windows based web server

[techidave]

I have been searching this forum to see if web server software has ever been discused  but haven't been able to find anything.

I am looking for something that our school can use that will allow us to use the latest technologies such as Java, Flash, cgi, php, etc.  something that is capable of RSS or podcast would be a nice extra benefit.  It needs to run on a Windows OS though.

Sambar Server software has come highly recommended to me but I don't think it is capable of all the other stuff.  Is there some open source or freeware or perhaps even low cost software out there that would fit the bill??

what kind of hardware requirements should I be looking at?  Should I use something on the upper end or would a lower end AMD Duron 1.2 work ok?

thanks,
dave

[Ehtyar]

Why, Apache of course. I can't imagine your first recommendation was anything else :S

Ehtyar.

[techidave]

That's because I am not a web designer and do try to stay out of this area but...  I have been pushing to find a different host for our website Pawnee Heights Tigers for a long time now.  I believe our computer teacher is finally starting to realize how restricted we really are at this time.

So to change it, it may have to come from me to show them the solution.   

Forgive my ignorance here, but is Apache easy to setup and maintain?

[Ehtyar]

I can configure Apache in my sleep, but that's because I've done it about a thousand times. Some windows users have issues with text-based configuration, and if you are one of these, then you will have problems with Apache. However, Apache's documentation is second to none; you can rest assured that no matter what you wish to know, it will be very easy to find. For a quick overview, have a look here and here. You can also purchase applications to do the config from a GUI, though I would recommend against it, as it's almost certain the GUI will not offer the granularity of the text-based configuration itself.

Ehtyar.

[Shades]

XAMPP

Free LAMP but then for Windows. Download the 7-zip version, it only requires unpacking (in a root folder) and you have immediately a working Apache 2.0, MysQL 5 and PHP 5 integrated. Some extra's like a mailserver are included as well.

The original intent for the package is development, not hosting. So the only thing to do is re-configuring Apache for web use.

[Ehtyar]

XAMPP

Free LAMP but then for Windows. Download the 7-zip version, it only requires unpacking (in a root folder) and you have immediately a working Apache 2.0, MysQL 5 and PHP 5 integrated. Some extra's like a mailserver are included as well.

The original intent for the package is development, not hosting. So the only thing to do is re-configuring Apache for web use.

Indeed I should have mentioned XAMPP, used it myself more than once. However, the defaults in an XAMPP installation are disastrously insecure. I would recommend using it only for testing, or if not, only once you have enough experience to know what to change.

Ehtyar.

[Stoic Joker]

what kind of hardware requirements should I be looking at?  Should I use something on the upper end or would a lower end AMD Duron 1.2 work ok?

thanks,
dave

If this is a Public Access Production website for the entire school... Your traffic load will dictate your hardware requirement.

As far as Apache on Windows goes; Hay if you're just playing around in a lab, and want to try new things... Go ahead knock yourself out.  On the other hand if you are really going to do a serious production environment server deployment...For the love of god don't even think about it.

Two Words: Administrative Overhead.
Meaning: Pick a Platform, and stick with it.
You want Windows? Then you're using IIS.
You want Apache? Then you're using some type of Unix/Linux box.

You go half and half, and you get stuck in the middle with a broken server any time anything goes wrong because the finger pointing abounds as side A is cock-sure it's side Bs fault. Security updates have to be gleaned from both sources = Time, Time, Extra steps, and A -vs- B x2 when an update hoses the box because not everybody was up-to-speed on exactly what was about to happen.

Unless you dedicated IT Staff has a lot of free time ... Stay with a commercial host. Hang together a non-critical internal access only box in a lab for testing crazy things that just popped into someone's head, and consider yourself lucky to have dodged a bullet.

Hint: I admin a production web-server (among other things) with multiple internal & external sites for our company...I'm not guessing.

[techidave]

Thanks to everyone for their helpful advice.  you have given me alot to think about and to respond to Stoic Joker's concerns.

I am the only IT staff our school has.  While we are small, 225 students in K-12 scattered amongst 3 buildings in 3 different towns.  I do maintain and Exchange sever as well as 5 other servers and about 250 computers.  I had heard of Apache and did realize that there is a lot of websites that use it.  My reasoning for using a Windows box is that is what I am familiar with so the learning curve there should be smaller.

I get the finger pointing now sometimes.

While this would be a production server, I have realized several things since my original post. 

since I have no previous experience in web design, I would not be much help to the class when they couldn't do something or wanting to implement new technology.

We have  lots and lots of power failures, sometimes short (5 minutes) and some times long (several hours or more).  I do have battery backups but they don't last that long and usually the whole town is out, so there goes the internet.  I would be afraid our downtime would come at critical times that would prevent people from coming back to visit.

I already have more than enough to do, so why do I want to spend more time at school?