General Discussion - IIS Alternative Web Server

IIS Alternative Web Server

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Category: General Discussion
Forum Name: General Discussion
Forum Description: General discussion and chat on any topic.
URL: https://forums.webwiz.net/forum_posts.asp?TID=21620
Printed Date: 29 March 2026 at 9:20am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.08 - https://www.webwizforums.com

Topic: IIS Alternative Web Server

Posted By: Shimpi06
Subject: IIS Alternative Web Server
Date Posted: 15 October 2006 at 7:38am

Hi All,

The last time I posted something about this, it almost sounded as if it was a sales pitch. I don't mean it to be a sales pitch, however I have used it and I wanted to share my conclusions.

When it comes to affordable IIS web servers products for general consumers with no user limits, Microsoft totally dropped the ball. The result is the growth in popularity of Apache servers and PHP scripting.

Recently, I've tried Pablo Software Solution's Quick 'n Easy Web Server v.3.2.x. Now, considering the only other way to have a personal IIS web server at home is to install the old W2k OS that Microsoft is no longer supporting, or pay an arm and a leg (not to mention your first born) for a W2k3 server or settle for the 5 user limit version that comes with XP Pro -- Pablo Software QnE Web Server is THE ONLY fully functional IIS alternative available for 29 American dollars that can run on any Win9x and NT based operating system...PERIOD.

HOWEVER...it is not a perfect web server. Although it works with WebWiz News, Journal, and Poll scripts, it has problems when trying to view posts in Webwiz forums. I also recall it has problems with Snitz forums as well.

(or it can be argued the scripts have problems with the web server. Programmers can be overly sensitive about their work, you know?)

If QnE Web Server worked with all ASP scripts such as WebWiz forums, Snitz forums, etc, it would give budget-minded programming students, ASP web page developers and general consumers a viable, functional choice for an IIS alternative that is just as good as IIS but at a fraction of the cost. In addition and most importantly, it would open a new residential consumer market for Web Wiz and other developers of ASP scripts to sell to. Lastly, it encourages the use of ASP as a viable scripting language over PHP.

With that being said, would it behoove developers like Web Wiz and Snitz, not to mention other ASP developers, to collaborate with Pablo Software so his product works well with your's? (or...whatever)

It might be just me and my wild imagination, but I see a win-win scenario here that could financially benefit the entire ASP developement community.

Do other people see this too or should I consider drinking a different brand of beer?

Chuck

http://chucky.isa-geek.com

Replies:

Posted By: WebWiz-Bruce
Date Posted: 16 October 2006 at 6:47am

What issue do you get when trying to run Web Wiz Forums under Quick 'n Easy?

If you let me know what errors you get and where I might be able to tell you what is missing in their implementation of ASP and if it can be gotten around.

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Posted By: Shimpi06
Date Posted: 17 October 2006 at 1:33am

WebWiz 8.4 installed fine. I was able to authenticate to the main menu.

First problem I encountered was authenticating to the Admin menu. Security code picture didn't appear, thus entering the security code is not possible.

I've already spoke to Pablo about this. His fix is as follows.

Add Response.Clear to CAPTCHA_image.asp so it appears as follows.

'Set so the CAPTCHA image is not cached
Response.Clear
Response.Expires = -1
Response.ExpiresAbsolute = Now() - 2
Response.CacheControl = "No-Store"
Response.AddHeader "pragma","no-cache"
Response.AddHeader "cache-control","private"

'Set the content type for the CAPTCHA image
Response.ContentType = "image/gif"
....

Posted By: Shimpi06
Date Posted: 17 October 2006 at 1:45am

Now, the CAPTCHA image appear. I am able to authenticate, see the Web Forum License Screen. I press Accept, now I am getting "Page Cannot be Displayed" error.

Posted By: WebWiz-Bruce
Date Posted: 17 October 2006 at 8:23am

I've made the change you mention for the next version, but it sounds like there is allot to work through.

Does the page can not display show an error?

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Posted By: Shimpi06
Date Posted: 20 October 2006 at 11:55pm

No it doesn't. However, it appeared normally on my laptop with Netscape. Also on a third PC with IE 6. Apparently, the PC's with browsers that had trouble showing the screen, had problems displaying the change password pop-up. After I changed the password, it started appearing normally in the browsers of all my computers.

Now on to the next problem.

When looking at main menu (not logged in), let's say I want to register myself as a new user.

1) I press the REGISTER icon.
2) Accept the forum rules and policies
3) Enter in username, password, CAPTCHA image security code (I leave all following fields as they are). Press Register.

I get this error:

Server Error in Forum Application
An error has occured while writing to the database.
Please contact the forum administrator.

Support Error Code:- err_Access_register_USR
File Name:- register.asp

Error details:-
Microsoft JET Database Engine
Field 'tblAuthor.Time_offset' cannot be a zero-length string.

Pablo's solution:

1. Open the database using MS Access
2. Open 'tblAuthor.Time_offset' in the design view
3. Set 'Allow Zero Length' to Yes

Or edit the 'register.asp' to prevent entering zero length input.

Posted By: Shimpi06
Date Posted: 21 October 2006 at 6:21am

The following is the next problem I am waiting for a reply on:

I went in to access design view and made your recomended changes. That fixed the problem.

Now on to the next problem.

1) After logging in with administrative username and password, I created a new Category 'Test' and Forum 'Test'.

2) Then, I logged off of the administrative password and logged in as a normal user.

3) I tried posting my first message in Forum 'Test', then pressed the 'Post New Topic' button.

The following is the error I saw:

Script error detected at line 11953
Source line:
Description: Syntax error

The URL was http://192.168.0.3/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2&PID=2#2 - http://192.168.0.3/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2&PID=2#2

QnE Web server log showed this:

00:15:29.953 [3072] Client connected from 192.168.0.3
00:15:29.953 [3072] Executing ASP file: C:\webpages\forum\new_post.asp?PN=
00:15:30.109 [3072] Response: 302 Found
00:15:30.109 [3072] Client disconnected from 192.168.0.3
00:15:30.109 [1424] Client connected from 192.168.0.3
00:15:30.109 [1424] Executing ASP file: C:\webpages\forum\forum_posts.asp?TID=2&PID=2#2
00:15:30.140 [1424] Response: 200 OK
00:15:30.140 [1424] Client disconnected from 192.168.0.3

My guess is this asp file will have a couple #include statements and that is where the line count is being counted from.

Posted By: Shimpi06
Date Posted: 26 October 2006 at 3:14am

Apparently, the designer of QnE web server is getting impatient with troubleshooting your asp code. In response, I wrote this post in his forum:

****

I understand this is cumbersome work. Please understand, this is not another customer whining about your product:

I understand this is cumbersome work. Please understand, this is not another customer whining about your product.

Your product is the only ASP capable web server people can get without paying a couple hundred dollars for a Windows desktop or server operating system. I am very sure the ASP development community, the general users and you all share a common interest in the success of your product.

I am working with you as well as the designer of WebWiz to make sure both of your products are functionally compatable with each other. Once it is, both you, the ASP development community and your customers will benefit from this effort.

So I ask you continue to work with me in rectifying any issues that impact general functionality.

****

Borg,

I don't know if it will help, but at least I tried. In the mean time, is there anything you can tell from the errors we've fixed so far what is missing in Pablo's product? The latest problem that was discovered was the inability to view posts while logged in to the main menu.

Pablo says the error line seems to be line 544 in includes/message_form_inc.asp.

/>
<input type="button" name="Preview" id="Preview" value="<% = strTxtPreviewPost %>" onClick="<%

'If RTE enabled get the preview content from the iframe
If RTEenabled() <> "false" AND blnRTEEditor AND blnWYSIWYGEditor Then
Response.Write("document.getElementById('pre').value=document.getElementById('WebWizRTE').contentWindow.document.body.innerHTML;")
Else
Response.Write("document.getElementById('pre').value=document.getElementById('message').value;")
End If

%> OpenPreviewWindow(document.frmMessageForm);" />
<input type="reset" name="Reset" id="Reset" value="<% = strTxtClearForm %>" />

Quite honestly, this Pablo fellow seems to insist to blame developer's ASP code rather than admit there may be a problem with his product, despite the same code working in IIS with no problems at all.

Posted By: WebWiz-Bruce
Date Posted: 26 October 2006 at 9:05am

I think that the price $29.99 for Palo's Web Server compared with $100's say's it all really.

At that sort of money you should only expect something simple to run simple ASP applications.

To build a product that fully supports ASP and can run more complex software like Web Wiz Forums would take 1000's of development hours, and as software development is a highly skilled job, to build a product like that would mean having to sell it for $100's of dollars.

Software development doesn't come cheap, nor does supporting software, which is why most advanced software for a niche market does cost many 100's to buy.

As they say, you get what you pay for.

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Posted By: Shimpi06
Date Posted: 26 October 2006 at 5:39pm

Interestingly enough, I did find another ASP web server from another company for 100 bucks. I tried it with web wiz and I got the same error as I did in QnE. I'm not sure what this means. Maybe maybe IIS is more fault tolerant when it comes to ASP coding? Maybe IIS works better?

The product I used was Xeneo Web Server from Northern Solutions Software. They had a trial version I tested with Web Wiz.