why personal web server?

[shrijeetp]

being new to this field i was just wondering why we have a separate product as a PWS by microsoft, is it not possible to use IIS for the same purpose.

what i have understood from going thru a book by deitel and deitel on web programming is that PWS is for testing purposes and is meant for students.i infered from it that PWS works over an intranet so that u dont need a static ip(please correct me if i am wrong...still learning these things)

but at the same time the book describes IIS as a web server tool which can be extended to both internet and intranet,does this not mean we can have our website hosted in our intranet using only IIS and no need of PWS?...jst a doubt.

also the open source tools like apache,can they prove to be more helpful,easy to configure and efficient?

i am supposed to devlop a portal basically and for testing it i needed all this information.

thanking in advance.any help , any guidance, any advice would help me learn and understand better.

[diab0lic666]

Hi,
Personal Web server is reduced version of microsoft's IIS webserver. PWS was supported on win 95 and 98. PWS was used in intranet small or large, as PWS does not support FTP. Its best to use IIS if you are using XP. and its very easily configurable.
I personally use Apache wch is free and much better. (for me atleast.)

hv fun!