drawbacks of selecting one platform over another are discussed next.

Using an Intel-Based Web Platform

Hosting your Web server on an Intel-based Web server might be the most practical solution for you. Intel-based servers are generally less expensive than Alpha-based or Power PC-based servers. If you do not need an extremely high-performance server, an Intel-based server will do fine. Often, your biggest bottleneck will be the bandwidth of the line connecting you to the Internet. Therefore, unless you are thinking about burdening your Web server with other tasks that require a fair amount of processing time, you will be fine by going with an Intel-based server. Being able to utilize many applications written for Intel-based computers to develop your Web site is another advantage in choosing an Intel-based Web server. According to Robert Denny, developer of the popular Windows NT Web Server WebSite, an Intel-based Web server running Windows NT is perfectly capable of saturating a T1 line.

Performance
If you'll be going with an Intel-based Web server, it might be a good idea to purchase a server that supports Symmetric Multi Processing (SMP). By investing in a server that supports SMP under Windows NT, if you outgrow your server you can simply add another processor. However, before purchasing an SMP server, be sure to discuss Windows NT compatibility issues with your vendor. Windows NT might require a special HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer) from the vendor to take advantage of the second processor.

Using a Power PC-based or DEC Alpha-Based Web Platform

Power PC and Alpha servers are clearly high-performance servers that can be utilized for other tasks in addition to hosting a Web site. If you're employing your Web server for internal use (it's an easy way of distributing information), you want a fast system. If you're using it as a proxy server, you also want a fast system. Proxy servers cache network information requests to save bandwidth and provide faster access to information. A Web server on a Power PC-based or Alpha-based server will do fine in the latter case.

On the downside, Power PC-based and Alpha-based servers generally require more RAM to run the same application programs that run on an Intel-based computer. Lack of software or delayed release of software is another downside. Although this situation might change in the future, at the moment, most software vendors are focusing most of their resources on Intel-based platforms.

Due to costs associated with developing software on non-Intel platforms, most applications are available only for Intel-based computers. This can be a problem if you intend to develop as well as host your Web server on a non-Intel platform. Make sure that you are comfortable with available software for the Windows NT platform you choose.

Hardware Requirements for Each Platform

The following sections discuss the minimum hardware requirements for a basic Windows NT-based Web server. Depending on whether you'll provide additional services, such as hosting a database or providing mail services, you'll need more RAM and/or processing power.

The following are minimum hardware requirements for an Intel-based Web server:

486 DX2/66 or better
16 MB of RAM (24 MB or more highly recommended)
Around 100 MB of free disk space on an NTFS partition
At least a 28.8 PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol) link to the Internet
UPS that supports Windows NT
CD-ROM drive

Performance
With 16 MB of RAM, you can basically get by for a Web site. If, however, you are planning to run a few other applications or set up a database on your Web server, a RAM upgrade to 24 or 32 MB will make a tremendous difference. Depending on what else the Web server is used for, more RAM will be needed.
You can also boost the performance of your Web server by using more than one hard disk and/or by using a dual-channel/wide SCSI card. By having Windows NT reside on one hard disk, your data files on another, and your application programs on another, you can increase the performance of your server. Also, when setting up page file space, you can increase the performance of your server by splitting your page files over two or more physical hard disks.

The following are minimum hardware requirements for an Alpha-based or Power PC-based Web server:

Any Alpha-based or Power PC-based server
32 MB of RAM
At least a 64/128 kbps ISDN link to the Internet
Around 100 MB of free disk space on an NTFS partition
CD-ROM drive
UPS that supports Windows NT

Price/Performance Issues

Although Power PC-based and Alpha-based Web servers are inherently more powerful than existing Intel-based servers, they tend to be more expensive. Unfortunately, most software vendors don't seem to port their NT software to non-Intel platforms; therefore, the number of application programs available for non-Intel platforms is limited. This might be an issue for you if you are going to use the same machine to develop your Web site because tools for non-Intel platforms are limited. With the recent Microsoft-Digital alliance, however, and the development of an Intel 486 emulator for the Alpha, things might change in the near future. If you are going to link your Web site to a large database or if you are planning to use one server for other tasks, such as Microsoft Exchange Server, a DHCP server, or an RAS server, in addition to hosting a Web server, then using a Power PC or an Alpha server makes sense. If not, your best bet would be to go along with an Intel-based server. Also, with the introduction of new Pentium Pro-based servers that are optimized for 32-bit operating systems such as Windows NT, you will be able to enjoy a higher level of performance from Intel-based servers.

Compatibility
Currently, an Intel emulator for Alpha computers running Windows NT exists. This emulator, however, will run only those Windows applications that do not require Windows to be run in 386-enhanced mode. In other words, the new 32-bit applications will not work with this emulator. In the near future, however, you might expect to see an Intel emulator that will run 32-bit Windows applications on an Alpha. With the aid of such an emulator, Alpha users will be able to benefit from the large number of Windows applications written for the Intel platform.

Importance of an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS)

The importance of having an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) can't be stressed enough when you're dealing with an operating system like Windows NT that will be serving up documents on the Web 24 hours a day. A sudden power failure in the middle of a disk read/write operation can be detrimental to the health of your server. What's really bad about such an incident is that a file might get corrupted, and you might never know about it until you need the file. Although NTFS provides many safeguards to prevent such incidents from happening, you should never take a chance with your data. It's always wise to invest in a UPS that will shut down your server safely in the event of an extended power outage. Depending on your hardware, you need to choose a UPS that's at least capable of providing power until Windows NT has enough time to shut down various services and applications running on your server.

Tip
When selecting a UPS for your server, be sure it supports Windows NT. Although you can use the UPS application that comes with Windows NT, many UPS vendors bundle software with added functionality that gives you more control and features, such as the capability to perform scheduled server shutdowns and restarts.

Windows NT Server or Workstation

This section is mainly for those who are exploring the possibility of using NT Workstation to host a Web site. If you are already using NT Server or plan to use NT Server to host your Web site, please skip to the next section, "Choosing Your Web Server." There are a number of differences between Windows NT Server and Workstation; however, when hosting and developing a Web site, most of these differences apply only if you will be using the same computer for other purposes (such as file and print services) in addition to hosting a Web server. Although as far as software is concerned, virtually all software that runs on Windows NT Server runs on Windows NT Workstation and vice versa; the exception to this rule is certain Microsoft software and a handful of third-party tools that require NT Server.

Microsoft Internet Information Server (MS IIS) will be bundled with Windows NT Server version 4.0 and will not be compatible with Windows NT Workstation. Although a somewhat trimmed down version of MS IIS will work with NT Workstation, the current release (version 1.0) does not. Therefore, if you'd like to use MS IIS, you will have to use Windows NT Server. Although you'll save some money by using NT Workstation, because MS IIS is free, the price difference between the combined price of NT Workstation and a commercial Web server will be almost the same as NT Server and MS IIS.

As mentioned earlier, the price difference is really not a very big issue. When managing a Web site, time is very valuable. Tools that save development time will eventually save you money. Therefore, ease of use and features such as database and search engine support are very important when selecting a Web server. Unlike Web servers such as WebSite Purveyor and Netscape (covered in Chapter 7, "Publishing on the Web with WebSite, Purveyor, and Netscape"), MS IIS is new. Although MS IIS is well integrated with Windows NT and comes with integrated Gopher, Web, and FTP capabilities, it lacks some features such as database wizards and search engines found in other Web servers. Therefore, even if you decide to use Windows NT Server, you should read Chapter 7 for an overview of various Windows NT Web servers and features they offer. After reading the next two chapters, you might decide that even if MS IIS is free, it lacks features available in other Web servers. In which case, you can run both MS IIS and another Web server at the same time to take advantage of features of both servers. You can do this by configuring one Web server to run on the default HTTP port (port 80) and the other to run on a different port. More information about this will be provided in the following two chapters.

Availability of MS IIS is not the only advantage of selecting NT Server. Unlike NT Workstation, NT Server is optimized for network applications-an advantage when hosting a Web server. For example, because NT Server can be configured to use more memory for network applications, most of your system resources can be invested to ensure network applications are provided with adequate system resources. If you use the same computer for a variety of other tasks such as providing file and print services, you can expect better performance when using Windows NT Server.

Windows NT Server also includes support for Microsoft BackOffice components. By choosing Windows NT Server, all your BackOffice applications will be integrated with Windows NT Server and MS IIS. As mentioned earlier, there are a number of advantages in choosing Windows NT Server to host a Web site. However, to take advantage of these capabilities, you need to use MS IIS, various BackOffice components, or utilize the same server for other applications, such as file and print services.

After reading the next two chapters, if you are interested in a Web server other than MS IIS, you will be able to get by with NT Workstation. However, by selecting NT Workstation, Microsoft applications such as MS IIS, various BackOffice components, and Microsoft Internet Studio might not be available to you. Microsoft Internet Studio, a Web publishing application that can be used to distribute richly formatted, interactive Web pages on the Internet, requires MS IIS.

When developing a Web site, it's easier to make the decision at an early stage and begin with either NT Workstation or NT Server. For example, if you installed NT Workstation on a computer and decided later to install NT Server and make it a Primary or Backup Domain Controller (PDC/BDC), you need to install NT Server as a new installation because an NT Workstation installation cannot be upgraded to an NT Server BDC or PDC. Speaking from experience, re-installing NT, other applications, and copying .DLL and .INI files from one directory to another so that applications continue to work as they should is not a very pleasant experience. It can take as much as a few days before things are more or less back to the way they used to be. Therefore, in the long run, it will save you both time and money to decide whether to use NT Workstation or NT Server when you first start out.

Choosing Your Web Server

About two dozen Web servers are available for hosting Windows NT-based Web sites. Various Web servers support various features. Because capabilities of Web servers change frequently, this chapter does not discuss features of specific Web servers. Instead, an overview of useful Web server features and their benefits are discussed. By browsing URLs of Web servers, you will be able to obtain the most up-to-date information about their capabilities and features. More detailed information about Web servers is provided in Chapter 7. The four Web servers covered are Netscape, WebSite, Purveyor, and the FREE EMWAC Web server. These four Web servers were selected because they are four of the most widely used Windows NT Web servers, and they offer a lot in terms of enhanced features and tools. However, it does not mean you should ignore other Web servers. A special requirement of yours might be better met by a different server. In addition to the four Web servers mentioned earlier, MS IIS will be covered in Chapter 6.

Useful Web Server Features

When selecting Web server software, you should keep a few things in mind. One of the most important considerations is how easy the Web server is to set up and administer. For example, the Netscape server uses forms to administer all aspects of the server. Therefore, by entering a user ID and a password, the Web site administrator can administer all aspects of the server from a remote location. Such a feature might be very useful to you if you don't always have ready access to your Web server.

Another feature you should look for is the degree of security each server provides. The level of security you need depends on what you will be using your server for. If your Web site will be providing only unclassified information to users browsing your Web site, security will not be a major concern for you. When providing sensitive information over the Web, however, you should ensure that such information is transmitted only via a secure medium in which the Web server encrypts the data before it is transmitted. However, the server you choose should at least support restricting access to part of your server with user names and passwords. Some Web servers allow the creation of user groups and assign various permissions to users on a per-group basis. If you deal with a large number of users, this feature will be useful to you. Some Web servers can use the Windows NT user database to authenticate users who want to access various areas of your Web site. Such a feature will be handy if you need to allow access to parts of your Web site to users of your NT server. Having the capability to restrict access based on the client's IP (Internet Protocol) address might be useful to you, also. By utilizing this feature, you can deny access to visitors browsing your Web site from various domains and countries.

Security
You should never determine the identity of a user accessing your Web site based on the IP address of the Web client. You can trick your Web server by misrepresenting the IP address from which the client is accessing your Web server. Before transmitting sensitive data, you should authenticate the user with a user ID and password using a secure medium.

If you are using your Web server to distribute security-sensitive data, you should make sure that your Web server encrypts the data before transmitting it over the Web. This is especially important if you will be transmitting or receiving valuable data such as customer credit card numbers.

Your Web server should also give you control over directory browsing. Directory browsing is the capability of a Web server to list the contents of a directory when a URL is given without a filename but with a directory, as shown in Figure 5.4.

Figure 5.4: When directory browsing is enabled, users will be able to leaf through the entire directory structure of your Web site.

If you want to make sure that Web surfers can get to certain pages only if they know the complete URL name of a file, you should disable directory browsing. Otherwise, someone visiting your Web site will be able to traverse your directory structure and obtain various files you did not intend anyone to have access to.

Support for CGI scripts is a definite must for a Web server. CGI scripts enable you to interact with visitors browsing your Web site by providing dynamic content and immediately responding to user input. You should make sure that your Web server provides CGI scripts with access to CGI environment variables and supports server-side includes. Server side includes are special commands that can be embedded in HTML files. These commands are processed by the Web server before the HTML is transmitted to a Web browser. Some Web servers also enable you to interface with Visual Basic programs. This feature will be very useful to you if you are familiar with Visual Basic programming, because you can utilize the power and ease of Visual Basic to interact with users browsing your Web site.

Performance
By using server-side includes, you can make information in your static HTML pages change based on various conditions. However, server-side includes should be used sparingly because they tax your Web server by making it take longer to process HTTP requests.

In addition to the previously mentioned features, a few other features are standard for most Web servers; however, you should ensure that your Web server supports these features. After setting up your Web site, you will realize that your Web server's "log file" keeps increasing in size every day. This log file logs all your Web server accesses; it is the key to determining who accessed what from your Web server and when they accessed it. Many different log file analyzing programs are available. To use most of these programs, you should make sure that your Web server generates logs in CERN/NCSA common log format.

Having a mechanism to automatically archive log files is another plus. This feature renames the current log file, creates a new log file, and starts logging Web server accesses to the new log file. Depending on the number of hits your Web site receives, you should typically recycle your log file about once a week. By recycling your log file on a regular basis, such as once a week, you will be able to compare Web server access statistics. However, if you do this at an irregular interval, such as once in every five or six days, analyzing your log file and comparing Web server accesses statistics will become a rather challenging task. Old log files should be archived for future reference. In Chapter 24, "Utility Applications for Your Server," you will be shown how to use a log file analyzing application to find out various access statistics for your Web site.

Last, but not least, is the price of the Web server. Currently, about two dozen Web servers are available that will run on Windows NT. Some of these Web servers are free and in most cases will meet your needs. If, however, you are very concerned about security and performance, you might want to go for a commercial Web server that will better suit your needs.

To summarize the preceding discussion, the following lists the features you should look for when choosing a Web server:

Not
In case you run into a problem, support provided for free Web servers is limited. It might take as much as a few days to hear from someone if you encounter a problem. If expeditious support is a must for you, consider using a commercial Web server.

Web Servers Available for Windows NT

Table 5.1 lists Web servers for Windows NT. Because capabilities of different Web servers change, features of specific Web servers are not covered in this chapter. Instead, by visiting Web sites listed here, you will be able to find the most up-to-date information.

Table 5.1. Web servers and related information.

Web ServerURL to Visit for More Information
Alibabahttp://alibaba.austria.eu.net/
Commerce Builderhttp://www.aristosoft.com/ifact/inet.htm
Communications Builderhttp://www.aristosoft.com/ifact/inet.htm
Folio Infobasehttp://www.folio.com/
FolkWebhttp://www.ilar.com/folkweb.htm
FrontPagehttp://www.microsoft.com/frontpage/
HTTPShttp://emwac.ed.ac.uk/html/internet_toolchest/https/contents.htm
Internet Office Web Serverhttp://server.spry.com/
NaviServerhttp://www.gnnhost.com/index.htm
NetPublisherhttp://netpub.notis.com/
Netscape Commercehttp://www.netscape.com/comprod/netscape_commerce.html
Netscape Communicationshttp://www.netscape.com/comprod/netscape_commun.html
PowerWebhttp://www.cyberpi.com/
Purveyorhttp://www.process.com/prod/purveyor.htp
Quarterdeck WebServerhttp://arachnid.qdeck.com/qdeck/demosoft/WebServr/
SAIChttp://wwwserver.itl.saic.com/
SuperWeb Serverhttp://www.frontiertech.com/products/superweb.htm
Web Commanderhttp://www.flicks.com./
WebBasehttp://www.webbase.com/
WebNoteshttp://webnotes.ostech.com/
WebQuesthttp://www.questar.com/webquest.htm
WebSitehttp://website.ora.com/

Tip
You should join Internet mail lists that have been set up to discuss various issues related to the Web server you are using. You can learn more about hosting a Web site and publishing information on the Internet. Also, if you have a question, you can ask for help and get answers. Various Windows NT mail lists are discussed in Appendix A, "Windows NT Resources on the Internet."

If you are looking for a free Web server to get you started, you should consider the  SAIC server and the EMWAC Web server. These servers support many basic features that will enable you to get started very quickly. Both servers are administered via graphical user interfaces and are very easy to install and administer. For more information on installing and configuring them, refer to their documentation found at the previously listed Web sites. Installation and administration issues related to the EMWAC server are discussed in Chapter 7.

Summary

This chapter covered issues related to determining and fulfilling various requirements before setting up a Web site. You were introduced to various Internet connection types, including their capabilities and drawbacks. Depending on your needs, budget, and various Internet links available in your area, you can now select the Internet link that best suits your needs. If you cannot afford a high-speed Internet link, you can utilize a secondary Web server to get the maximum use out of a POTS link.

You were introduced to hardware platforms suitable for hosting a Windows NT Web site. Although Alpha-based and Power PC-based computers are very high-performance server platforms, software for them is limited. For this reason, it might be more productive for you to choose an Intel-based server to develop your Web site.

You now have an overview of the software needed to set up a Windows NT-based site. You know the various advantages of selecting Windows NT server over Windows NT Workstation and cases in which you can make do with NT Workstation. From the various Web server applications that are available, you know what features you should look for while selecting the right one to host your Windows NT- based Web site. You also know where to go on the Web for more information about the various Windows NT Web Server applications.

What's Next?

The next two chapters discuss issues related to setting up and configuring five Windows NT Web servers. After finding out more about these Web servers and evaluating your needs, you will be able to select the Web server that best meets your needs. The next chapter, "Installing and Using Microsoft Internet Information Server," discusses installation, configuration, and administration issues related to MS IIS.