Server

Approach

There were four options:-

Download a HTML server and modify it to cope with WML.
Download a WML server.
Use somebody else’s server.
Use the University’s server

Option 1: Download a HTML server and modify it to cope with WML

HTML servers have been around for about 10 years now, and are reasonably well established. According to Netcraft (see http://www.netcraft.com/survey/) 3 sets of servers account for 85% of the market. More details are given in appendix 1 but a quick precis is as follows:

Apache (60% of the market)

Over the past decade, a phenomenon has arisen called "Open Source". This refers to the practise of software being developed/maintained not by a company, but by tens of thousands of interested amateurs scattered around the globe and linked via the Internet, and as an approach this works surprisingly well. The most famous example of this is the Linux operating system, but the one we are concerned with is the Apache server.

Pros: Small, free, flexible.
Cons: Difficult to install & maintain.
Use it if: You installed Linux on your hardware and enjoyed doing it.

Microsoft servers (20% of the market)

Since 1995, Microsoft have attempted to corner the server market by releasing various different servers (IIS, Personal Web Server) and you can even get a Wintel box with the server built in (Windows 2000 Server, for example).

Pros: It’s a Microsoft product, so it’s compatible with Microsoft software and easy to use.
Cons: It’s a Microsoft product, so it’s too big and you’ve got to pay for it.
Use it if: You use a Windows operating system, and you’re too busy to get something better.

Netscape servers (5% of the market))

Netscape have also attempted to corner the server market, but not as successfully. However, they have a close association with Sun Microsystems (the inventors of Java) and so their products are entirely Java-compatible. Microsoft and Sun are antagonistic, and Microsoft’s reluctance to cope with Java remains a disadvantage.

Pros: Entirely Java-compatible
Cons: You’ve still got to pay for it
Use it if: You use an Apple operating system

Option 2: Download a WML server

WML servers haven’t been around that long, and the market is ill-defined. Details of servers mentioned in a Wap context are given in appendix 2 and they include the following:-

Microsoft MS Mobile Information 2000 server
Nokia Activ Server
Captaris Infinite Enterprise Wap server
Xitami Web server

Option 3: use somebody else’s server

Many commercial companies will let you install websites (for a fee) on their hardware using their server, but most don’t give access to the cgi-bin directory because it’s a security risk. A survey was made of approximately 30 web hosting companies and those that would allow cgi-bin access are given below. More details can be found in appendix 3.

Datagate
Digiserve
Areti
NetNation
Positive Internet

It should be noted that only Datagate and Digiserve use the same operating system (Sun’s Unix on Solaris boxes) that the University does: the others use Linux or Windows NT. I would recommend those two to anybody that needs somewhere to host code written on the University’s machines

Option 4: use the University’s server

University staff/students can open a Herald account, which allows them access to the University’s Apache server which runs on a Pentium box with Linux operating system.

Pros: Can be set up in minutes
Cons: Limited access to cgi-bin. Users have to use a subset of Perl called "SafePerl".

Conclusion

Initially the University’s server was chosen. However it became apparent that the restrictions were intolerable (for example they would disallow use of the Perl CGI module, which was essential) and that a new solution would have to be found quickly. This forced a more realistic appraisal of external hosts because it looked like they’d genuinely be needed. Thankfully the support staff at Comlab stepped into the breach and installed a server especially for this thesis. This enabled the thesis to proceed without the expense of an external host (although for the record either Datagate or Digiserve would have been good ) .