Servers—sAn easily set up

—sAn easily set up

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AnalogX’s SimpleServer:WWW can best be described as one of the barest of bare-bones Web servers. Organizations that must have something up and running quickly, should take a look at this free product. AnalogX says that all the installer must know is how to drag and drop files using Windows Explorer, and this is completely accurate. SimpleServer:WWW is just that: It has no bells, no buttons (other than to start and stop the server), and no frills. Think generic, plain-wrap Web server.

We tested the server on Windows 98 second edition. It took less than five minutes to set up, and that includes the time it took to download the product’s minuscule 250 KB executable file.

Organizations that must have something up and running quickly, should take a look at this free product.

One must keep in mind however that SimpleServer:WWW is lacking just about everything found in more complex servers. It does not have a user model. Thus, administrators cannot set up private areas on their servers. Everything is contained in a public directory with no restrictions on access rights. SimpleServer:WWW also lacks a corresponding FTP service, something that comes with Microsoft’s IIS and StarNine’s WebStar. As a result, users who wish to upload Web content will have to do so directly on the local machine or install a separate FTP server instead. Further, SimpleServer:WWW has no capabilities to support secure sockets layer connections. This makes it unsuitable for use as an e-commerce server.

But these are minor issues, given that the product is free and works without any fuss or bother.

SimpleServer:WWW truly does not need any documentation, other than a simple “read me” file. There is nothing to document: A directory is specified for the Web pages and the administrator starts the server up. That is it — the end of the installation process. SimpleServer:WWW does let the administrator point this directory to a network share, which is a nice feature. To run CGI scripts, copy them into the appropriate directory. There simply is not anything else to do, although the product does also produce common log format access logs.

We recommend SimpleServer:WWW for users new to setting up their own Windows Web servers and who want a free and simple product. Although IIS is free, organizations do need to purchase the server versions of NT or Windows 2000, which can be an extra expense. IIS and others are also more difficult to set up and manage than SimpleServer:WWW.

Pros: 7 Extremely easy to configure 7 Supports local network drive shares as Web directories 7 Produces common log format access logs

Cons: 7 No FTP server included 7 Does not support SSL 7 No remote administration

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