Tags for this article: Active Server Pages, ASP, free web server component, iis, Installing IIS, pc web server, pws, web server
A web server is basically a medium for other people to view the pages you have. For enabling other people view the pages you must publish them and for publishing you need a web server. You can easily convert your PC into a web server by installing IIS or PWS. The IIS and PWS are basically free web server components and can be downloaded as well. The internet information server is basically internet based services that are used for servers created by MS. These are basically used for Microsoft Windows. IIS generally comes with Windows Vista, XP, 2000 and NT as well.
The IIS can be easily found and installed in your computer it is regarded as the best for testing web applications. The best part of IIS is that it includes ASP that is Active Server Pages. These can be used to create interactive and dynamic web applications. To further know about ASP you should study the ASP school available online. PWS or personal web server is generally used for earlier versions of Windows such as Windows NT, 98 and 95. It is very easy to install as well and is basically used for testing and developing a wide number of web applications.
The PWS is outdated and is recommended for those who are training because it has security issues related to it. Each and every version of Windows comes with a different IIS such as Windows Vista Business Enterprise and Ultimate generally comes with IIS 7. On the other hand, Windows NT Workstation works on PWS or IIS 3. Installing IIS on Windows Vista is pretty easy and you can do it by following certain easy steps which include:
* Click on the start menu and open control panel
* Programs and functions will be an option and you will have double click on it
* Then click on “Turn Windows features on or off” which is there on the left side
* Finally select the box for IIS and then click OK
After installing IIS, run a Windows update so that your computer is totally safe.
You can simply install IIS on Windows XP as and Windows 2000 as well. All you have to do is follow various steps that include:
* Click on the start button and then open the control panel
* Open the Add or Remove Programs
* You will see Add/Remove Windows Components click on it
* Then click on IIS
* Click on details
* Then select the check box for WWW services and click on OK
* Finally click on Next to install IIS on your computer
After installing IIS or PWS you can easily test it as well. For testing you will have to follow a number of steps which includes:
* Search for a folder which is called Inetpub and is located on the hard drive
* Open this folder and find another folder which is named as wwwroot
* Then create a new folder under wwwroot
* Write an ASP code and save these files named as “test1.asp”
* You should always make sure that web server is functioning
* Finally open the browser and write “http://localhost/MyWeb/test1.asp” and you can view the webpage