Microsoft Web Server Products Questions

[John S. Hambleton]

Thanks in adavnce to all who reply--I appreciate it.

My Library wishes to begin publishing Microsoft Access databases to the Web.
I have to come up with the best way(s) to do it. I solicit your advice.

1. I believe that the best way to publish MS Access databases is to use
Microsoft
    server products--in particular, Windows 2000 Server (formerly NT), and
the Internet
    Information Server (IIS) that comes with.  Would you agree?

2. The Windows 2000 ADVANCED Server is somewhat pricey, given that we are a
    Library in a state-funded University. But there's a Windows 2000 Server
(not ADVANCED)
    product available. Which is less expensive and should work fine. Do you
agree,
    disagree?

3. As far as the actual PUBLISHING of MS Access databases, research tells
me that this
   could be done a number of ways in the IIS Web Server environment:
   The IIS environment would allow us to use Active Server Pages coding. Is
this true? Do
   we need to purchase anything else to make Active Server Pages? I see
that Macromedia's
   Drumbeat 2000 product makes ASP code FOR you. Would this be a worthwhile
tool
   to invest in?
   -I suspect we could always write ASP code ourselves with Notepad. Yes/No?
   -I suspect I could go the .CGI route in IIS, that is, coding .CGI's in
Visual Basic or Visual
    C++. Agree/disagree?
   -Allaire's COLD FUSION looks like an excellent product, but then again
we're on a tight
    budget. Still, would it work well for publishing MS Access databases?

3. How LARGE are some of your MS Access databases? I got to believe that
there's a limit
    to how large these files can be before performance suffers and you need
to go to
    MS SQL Server or Oracle. What is the limit?

I administer a NOVELL 3.12 server for local CD-ROM resources, and a
Linux/Apache web server
for in-house developed web pages and .cgi's. So, I'm getting into new
territory with Microsoft
Web Server products. Thanks again.
Mr. H


+John S. "Dilbert" Hambleton
+Olson Library
+Northern Michigan University
+Marquette, Michigan 49855
+LMS 6.5.0, GTO 6.5.0
+
+Phone:   906-227-2741
+E-mail:  jhamblet at nmu.edu
+
+Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis.