Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Hosting Software and Control Panels : Opinions Sought on Server Software/OS

[baileysemt123]

First... I am NOT trying to start a platform war.

My intentions are... I am a new reseller attempting to win over customers from the local small-town internet service provider. This techno-demigod has everyone convinced he's the Greatest Gift to the Internet since sliced bread. In reality he likes to play with computers and this way he gets paid for it. He has the personality of rotten cheese. But you know, he's Da Man so everyone looks past it and blindly signs up with him.

His "office" is converted shop space in a strip mall in a tourist town. He has converted one closet into a server room. This is not a special place, maybe he has A/C but trust me, that's it. People come and go all day dropping off their computers for servicing, and plugging their laptops in for quick vacation access, in the main room that this closet is attached to. There is no security. The door isn't even shut. He wanders about tinkering with this machine or that in the "server room."

I'm trying to find out what kind of servers he runs. No luck yet. I'm trying to get this info through inquiries thru friends... you know a competitor can't just call up and ask in a small town. HOWEVER I do know that he is running Win98 / IIS-4.0.

Is this good? Bad? Please don't flame me, I don't know a hootin' thing about server configuration, and I am on a Unix machine running Apache myself. I much prefer my brand, but it could just be that I am not on the Bill Gates fan club, either. *grin*

Is this set-up stable? Old? Decrepid? Full of security holes? If so, which ones? (So I can explain to my customers why his system is not superior) What kind of pitfalls would this sort of system have vs. a Linux/Apache system?

I know these are general questions and I apologize, thank you for helping me out here. Please if I am missing something or not asking the right thing, I appreciate your kindly filling in the blanks... I have tried to research this stuff in the last few days but cannot figure out where to start and have mostly not been able to make heads or tales of most of what I have found. My next step is to get that "Hacking Exposed" book but in the meantime... I would appreciate your pointers.

You may also e-mail me if you prefer, at baileysemt at yahoo.com. *wink* Fixed for the spambots naturally.

Thanks.
>Bailey<

[Travis]

Anybody running a production server of any sort on Windows 98 is an idiot, plain and simple. I don't think anybody will even argue with me.

I don't personally care for Windows NT / Windows 2000 for a server solution, but they're leagues better in terms of stability and performance than '98. '98 is a consumer OS with little protection against crashes, and nothing in the way of security features.

If you want to find out what he's running, use the "What's that site running?" function at http://www.netcraft.com.

[kunal]

Originally posted by Travis
Anybody running a production server of any sort on Windows 98 is an idiot, plain and simple.

You can say that again.

[SI-Chris]

First, I enjoyed your colorful story about the local geek/nomad.

Web servers are supposed to be machines that you turn on and they run non-stop until eventually the hardware fails. That's not Windows 98. Windows 98 is a consumer OS, a jack-of-all-trades that runs games, old DOS apps, MIDI devices, word processors, etc. It's not totally stable, because, well, it can't be--it's got to do too many things. The more variables you throw into an equation the more unstable it becomes. Anyone who's used Windows for more than a few hours knows this--hopefully you can use this to your advantage when talking to potential customers who've used Windows themselves.

Linux--a variation of UNIX--is an industrial-strength OS not intended for the average "man on the street." It is incredibly well suited for use as a Web server, not only because of its inherent stability, but also because of the way it's been "bred" over the last few years; it's a custom fit for the world's most popular Web server, Apache (whereas the Web server capabilities of Windows is something of an afterthought). Linux/Apache has tremendous support across the Internet, due in large part to the fact that it's open source.

Anyway, if you do a search on Google for "nt vs linux" you should find a bunch more "ammo" for you to use. Good luck.

[baileysemt123]

Thanks a million!!! Okay, it's not just me then... I thought his set-up was stupid.

My problem is: The average layperson has much more recognition for Win98, especially in a little ho-dink town, there are no corporations or desk jobs here, and Windows is what everyone uses... nobody has enough education or outside exposure to even know or consider other OS's... worse yet, this is what they use, "so we'll stick with that" without any further thought. Ugh, sometimes I hate living here.

It's thanks to users here that I found netcraft.com a couple of nights ago and that's how I discovered what he was running. I was absolutely appalled especially when I called up the Netcraft Server Survey... ohmigosh. He is in this tiny little minority.

This is what netcraft said: Microsoft-IIS/4.0 on NT4/Windows 98

My next move is to attempt to find out what his hardware is. If I can show it's old, well, heh ---- furthermore, he's at the end of a tiny pipe, he's using a T1 which is 7 hops from any main backbone. And did I mention that tiny pipe is unstable. Furthermore he has such a racket going up here he doesn't even need to list his hosting features/prices online... the local designer is in kahoots with him and 98% of their local design jobs (which they gouge $$ for, being the only show in town) go with this rotten cheese fellow... So he has automatic business...

Everyone want a laugh? I e-mailed this local ISP fellow under my mother's maiden name, asking for full web hosting information including hardware and software specs for the server, and all features, packages, prices, etc. including server space, transfer allowances and what othe features I would have at my disposal. Here's the reply I received:

=== QUOTE ===
"We do not have any information posted on our website regarding
hosting. Here is what we offer: hosting for a personal website is free, you just need to get us the files or we can setup a user/password for you to
send the files to a personal folder on the web server. Hosting for business websites is approximately $300/year. With your business website you can
have an email for your business, ie, carol@carolsbusiness.com. Our server uses Microsoft IIS software. If you have any specific questions you can
email me back or call xxx-xxxx. Thanks,..."
============

_Approximately_ $300? And tell me what I GET? For heavens' sake!!! Yes, and please dabble your fingers in my files at any time, that would be just fine. *rolls eyes* And people BUY THIS around here. I cannot believe it. I know it sounds ridiculous. Honestly, folks are THIS blind, this narrow-minded... he has spent the last four years building this image and this reputation because he was one of the primary players in getting our region internet-accessible... people think he's some big player. And when you cross him, he immediately goes to personal insults and thrash-n-trash. Hey, as I said he has no personality and certainly not the morals and ethics to go with his fascination with electronics.

Okay enough babbling. Any other thoughts are most, most appreciated. In the meantime I'll go over to Google and try there. *wink* I was using the wrong search tool.

>Bailey<