Introduction

Setting up a new Web server is straightforward if you do a little planning. In this chapter, the hardware requirements of a Web server are discussed. Coupled with the choice of Web server software and the operating system on which it will run (discussed in Chapter 5), you also have plenty of choices for the type of hardware platform on which to run the server.

In this chapter, we'll start by looking at the basic hardware requirements for a Web server; the peripheral requirements for communications are covered in other chapters communications with an ISP is covered in Chapter 2 and network links are covered in Chapter 11.

The usual configuration for a Web server is to use a dedicated computer; although it is possible to use a Web server computer as both a server and a workstation (since most server software runs on popular multitasking operating systems) it is rather foolhardy. Generally, the only software that you need to run at the same time as the server software is server configuration or management applications.

It is also possible to install Web server software on your main network server; for example, Novell Internetware runs on its NetWare operating system, Microsoft's IIS server software runs on its Windows NT network operating system. This dual use of server hardware is fine for small networks or for intranets, but for a public-access Internet server I would advise installing and configuring a separate, dedicated server in addition to any network server already installed. This...