Best Free Web Server

[naxos]

Hey, whats the best free web server out there (windows XP compatable)....just so i can stick something up at my fancy static IP that i will have soon...i have to brag a little, since im living with 12 of my friends at school...we are splitting the bill for a 3 MBps DSL LINE!!!! I wired the house and the connection is up and blazing! So im using this older computer as a web server and game server. The connection is simply amazing....ok, im dong bragging...


-Nax

[amdrules770]

SWEEEEEEEEEET, why not run like win2000 adv. server, or win2000 pro and apache.

[naxos]

Probably just because im lazy and would rather just install something onto XP, instead of changing everything around, because im not even going to buy a domain name, it would basically just be so i could have something up...but the important part is that it serves games well...will win 2000 help with that part of the server? or not really?


Thanks!

-Nax

[Synthohol]

IIS its called Internet Information Services, its bundled with 4.0/2k/xp.
takes 5 minutes to setup:)
really! i've set it up a hundred times or more for me and for my job, some scanners from Minolta only scan to an FTP site.
www is there too and is just as simple to setup.

[Farabomb]

IIS works but is a gaping sercurity hole. The new apache works with XP but don't ask me how to set it up. I'm clueless ;)

If you want to get a FTP up I'd suguest Serve-u from rhinosoft.

[Synthohol]

sorry, just re-read your post, no additional proggies needed for game server, especially with a static IP address, just run the game in server mode and even install it as a service if you want!
just have plenty of ram in the system.
i suggest 2 NIC cards though one for game serving and one for internal lan.
on your router block all ports except the one(s) used for the games.
hope this info helps!!
P.S. Serv-U is a good alternitive, nice suggestion Fara!:D

[Gregorach]

Originally posted by Farabomb
IIS works but is a gaping sercurity hole. The new apache works with XP but don't ask me how to set it up. I'm clueless ;)

If you want to get a FTP up I'd suguest Serve-u from rhinosoft.

Actually, IIS isn't nearly as bad as it used to be - it got a really, really bad rep on version 4.0, which was when ASP first came to prominence. Back then it was appalling buggy and insecure, but if you track the major security lists you'll've noticed that the rate of exploit emergence for IIS has slowed a lot. All of the big incidents have been centered around exploits that were months, if not years old. Without care, attention and constant patching, any network service is a security risk. I'm not in the least worried about my IIS installation - I've been working with it for several years, and I know how to look after it properly... As with any server software, it's more a question of good administration - if you just accept the defaults and never review your config, of course it's going to be insecure...

[naxos]

synthol, whats the benefit of the 2 nics? but to set that up i would just use port forwarding on the game port to the second nic? correct? maybe i could also set taht one up in full duplex mode as well.


Thanks for the suggestions..yeah i like that ftp server.

-Nax

[Player0]

ServU is my FTP of choice. But its money.

I avoid IIS like the plague. Regarding its security, I have had IIS5 FTP servers hacked in under a week.

I use Apache2 for NT serving. Apache1 won't work so hot on Windows platforms.

LiquidNinjas.com runs on Apache2 on Windows 2000 with Serv-U 4 :)

[naxos]

hmmm...ill just have to see when i get that far.....and servU is quite nice :)

-Naxos

[Synthohol]

Originally posted by naxos
synthohol, whats the benefit of the 2 nics
-Nax
i dont remember you saying you had a router so i would assume your PC logs on to the net and is assigned AN IP address.
if you want a lan and need tcp-ip you cannot use the same address schema for lan as wan being most ISP's assign dynamically.
if you have a router, nevermind. if not i will elaborate further:)

[^7_of_9]

For http I use IIS5 on a Win2000 Server machine.
For FTP I wouldn't touch IIS with a 500 foot pole and use Serve-U.

Haven't been hacked yet even though the IP apparently gets scanned a few thousand times a day according to my logs ....

[Player0]

Ive never had an IIS web server hacked either. It was very difficult to secure SMTP server, and FTP server was impossible. I only got around the SMTP server by disabling ESTMP commands and using an SMTP proxy.

The problem with IIS is that MS tried to integrate soo many things in to it that its loaded with extra holes. ASP, ActiveX, VB scripting. IIS also doesn't provide nearly the same level of configuration options as Apache does. IIS also relies on Windows security for authentication and because that is so widely used, hacks for windows security are also widespread. As long as you make sure your web directories are all set with Read-Only bits you should be safe, and make sure any IIS modules/accounts (especially ASP.net) have highly restrictive permissions.

Apache is just so much secure because it does so much less. It's definitely much harder to set up though. I have to read through the apache documentation every time I need to adjust something because I forget what everything does :)

PHP and Perl work more friendly with Apache than IIS as well. I would only install IIS if ASP was a necessity.

[naxos]

Yeah synthol i do have a router that serves dchp, my setup is as follows:

modem
|
router
|
switch
|
patch panel
|
Room Jacks

So i think my game server will be fine with the one nic, right? also, i have used BulletProof FTP server...and that seems to do the trick for me, and its super easy to setup.

-Naxos

[^7_of_9]

I use some rather restrictive security settings on my IIS Server. In fact there's times I've gotta go and realx something on it because I set it TOOO restrictive ... (Like the time you needed a password just to access anything on the site at all! LoL)

I've got Linux installed so I could run Apache on it's Native system instead of the windows version, but I found IIS sooooo mmuch easier to setup even though I'm fairly knowledgable with *Nix.

I don't use .asp stuff as well as anything else such as that either. and I keep up to date with the Patches as soon as I see em.

When it comes down to it though, no matter what you use administration is 100% necessary to upkeep the patches and all when they come out or your dead meat with hackers :nod:

[^7_of_9]

Originally posted by naxos
Yeah synthol i do have a router that serves dchp, my setup is as follows:

modem
|
router
|
switch
|
patch panel
|
Room Jacks

So i think my game server will be fine with the one nic, right? also, i have used BulletProof FTP server...and that seems to do the trick for me, and its super easy to setup.

-Naxos


Ièd recommend using two NIC's anyway myself.

[Player0]

Yep, truth. Keeping updated on patches and really knowing your server settings is the best security you can have. What sites do you run 7? :) Are you the one doing TeamPicard?

I tried a Linux webserver and it was too complicated for me. I might give it a try later on. My concern was not being familiar enough with Linux to make it secure. Of course, Linux runs a MUCH more stable webserver. And it eats a lot less ram as well. My webserver already uses 500m sitting still.

[^7_of_9]

http://sigs.teampicard.com - That's where all the Team Picard Signatures come from. (You'll get an error if you click that link cause I don't allow directory browsing :D )

http://stats.teampicard.com - Team Picard Stats

http://sigs.teampicard.com/status - You might find that it looks familiar Player0 .... :D I've gotta do some modifications/additions on it, but that'll come in time.

http://sigs.teampicard.com/borg-homeworld - View of my systems (Even though I left two out by accident ....)

I also run a personal MP3 server from a different URL that uses authentication in order to get access to it. (So nobody complains I'm serving MP3's illegally to people)

Later on I'm planning to run a personal domain from there as well.

None of the direcotireies except for one allows directory browsing at all and that's one that has a few jpg's in it cause I keep forgetting the name of them! LoL


And oh yeah almost forgot. SMTP and PO3 as well as Webmail will be run from there as well later on.

I'm using a 3MB/800K connection. What do you use for LiquidNinjas?

[notoriousformula]

Originally posted by Synthohol
IIS its called Internet Information Services, its bundled with 4.0/2k/xp.


Umm...IIS is only bundled with 2k/XP PRO :)

BTW..i use Apache..better than IIS..and for FTP i use G6 server

[Player0]

Oh you have a stats signature program? Whatd you write it with? :)

LN.com has a 1024/1024k DSL connection.

[Synthohol]

Originally posted by notoriousformula
Umm...IIS is only bundled with 2k/XP PRO :) sorry for assuming, xp home is lame as hell and not for networking by design, i wouldnt put it on anything, sorry:(

[Farabomb]

Afaik XP home is pro w/o most of the networking and the backup. Otherwise it's the same as XP Pro.

Could be wrong though.

[^7_of_9]

Originally posted by Player0
Oh you have a stats signature program? Whatd you write it with? :)

LN.com has a 1024/1024k DSL connection.

PHP :D

http://sigs.teampicard.com/seven2.php

http://sigs.teampicard.com/seven2.php

That's my #2 signature. My #1 signature is somewhat larger and needs to be fixed when I get a chance.

[Player0]

I thought someone else had written the sig code that you peeps used. Or maybe you changed your name, I dont know hehe :)

Is there an interface for the sigs? Im just finishing up mine. Id like to see what yours looks like :)

[^7_of_9]

Here's a screenshot of the interface.







http://sigs.teampicard.com/Avatars/^7_Borg.jpg








No NOT the dog, ME!!!

All manual mostly on my part except for some generic ones using the "Long URL" type Before I started on the sigs, I had never touched PHP and it had been years since I programmed anything harder than a VCR. I had alot of help with the initial code and then I took it from there. I'm not sure how far I'm gonna get cause I'd like to put everything into an SQL database and have an interface but I don't have the time to learn PHP that much and then ontop of that do the coding necessary. Hell I've barley got time to check in on some forums sometimes! :eek:

[Gregorach]

@Player/7: Yeah, I only really use IIS as an HTTP server - my mail runs on Mailtraq4Free and I don't have any need for FTP. TBH, I've never really looked at IIS as anything other than an HTTP Application server... As you say, it's a question of disabling everything you don't need and locking down everything you do... As a profesional ASP/ASP.NET developer, IIS is my native environment... ;)

[Player0]

I never figured anyone with a name like 7_of_9 would actually be a girl hehe. Usually its the male star trek geeks who would pick that name ;)

Yeah, I did the manual thing for a while. I got fed up, so I finished the whole SQL interface. It works much better now, but took a lot longer than I thought and its still not done. I have a lot of error checking left to do.

I had to use an SQL database because PHP is just so *slow*. My original scripts got kicked off the F5 web server because it used soo much CPU time (which, wasnt that much, unless your on a shared server ;)

Wasnt it Jema or someone who had another script? Or is your script related to his? I think I remember seeing someone elses interface, which is what inspired me to do mine, but I think his was still more intricate than mine is.

[^7_of_9]

Mine reads it's own sort of "Database" I like to call thenm text files LoL.

Text files get updated once every 20 minutes from the respective project sites and then flopped into their own text files. So once the php file is called it reads the text file and looks for the stats that are being called on. Really quick access time as it's all on the Server/Disk. It's almost like accessing an SQL Database in it's own way. One day I'll find some code on the web that I can pull apart and learn from, as all the tutorials suck bigtime (the ones I could find anyways) as well as the manuals don't start from the easier commands regarding SQL functions and work their way up.

[Player0]

MySQL with PHP is surprisingly easy. MySQL has great online documentation for the actual SQL calls (select, update, delete). I tought myself with all the online stuff.

The benefit of using MySQL over text files is one, PHP is slow with file access and two, MySQL caches reads. Caching is very very critical because the same image can be called upon like 10 times per page. Sometimes 50x per page depending on what forums. This really puts a huge strain on the LiquidNinjas.com database, but after tweaking MySQL to use more memory for caching, things really work great now.

I did have a great PHP/MySQL tutorial that started with the basics. If only I could find it. Id be happy to help answer any questions for you tho :)


function dcs_open_database()
{
// Open and select the working DCS database if we need it.
global $db_host, $db_user, $db_pass, $db_dbase, $db_open;

dcs_add_status('Attempting to connect to MySQL host.');
$db = mysql_connect($db_host, $db_user, $db_pass);
if(!$db)
{
dcs_add_status('MySQL Host Connect Failure!');
dcs_add_status(mysql_error());
critical_exit();
}
dcs_add_status('MySQL Host Connect success.');

dcs_add_status('Attempting to open MySQL database.');
$the_db = mysql_select_db($db_dbase, $db);
if(!$the_db)
{
dcs_add_status('MySQL DB Open Failure!');
dcs_add_status(mysql_error());
critical_exit();
}
dcs_add_status('MySQL DB Open success.');
$db_open = 1;
}

function dcs_close_database()
{
// Close the DCS database if open.
global $db_open;

if($db_open)
{
mysql_close();
dcs_add_status('MySQL DB Closed.');
$db_open = 0;
}
else
{
dcs_add_status('Error - Attempting to close non-open database.');
}
}


Above are two functions that simply open and close a MySQL database. Its pretty easy, I just add a lot of error checking.


$status = mysql_query("INSERT INTO dc_skins (name,type,wrapper,font,color,x,y,label,lfont,lcol or,lx,ly) VALUES ('$skin_name','$type','$wrapper','$font','$color', '$x','$y','$label','$lfont','$lcolor','$lx','$ly')");
if (!$status)
{
dcs_add_status("Warning - Cant insert row $id in to $skin_name.");
dcs_add_status(mysql_error());
}


Once the database is open, you can use the mysql_query function to run all the SQL calls. This one inserts a row of new data in to the database.


$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM dc_skins LEFT JOIN dc_type_map ON dc_skins.type=dc_type_map.type WHERE dc_skins.id='$del_id'");
$myrow = mysql_fetch_array($result);
$id = $myrow["id"];
$type = $myrow["type"];
$wrapper = $myrow["wrapper"];



Selecting data back from the database is even easier (forget the LEFT JOIN part of this and it is anyway). Just query with a SELECT query, and populate your variables from the $myrow array.

A simpler query would be like:

SELECT score FROM table_name WHERE name='Player0'

Then:

$score = $myrow["score"];

And then you can echo($score) or whatever.

[^7_of_9]

:eek: :dogeye:

Mommy! The Bad man is scaring me with all that mean nasty looking code!

help me ..... :D

[Player0]

You think thats bad, look at this hellish creation ;)


$user_row = preg_replace("/(.*?)(<TD>)([0-9]*)(<\/TD><TD><a href=userpage\?q=".$cleaned_name.">".$cleaned_name."<\/a><\/TD><TD>)(.*?)(<\/TD><TD>)(.*?)(<\/TD><\/TR>)(.*)/is","\\3xxx\\5yyy\\7",$user_page,1);

[^7_of_9]

preg_replace? Is that another way of saying BloatWare? LoL

That does look like hell though. Thankfully it just looks like some mild table creation ...

[Player0]

Why Bloatware? Its a regular expression find/replace. Kind of like str_replace only much slower ;) Fortunately, its one of the greatest PHP commands, and is very close to Perl quality reg exp.

Actually its part of the old F@H parser I wrote. It's grepping data out of the HTML page.

The new F@H parser is MUCH MUCH more efficient, but I'm not giving away that secret :)

[^7_of_9]

Preg=Pregnant= Fairly dang bloated after a while LoL!

Maybe I'll have to look harder for a good tutorial on MySql stuff than I did before.

BTW did I mention before I did the sigs for TP I had never touched PHP before :eek: