APACHE WEB SERVER

The Apache HTTP Server Project is a collaborative software development effort aimed at creating a robust, commercial-grade, featureful, and freely-available source code implementation of an HTTP (Web) server. The project is jointly managed by a group of volunteers located around the world, using the Internet and the Web to communicate, plan, and develop the server and its related documentation. This project is part of the Apache Software Foundation. In addition, hundreds of users have contributed ideas, code, and documentation to the project. This file is intended to briefly describe the history of the Apache HTTP Server and recognize the many contributors.

Apache supports a variety of features, many implemented as compiled modules which extend the core functionality. These can range from server-side programming language support to authentication schemes. Some common language interfaces support mod_perl, mod_python, Tcl, and PHP. Popular authentication modules include mod_access, mod_auth, and mod_digest. A sample of other features include SSL and TLS support (mod_ssl), a proxy module, a useful URL rewriter (also known as a rewrite engine, implemented under mod_rewrite), custom log files (mod_log_config), and filtering support (mod_include and mod_ext_filter). Apache logs can be analyzed through a web browser using free scripts such as AWStats/W3Perl or Visitors.

Virtual hosting allows one Apache installation to serve many different actual websites. For example, one machine, with one Apache installation could simultaneously serve www.example.com, www.test.com, test47.test-server.test.com, etc. Apache features configurable error messages, DBMS-based authentication databases, and content negotiation. It is also supported by several graphical user interfaces (GUIs) which permit easier, more intuitive configuration of the server.

MICROSOFT IIS SERVER

Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS, formerly called Internet Information Server) is a set of Internet-based services for servers using Microsoft Windows. It is the world's second most popular web server in terms of overall websites, behind Apache HTTP Server. As of October 2007 it served 37.13% of all websites and 38.23% of all active websites according to Netcraft.[1] The servers currently include FTP, SMTP, NNTP, and HTTP/HTTPS.

Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) is a Web application server that runs on Windows NT platforms and is a scalable Web application infrastructure for all versions of Windows Server 2003. It is used to host web pages and other applications served to users through an Internet browser front end. IIS 6.0 supports the Microsoft Dynamic Systems Initiative (DSI).

History of IIS

IIS was initially released as an additional set of Internet based services for Windows NT 3.51. IIS 2.0 followed adding support for the Windows NT 4.0 operating system and IIS 3.0 introduced the Active Server Pages dynamic scripting environment.

IIS 4.0 dropped support for the Gopher protocol and was bundled with Windows NT as a separate "Option Pack" CD-ROM.

The current shipping version of IIS is 7.0 for Windows Vista, 6.0 for Windows Server 2003 and IIS 5.1 for Windows XP Professional. Windows XP has a restricted version of IIS 5.1 that supports only 10 simultaneous connections and a single web site.[2] IIS 6.0 added support for IPv6. A FastCGI module is also available for IIS5.1, IIS6[3] and IIS7.[4]

Windows Vista does not install IIS 7.0 by default, but it can be selected among the list of optionally installed components. IIS 7.0 on Vista does not limit the number of connections allowed but restricts performance based on active concurrent requests.

Authentication mechanisms

IIS 5.0 and higher support the following authentication mechanisms:

Basic access authentication
Digest access authentication
Integrated Windows Authentication
.NET Passport Authentication