Problem You want to install Internet Information Services (IIS) so you can create and maintain a web site. Solution IIS isn't installed by default in XP Professional. To install it take these steps: From the Control Panel, select Add or Remove Programs and click Add/Remove Windows Components. From the Windows Component wizard that appears, highlight Internet Information Services (IIS) and click on Details. Check all those you want to install. Table 13-1 describes the purpose of each component. Click on OK. Depending on your setup, you may be prompted to insert your XP Professional disk.
Table 13-1. IIS components| Component | What it does |
|---|
| Common Files | These files are required by other components. Don't clear this checkbox if these files aren't installed, other IIS components won't work. | | Documentation | Provides help for IIS components. The files are installed in the C:\Windows\Help\Iishelp folder. | | File Transfer Protocol (FTP) Service | Lets you host an FTP server. | | FrontPage 2000 Server Extensions | These server-side programs let you use Microsoft's FrontPage Web authoring tool to add features to your web site such as forms, hit counters, discussions, and full-text search. | | Internet Information Services Snap-In | This snap-in lets you use the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) to administer IIS. You should make sure to install this, or else you'll have to use scripts to manage your servers. | | SMTP Service | Lets you provide SMTP mail services, although it is not a full-blown SMTP server. | | World Wide Web Service | Lets you host web pages. If you install IIS, you must install this component, or else other components won't work. There are optional subcomponents you can install; to see them, highlight this component and click on Details. |
Discussion IIS comes only with Windows XP Professional, not the Home, Edition. IIS lets you host web sites and FTP sites, and run a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) service for sending email. The XP version of IIS is a stripped-down version of the Windows Server editions, so don't expect a full-blown Internet server. It's best suited for relatively small sites that don't require a great deal of functionality. It has the following features and drawbacks for each type of server it lets you host: Web sites -
You can only host one web site with the version of IIS that ships with XP Professional. And that site can only support a maximum of 10 simultaneous TCP connections. Web pages not uncommonly require more than one connection, so that means that usually fewer than 10 people will be able to be on your web site at a given time. This means that it's not really practical to use IIS to host a public web site, unless you don't publicize it and only tell close friends and family members about it. However, for internal purposes on a company intranet, it can be useful. And you can use the server as a "staging server" to test out sites before publicly posting them on a different server. FTP sites -
FTP sites have the same limitations as web sites you can host only one FTP site, and that site cannot have more than 10 simultaneous connections. For similar reasons, that means it's not practical to host a public FTP site, although it will work fine as a file repository within a small business or for friends and family members. SMTP service -
This isn't a full-blown mail server, and you can only use it to relay mail. So it can collect email information and then forward it to another SMTP server that will send the mail.
See Also Excellent sites for getting help with IIS are the IIS FAQ site at http://www.iisfaq.com, and IIS-Reources.com at http://www.iis-resources.com. Recipe 13.4 for using the IIS MMC snap-in to manage Internet servers. |