[thelist] PWS as a Webserver

Burhan Khalid burhankh at hotmail.com
Sun Feb 24 16:41:01 CST 2002


Hello list :

  Just my few thoughts on PWS. There is always the right tool for the job.
If you are just dabbling in website design, Apache would be overkill. PWS
will work just fine. But, as many have pointed out on the list, PWS has many
limitation, among which, I believe, is a 5 (or is it 15?) connection limit.
Which means, that after a while, your server will stop responding; if it has
not dropped/killed/ended enough connections. IIS does not have the
connection limit.

  Another point to be noted in favor of PWS is that it comes built in with
Frontpage extensions, and is ASP compatible right out of the box. Before
people go about bashing Frontpage again, let me just refer to my first
point, there is a right tool for every job. If you are just learning website
design, it may be a bit intimidating to go head first into HTML's syntax. In
which case, Frontpage is a godsend, namely for it view source option. You
can, for example, center, bold, italic underline a heading with Times New
Roman, flip over to the view code, and find out what HTML makes it happen.
IMO, a great way to get basic HTML under your belt.

  As far as ASP goes, there is no better way (unless you have an account on
a free ASP host like brinkster) to learn it than to fire up PWS and start
working with a small Access database (Northwind, which is the default
database from MS, if you feeling ambitious). All the configuration is done
for you, so all you have to do is write the script, make sure you are
connected to the internet, and point your browser to localhost.

  Now, as far as Apache goes, you have to wonder, there must be a good
reason that it is the most popular (what is it, almost 90%) webserver on the
Internet. It has its strong points. Stability -- which can be hindered by
the OS, configuration (multiple options, if a little intimadating), security
(SSL, anyone?), compatablity (most OS have a port of Apache), and age (it
has been around for a while), and documentation (anything you ever wanted to
know about Apache is available either online (www.apache.org), or in print
(www.amazon.com)).

  I believe that the person who initated the post had a PHP, mySQL, PWS
setup. A great (and easy) way to learn PHP...if that's all you'll be doing.
Another point that I'd like to echo from earlier posts is that if you are
going to be developing for deployment, you might want to keep an eye for
your target platform. No use getting your site to work beautifully in PWS on
Windows98, when you will be hosting it on a Linux box with Apache.

  Just my $0.02.
  After all that, I feel like I owe a tip.

<tip Author="Burhan Khalid" type="mySQL on Windows 98">
If you are newbie to mySQL and have installed it on Windows98, and easy,
user friendly GUI exists to help you keep a check on your database. From the
command line (Start --> Run --> Command [Enter]).
Navigate to you mySQL directory (its \mySQL if you left the defaults), then
navigate to the bin directory :

C:\mySQL\bin>

type winmysqladmin and hit enter :

C:\mySQL\bin>winmysqladmin [enter]

This will load the Windows mySQL admin console (as you can no doubt guess
from the command). If this is your first time launching mySQL, it will ask
you for your Admin name and password. Pick something you won't forget. Then,
it will launch your database (you will see a traffic light icon on the
system tray (by the clock)). When the light is green, you database is
running. Right click on the console to minimize it. Now your mySQL server is
running, and you have an easy way to administer it.
</tip>

Warmly,
Burhan Khalid

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