Internet Information Services is used to make your computer a web server. If we want to have a web server for developing dynamic website or want to publish website on our own server then we install the IIS. IIS is used on windows plate form

IIS takes request from user and executes the required files and sends result back to the user. IIS server also provides the services of SMTP (Simple Mail Transport Protocol). We can send emails using SMTP. FrontPage server extensions are also the part of IIS. Using FrontPage server extension we can use the dynamic features of IIS like form handler, Hit counter and etc.

Additional information:

The most popular web server on the Internet is the Apacheweb server. The Apache web server is available from The Apache Software Foundation at

http://www.apache.org

To view hosting information on Apache and IIS, please visit

www.netcraft.com

and scan the page for the Web Server Survey.

How a web server and web application server work together

The following steps explain how a web server and web application server work together to process a page request:

1. The user requests a page by typing a URL in a browser, and the web server receives the request.
2. The web server looks at the file extension to determine whether a web application server must process the page. Then, one of the following actions occur:
   • If the user requests a file that is a simple web page (often one with an HTM or HTML extension), the web server fulfills the request and sends the file to the browser.
   • If the user requests a file that is a page that a web application server must process (one with a CFM, CFML, or CFC extension for ColdFusion requests), the web server passes the request to the web application server. The web application server processes the page and sends the results to the web server, which returns those results to the browser. The following figure shows this process:

Because web application servers interpret programming instructions and generate output that a web browser can interpret, they let web developers build highly interactive and data-rich websites, which can do tasks such as the following:

• Query other database applications for data.
• Dynamically populate form elements.
• Dynamically generate Flash application data.
• Provide application security.
• Integrate with other systems using standard protocols such as HTTP, FTP, LDAP, POP, and SMTP.
• Create shopping carts and e-commerce websites.
• Respond with an e-mail message immediately after a user submits a form.
• Return the results of keyword searches.

Apache is an open source web server that's supports php, Apache is known to be open source because the source code is available for configuration as per your requirements, its a Linux based product. on the other hand IIS is a Microsoft product you need a licence to use it commercially, there is no way of configuring any tabs in the code.

Apache is economical t use compared to IIS

By VALANCIO DANIEL FERNANDES

PING
The "ping" command does. It sends out an ICMP echo request message and waits for a reply. However, network administrators sometimes block the ICMP protocol. In that case, accessing a service on the remote computer (e.g. opening a Web page on a Web server) would do if the service is currently available and is not blocked.
Testing connectivity between computers highly relies on networking protocols they use. Assuming it's TCP/IP (as the most widespread communication protocol used nowadays), the command to test reachability is 'ping'. To use it, you have to know IP address (which consists of 4 groups of digits separated with dots, like 10.4.199.15) or a hostname (like, remote.my.domain) of the remote computer. Launch shell interpteter and issue one the following:

ping 10.5.199.15

ping other.my.domain

depending on information on a remote device available to you.

After issuing one of these commands, expect to see at least one of the following:

ping: unknown host reemote.my.domain

(in case you've mistyped a hostname)

PING 10.6.199.15 (10.6.199.15) 56(84) bytes of data.

^C

--- 10.6.199.15 ping statistics ---

2 packets transmitted, 0 received, 100% packet loss, time 7012ms

(in case you've mistyped its IP address or there's some software installed blocking incoming pings)

PING remote.my.domain (10.5.199.15) 56(84) bytes of data.

64 bytes from remote.my.domain: icmp_seq=2 ttl=254 time=0.727 ms

64 bytes from remote.my.domain: icmp_seq=2 ttl=254 time=0.727 ms

64 bytes from remote.my.domain: icmp_seq=2 ttl=254 time=0.727 ms

^C

--- remote.my.domain ping statistics ---

3 packets transmitted, 3 received, 0% packet loss, time 1003ms

(in case the link between two systems is functioning properly)