slow windows httpd server

[Andrzej Kowalski]

At 12:50 01/25/96 -0800, Alicia D. Abramson wrote:
>> We have a 486, 66mhz machine with 16MB RAM, DOS 6.2, running on 
>> Novell 3.1 and running WinHTTPD 1.4a.  We've had reports from people 
>> that our home page loads slowly--much slower than the campus home 
>> page which is apparently on a Power Mac.
>> 
>> Has anyone else experienced this problem, and if so, are there any 
>> soloutions--or is this primarily the limitations of both Windows and a 
>> non-pentium processor?  
>> 
>
>I for one would tend to say it's a limitation of the Windows OS ... 
>though certainly having a Pentium processor wouldn't hurt.  It's been my 
>experience that the Windows/Macintosh based httpd servers don't hold a 
>candle to the quoth-unquoth real (read: UNIX) httpd servers, even when 
>running on the same hardware.  Case in point: about a year and a half ago 
>I played with WinHTTPd on a mid-range 486, pulled some documents, didn't 
>like the speed I was getting (not to mention the OS crashes ... 
>constantly... yaaagh) and wiped the system and put Linux (for those who 
>don't know, Linux is a freeware UNIX for PCs) and tried NCSA's httpd on 
>it and was amazed at the speed (not to mention reliability) differences.
>
>It sort of weirds me out (and no offense to the original poster meant; nor 
>to anyone who has a similar setup) that a university or a library would 
>be using as their *primary* web server something as network-hairbrained 
>as a Mac or Windows machine.  The time and effort put into learning how 
>to set up a UNIX or other high-end platform would pay exponentially.
>
>My advice?  If it weren't obvious by now... :)  scrap the Windows and 
>stick Linux on that 486-66, serve your documents from NCSA httpd.
>
>-- john fink, miami university library systems
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>John "Adder" Fink -- jbfink at holychao.cas.muohio.edu
>Graduate of English, administrator of UNIX, unabashed perkygoth, 
>industrial music fan, friend to children everywhere, worker of libraries, 
>and Thorn in the Side of Order.
>WWW!  WWW!  WWW!  -- http://phoenix.aps.muohio.edu/~jbfink
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
I wholeheartedly agree.  Windows 3.x is just about the slowest and most
unreliable platform one could use for a Web server.  If you must use
Windows, it should at least be Windows NT.  However, even Windows NT does
not offer the wealth of tools, flexibility and configurabilty that Linux and
most other Unix variants enjoy.  This is the subject of another longer
discussion ...

Andrzej Kowalski
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