Web Servers
“Servers
Advantage” http://www.pcmag.com/article/0,2997,s=1611&a=19774,00.asp
Apache 1.3:
·
Company Info: Apache
Software Foundation, www.apache.org
·
Price: Free
·
PC MAGAZINE: Editor
Rating:
Plus: Free; open-source; expandable through
modules
Minus: Limited support; base version lacks SSL;
requires expertise; mediocre performance
·
Apache
is widely used and it's modular design means
you can snap new features in easily, without major changes to the core.
·
If
you want capabilities like SSL,
you'll need to hunt down add-on modules, which vary in sophistication and
maturity, or purchase a commercial Apache version such as Red Hat's Stronghold Secure Web Server 3 ($995, www.redhat.com).
One advantage of this modular design is that you plug in only the components
you need, making the server less complex and arguably more reliable, secure,
and manageable. Another advantage is that you can choose from a wide variety of
modules produced both by the open-source community and by commercial vendors:
Modules are available for everything from enabling FrontPage Extensions to
performing sophisticated rules-based redirection. You can even extend the
server with your own custom-written modules.
·
Apache is beginning to show its age. The server
has largely remained static, while competing products have gained more features
and better performance.
·
As a platform for development, Apache directly
supports CGI scripts and server-side includes, and its wide variety of modules
provide plug-in support for Perl, PHP, emulated ASP, and other page-generation
and Web-scripting languages. NSAPI and Java servlet support also require add-on
modules.
·
Apache's
performance on our benchmark tests was in the middle of the pack. It did
moderately better running on Linux than on Windows on our Static Page Serving
test.
Apache 2.0, currently in testing with no release date set (and previewed in our issue of July 1, 2001), will be built atop a new portable runtime layer that its developers claim will, among other things, improve performance and stability on Windows. In the meantime, Apache 1.3 remains a solid choice as a free Web server on Unix, especially for site builders who want to take advantage of its modular extendability.
FREE
Zeus
4.0:
·
Company Info: Zeus
Technology Ltd., 408-350-9400, www.zeus.com
·
Price: $1,700 per server
·
PC MAGAZINE: Editor Rating:
Plus: Very fast; enterprise scalability; supports
open standards; nice interface
Minus: Relatively expensive; small market share;
no
·
Zeus Web
Server 4.0 combines extensive features, a superb user interface, and formidable
performance, making it a compelling choice for Unix platforms.
·
·
Zeus
queues up changes until you explicitly apply them, but its graphical
server-status page also provides a clear indication of which servers have
changes pending. When you apply changes, you can view an audit list showing
their details. Reconfiguration is dynamic, so you don't have to restart the server to apply your changes.
· Zeus provides bandwidth throttling on the virtual-server and subserver levels. Clustering and fail-over support are provided as well for use in server farms.
· Zeus supports SSL, with wizard-like interfaces that make it easy to get and set up a certificate.
· Zeus positions its Web server partly as a solution for sites migrating from other Web servers, and to that end, it provides a variety of programming interfaces for compatibility.
·
On our performance tests, Zeus clobbered all the other servers at CGI serving and just about
tied Microsoft's Internet Information Services 5.0 for the top throughput rate
in static page serving.
·
Zeus manages to combine an impressive set of
performance, features, and extensibility in an easy-to-use package. If you're
running your Web site on any major flavor of Unix, Zeus Web Server 4.0 is a
hard-to-beat combination.
Microsoft
Internet Information Services 5.0:
·
Company Info: Microsoft
Corp., 888-218-5617, www.microsoft.com
·
Price: Included with server
versions of Windows
·
PC MAGAZINE: Editor Rating:
Plus:
Built into OS; easy to use; good tech support; excellent performance
Minus: Problematic security history; vendor
lock-in; limited fine tuning
·
No versions for non-Windows platforms
are available. Its tight integration with the OS makes installing and
administering easy, which also helped place it among the top performers on our
benchmark tests. If
you want an inexpensive and easy-to-use Web server and are comfortable with hewing
to a Microsoft-centric strategy that includes Active Server Pages (ASP), COM+,
and Visual Studio, then IIS holds a lot of appeal.
·
The
flip side of this simple installation is that IIS's default settings are a bit permissive. This can potentially lead to
security and maintenance headaches
later, as the Code Red and Nimda worm virus exploits dramatically illustrated.
Netcraft's survey shows that a surprisingly large portion of IIS-run sites are
vulnerable even to relatively simple attacks; if you use IIS, running
Microsoft's IIS Lockdown Tool and staying on top of frequent security patches
are absolute musts.
·
IIS's
programming interfaces are
extensive but (not surprisingly) strongly
favor Microsoft's own technologies. There's direct support for FrontPage Server
Extensions and ASP but not for JSP or other popular third-party scripting
languages such as Perl and PHP, except via CGI.
·
As a Web server for Windows, IIS is
hard to beat when it comes to price, performance, and features—unless you just
don't want to use Microsoft technologies for development. Just make sure to
give security precautions all the attention they deserve.
iPlanet Web
Server Enterprise Edition 6.0:
·
Company Info: iPlanet
E-Commerce Solutions. 888-786-8111, www.iplanet.com
·
Price: $1,495 per CPU
·
PC MAGAZINE:
Editor Rating:
Plus: Excellent Java support and scalability;
good performance
Minus: Relatively expensive; awkward interface
·
iPlanet,
a Sun/Netscape alliance, decided to
skip version 5.0 of its Web server software and name its newest version iPlanet
Web Server Enterprise Edition 6.0. This latest incarnation of IWS holds a lot
of promise: It offers solid performance,
has an impressive set of features geared toward larger-scale sites and mass
virtual-hosting environments, and expands support for Sun's Java-based
development technologies.
·
iPlanet
Web Server works in tandem with iPlanet Application Server. In fact, the Web server incorporates some of the
features that we're more accustomed to seeing in the application-server layer,
such as a session-aware J2EE container.
·
iPlanet has excellent load balancing,
failure handling, and growth path as a platform for e-commerce, but it needs a
better suite of development tools, compatibility with more Web servers and
operating systems, and stronger monitoring.
·
IWS's
interface for configuring and managing the Web server was by far the most difficult to use of the products tested. As a
result, a user is frustrated by the limited on-screen help, the lack of visible
status information, and the amount of clicking and scrolling required to make
configuration changes.
·
IWS
supports dynamic reconfiguration for most features, letting you change settings
without restarting the server. Setting changes don't take effect until you
explicitly apply them; this is helpful for those who want to test a variety of
interdependent changes and then roll them out together. Unlike the similar capability in Zeus, though, IWS's interface provides
no clear indication that changes are pending and no audit trail showing what
changes are about to take place before you commit them.
·
IWS's performance was strong, though
well below that of IIS and Zeus. Its results were better when it ran on Linux than on
Windows. IWS's in-process Java VM and caching of dynamically generated NSAPI
content should also help performance for many applications.
·
For large-scale sites, particularly
those that have investments in Java-based technologies, IWS represents a
full-featured choice,
but its ease of use could stand some improvement.