TABLE OF CONTENTS You never really forget your first Web server. It was September, the leaves were just starting to turn in New England, and I was at a class about Web servers, Internet e-business, and Web mastering. The week was much too short and the teachers much too quick with their information, because there was just so much to cover.
In 1995 and the hot tool of choice was, of course, Netscape (some might say there was a rumor of something called Front Page from the Northwest). The browser wars were yet to be fought, but posturing and rumblings of the battles to come were in the air. Every OS worth its salt was laying claim to being a Web server.
I flew home from Boston on Friday with a full laptop disk of VMS software, PC Web tools, and my most precious cargo the thing that would proudly put my AlphaServer on 2000 and share with the internal network, was Netscape Commerce Server. It was to be my first Web server. SSL, user directory support, and fast well at least able to do 10 to 20 simultaneous Web requests. I was pumped about the prospects of building a Web server.
I got home and created user/Web accounts for every CD-ROM that was on my Infotowers (I think I had 21 CD-ROM drives back then) and served all the OpenVMS, PC, and then OpenSource CD-ROMs I had to offer to the internal network. It was a...
