Teaching and Publishing in the World Wide Web
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Windows httpd is an HTTP server for Microsoft Windows 3.1x. The package was written by Robert B. Denny. Details about the package, and an HTTP link for downloading, are available on the Windows httpd home page. The current version is 1.4c. The HTTPD.EXE file is dated June 10, 1995. The ZIP file is 666,267 bytes. Mr. Denny is also the author of WebSite, a commercial Web server package for Windows 95 and Windows NT that is sold by O'Reilly Associates.
Windows httpd may be used without charge for personal and educational use. For commercial use there is a one-time fee of $99.00.
Windows httpd is based on the Winsock standard that supports most TCP/IP clients for Windows. You can learn more about Winsock in my paper "Windows and TCP/IP for Internet Access."
At first glance, Windows httpd is an intimidating package. The ZIP file unzips into three dozen subdirectories containing over 400 files totaling more than 2.0 MB. However, the server executable itself is only 244,240 bytes. The remaining files contain extensive documentation, images, sounds, and support software for uses more sophisticated than simple file serving. Initial setup is straightforward.
Microsoft has been very aggressive in pursuing the Internet server market, although giving away free software seems somewhat at odds with the concept of "market." For some time, Microsoft Personal Web Server was a free download from the Microsoft Web site. Later it was included in the commercial release of Microsoft FrontPage. The beta version of FrontPage 98, including Personal Web Server, is available for downloading and testing. I have been using it on my Web pages since it became available in August 1997.
You can also download a beta version of Personal Web Server as a free add-on for Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0. However, since IE 4.0 is available only in beta at this time, I would wait until the final release before trying it.
Peer Web services are included with NT Workstation 4.0. The operating system includes not only a Web server, but also an FTP server and Gopher server software.
Microsoft Internet Information Server is a professional level Web server included with NT Server 4.0. This page was served to you from a 120 MHz Pentium PC running NT Server 4.0 and Internet Information Server 3.0. Upgrades and various add-ons can be downloaded for free from Microsoft's Web site..
A PowerMac 6100/66 was the first machine on which I operated the Always Learning Web server. I used Chuck Shotton's MacHTTP as the server software. The product is still available from the MacHTTP home page.
MacHTTP must be registered following the initial 30-day trial period. The cost for educational use is $65.00 per server machine. All other users (commercial, government,) are charged $95.00.
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Revised: December 28, 1999
Harry_M_Kriz
, [hmkriz@vt.edu]