Microsoft created the extensible web server software programme known as IIS, known as Internet Information Server for use with the Windows NT series of operating systems. The HTTP, HTTPS, HTTP/2, SMTP, FTP, FTPS, and NNTP protocols are all supported by IIS. Since Windows NT 4.0, this feature has been a component of the operating system. However, some editions of Windows NT may not have it, such as Windows XP Home Edition, and it is not always turned on.
According to Netcraft, IIS has roughly 32.80% of the market share for all websites as of February 2014. IIS became the second-most used web server in the world as a result. The Apache HTTP Server came in first place with 38.22%.
According to Netcraft data, the market share of IIS has been rising since 2012.
W3Techs, on the other hand, displayed a different outcome on February 14, 2014.
IIS is the third-most used web server, according to W3Techs (with Apache HTTP Server in first and Nginx in second place).
The study also shows that IIS usage has been steadily decreasing since February 2013.
IIS has a market share of 10.19% in February 2017 according to Netcraft statistics, making it one of the top a million most popular websites. IIS now ranks third among web servers globally (after Apache and Nginx, with 28.34% and 41.41% respectively).
Extensibility - Extending IIS allows web applications to benefit from the functionality. This is something that is not so easy to implement at the application level.
Database Manager - The database manager in IIS provides its users with the ability to connect to any database available on the network.
Build Custom - A user can easily add custom functions to extend or replace existing functions. They can do this by using third-party server components developed based on the new extension APIs.
Componentization - One of the best and most powerful ways to secure a server system is to reduce its interface.
Web Platform Installer - It consists of a gallery of the most popular software installations, and it is the best for the end users of the website.
IIS 1.0 – windows NT 4.0.
IIS 5.0 – windows 2000.
IIS 6.0 – windows server 2003.
IIS 7.0 – windows server 2008.
IIS 7.5 – windows server 2008 R2.
IIS 8.0 – windows server 2012.
IIS 8.5 – windows server 2012 R2.
IIS 10 – windows server 2016 and windows 10.
IIS reduces the attack surface - and thus increases the security of the server.
It reduces memory requirements and improves overall performance.
It strengthens web applications.
IIS provides a wide range of bug fixes and quality improvements.
It ensures the best web performance with its application warm-up technology.
Managing multiple servers or large IIS server configurations can be a very tedious and slow process.
One cannot access all the configuration properties of IIS through the user interface.
The key differences between IIS and Apache are:
While Apache is open source and free, IIS is included with Windows.
Apache can run on practically every operating system, including UNIX, macOS, and Linux, whereas IIS can only be used with Windows (Linux is best).
IIS is connected with further Microsoft products like NET and ASPX.
While Apache is supported by the user community, IIS has a helpdesk that handles the majority of difficulties.
IIS is a more secure alternative to Apache due to its security features.
IIS uses technology that is interoperable with widely used web interfaces.
Microsoft makes available IIS Express, an independent version of IIS, for developers to test Web sites. You still receive all the key capabilities of the IIS Web server while using IIS Express, but you may carry out a lot of operations without administrator rights.
Some of the ways to secure Windows IIS are:
We need to update the security issues frequently.
To ensure that there is no unwanted traffic on the server, we need to implement firewalls.
Users can take control of the server's domain and IP addresses to avoid security issues.
Remove/delete features or services that are not being used.
Users can be authorized by URL authorization.
icrosoft is used to host an IIS web server. Mono may be used to run IIS on Linux and Mac, however this is not advised since it may cause instability. It has a long history of usage in manufacturing and is adaptable and reliable. The most current is version 10.
In general, a web server consists of computer software and hardware that accepts requests over HTTP (the network protocol for web distribution) or HTTPS (the security variant).