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Re: [MacPerl-WebCGI] MacPerl and WebSTAR
Thomas Wegner wrote:
>It may be of general interest that there are still various other Mac
>servers around. I've compiled a list of some good, lightweight, free
>or nearly free servers for the main Internet services:
Thank you so much for posting these, Tom! (It would be nice to
accumulate this info on a website somewhere.)
I run both a Linux and a Mac server and have had some experience with
some of these, and I thought I would add some commentary FWIW.
>Web-, FTP- Servers:
>
>Quid Pro Quo 2.1.3 (HTTP-server) -- freeware, my favorite, good
>server side includes capabilities, poor (nearly nonexistent)
>documentation for the freeware version
>ftp://ftp.socialeng.com/pub/qpq/qpq2.1.3.bin (~ 2 MB)
I agree with all of the above. Except for the paucity of
documentation, I have found little I don't like about QPQ. I have
been unable to make it work with the "file upload" feature of HTML
forms but I don't know if that is a limitation in QPQ, my brain, or
the documentation.
Note that there is a for-pay version as well.
>MacHTTP 2.2 (HTTP-server) -- WebSTAR's predecessor, old but still good
>http://www.esm.psu.edu/HTMLs/Graduate/SOFTWARE/Internet/MacHTTP2.2.si
>t (938 KB)
This is definitely not free (sez someone who paid $95 for a license).
$65 non-commercial, $95 commercial.
For MacPerl users, I believe there is another significant issue
having to do with .cgi vs .acgi scripts. MacPerl CGI scripts given
the .acgi extension are extremely dangerous on a public or otherwise
uncontrolled server, as two overlapping hits to MacPerl .acgi scripts
result in a dropped hit at best, a crashed server at worst. For most
Mac Web servers, the solution is to use the .cgi extension. However,
MacHTTP has the property that it will do NOTHING, not server plain
HTML pages, not serve GIFs, until the CGI has finished executing.
QPQ will hold subsequent hits to the CGI, but will serve other
documents while waiting. This behavior of MacHTTP can really slow
down your website, but it is also possible it will make it more
stable. In any case, this issue deserves consideration by the
MacPerl CGI user.
>NetPresenz 4.1 (HTTP, FTP and Gopher-server) -- shareware, one of
>the few (noncommercial) FTP-servers around
>http://www.stairways.com/netpresenz/index.html (~ 1 MB)
$69.95. I briefly tried it once a while ago, and it seemed fine.
There are times I wish I had the FTP server, but not $70 worth.
Also, from what I've read and my hazy memories, QPQ is a more
feature-rich web server.
>Stalker Internet Mail Server (POP3 and SMTP-server) -- a flexible
>freeware server with anti-spam features
>http://www.stalker.com/SIMS/Intro.html
>ftp://ftp.stalker.com/pub/SIMS.sit.hqx
I am currently using this and like it. I find configuration a bit
awkward as it has to be done via the web (or some funky application
they provide I never bothered to figure out).
Note Well! The anti-spam feature is NOT a luxury if you are on the
Internet, but virtually a necessity. I don't know about EIMS, but
with AIMS there is no way to prevent your surver from being an "open
relay". That means that spammers will use your server to send their
spam, both putting a load on your server and making you a partner in
their crime.
But Wait! It gets worse! Because of the increasing problem of spam
and the central role open relays play in its propagation, many sites
on the Internet have initiated a campaign to block open relays:
http://www.orbs.org/
What this means is, that once your open relay is detected, you will
not be able to send email to sites which participate in this
blocking. (I believe WebTV, now owned by Microsoft, is one such
site.)
>Apple Internet Mail Server (AIMS) 1.1.1 (POP3 and SMTP-server) --
>free, old stuff, but it works fine for testing and development
>http://www.esm.psu.edu/HTMLs/Graduate/SOFTWARE/Internet/AIMS-1.1.1.si
>t (174 KB)
No way to block open relays. Should no longer be used on the Internet, IMHO.
>Eudora Internet Mail Server (EIMS) 1.3.1 (POP3 and SMTP-server) --
>freeware, Qualcomm bought AIMS from Apple and called it EIMS
>http://www.eudora.com/freeware/servers.html
>ftp://ftp.qualcomm.com/eudora/eims1/131/eims131.sea.hqx (258 KB)
Because of its origins in AIMS, I would check if it has a way to
block open relays. If not, it should not be used on the Internet,
IMHO.
>Some of these servers are covered in the book "Providing Internet
>Services via the Mac OS" by Carl Steadman and Jason Snell, available
>online at http://www.pism.com/. The book is free and somewhat
>outdated (published 1998), but still good.
I think it was published in 1996, and in my opinion is very dated. I
just moved my copy from my main bookshelf to a storage bookshelf :-(
I wish there were an update! When I bought it (shortly after it came
out) it was one of the most useful books I had.
Thanks again/HTH.
-David Steffen-
David Steffen, Ph.D.
President, Biomedical Computing, Inc. <http://www.biomedcomp.com/>
Phone: (713) 610-9770 FAX: (713) 610-9769 E-mail: steffen@biomedcomp.com
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