I'm a 99.9% Windows shop, but have interest in starting to develop and host PHP sites. Am I able to run this on the same server that I am running IIS on? Or do I need a separate server to do so? I'm curious as we currently host several ASP and .NET sites at the present time.

Yes (with a small modification)...

On a default setup, both Apache and IIS will try to bind to all the available IP addresses: port 80.

To get around this, you can:

A. Have multiple IP addresses assigned to the Server, and have each web server application bind to a specific IP address. This is simple to do and only requires a small configuration change to Apache and IIS… A one line change to an Apache configuration file and a one field edit under the IIS Manager.

B. Have one of the web servers bind to a port other than 80, such as 8080.

This tends not to work for everyone as now URL requests for the other server will be of the form http://domain:8080/

C. Use one web server application to proxy requests to the other…

Use Apache as the front-end server, and have it transparently proxy filtered requests to IIS on the same system running on a different IP or port. The returned output will also be served by Apache.

See: http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_proxy.html

How many websites can your product host?

We are a hosting company. We are looking for a solution to consolidate all our shared hosting platforms in order to reduce our technical intervention. Currently our shared hosting platforms handle more than 3000 web sites, therefore we are willing to reach 6000 hosted web sites using different technologies (asp, Asp.net, java/j2ee, PHP, ColdFusion...). Can your architecture handle more than 6000 websites?

The amount of websites the Suite can handle greatly depends on the resources of the system and the experienced load. There are no hard limits set for the number of Virtual Hosts that can run under Apache.

Can I transfer websites from the Suite to my Host?

I am going to use this software to develop a Drupal site and then move it to one of our Linux servers. From what I understand about your product I should be able to maintain the site and then upload the changes to the live site. Is my assumption correct?

Absolutely. This is what a lot of customers use our Suite for.

Built and test your website under Windows with the Suite, and after everything is satisfied, uploaded it to your Linux Host.

Self Hosting

Do I need a permanent (static) IP address?

To run the Suite: No.

A static IP address can help make resolving your domain names a simpler process, but is not required.

You can use a “Dynamic DNS” service that will keep any registered domains you have pointing to the IP address your ISP assigns your modem / router via a local client application that you install.

These services can be used for free from many providers. There are also domain registrars like namecheap.com that have this service integrated.

See: Google Search for “Dynamic DNS”.

Will this software run my company website on a system I built, and run on a Cable/DSL service?

Yes… As long as the local Cable/DSL branch is not blocking incoming port 80 [http] requests.

Also take note that if your ISP does not provide you with a static IP address [an IP address that does not change] you will need to use a “Dynamic DNS” Service that will keep your registered domain names synchronized to your current IP address.

Can I use this software for testing and development (for LAN use) without putting everything on the internet?

Yes.

Purchase and Download

How do I order this software?

You can order this product by clicking on either of the graphics for PayPal or the credit card / 2CO option. With PayPal you can also pay with a credit card or e-check, you do not need to have a PayPal account.

Once payment is made, you will be redirected to a download page with a link to the software.

I am unable to successfully download the software. What should I do?

Chances are your initial download never completed correctly, and your browser is storing a bad cache of the file.

The solution is to:

1. Delete what you have downloaded.

2. Clear your browser cache / temporary internet files [very important step]. Then close and re-open browser.

3. Try downloading again... When downloading, make sure to only save the file to disk, do not try to run the file from the browser or download window / manager.

If this does not help, this problem might also be a result of…

a. A (temporary) network issue.

b. Your local or company Firewall.

c. Overzealous anti-virus software.

If you are unable to resolve the problem, please contact us and we will check our logs.

I purchased the Suite but have not received any download instructions. Please advise how I go about downloading and activating the product.

After making payment you should have been redirected to a download page with a link to the Suite.

Please contact us so we can email you a direct download link.

I recently bought the Professional Edition of the Suite, but my PC crashed a few days ago and I have lost the software. Can you send me the download link again, or suggest how I can recover this excellent software?

If you need to re-download our software please contact us and we will email you a direct download link.

I have paid for Hosting and have not received an email with data of my accounts.

The Suite is a software product that can be used as a web server, or as an environment for web development.

We do not provide any type of hosting. If you would like a refund please let us know.

In the future, we might offer a hosting service. But nothing has been decided on right now as the hosting business tends to be low profit, high turnover, and comes with many headaches. Something specialized and focused might work for us in the future.

Compatibility

Is this software compatible with Vista?

Yes.

You just have to make sure that when installing the Suite you use an administrative account (so as to be able to install the Apache and MySQL Services), and when running WDContoller.exe you do so with a right-click ‘Run as administrator.’

I was considering upgrading the new system I’m going to install this Suite on, to Windows XP SP3. Would there be a problem with compatibility?

No.

Will your web server run on any machine/OS (Windows, Mac, Linux)?

No. This is only a product that is compiled for Windows. Binaries for Linux and OSX are not provided.

Can I install your web server on a USB stick?

Not at this time. Though it is technically possible, but would require for you to edit all the configuration files, reinstall the services, and perform some other tasks.

I just purchased your Suite. Can you suggest a good anti-virus program that is compatible? I have been using Avira and AVG on my PCs.

Avira AntiVir and AVG should work fine with the Suite. It's usually the bigger packages like Norton that tend to create problems.

Can I use a hosting control panel like Cpanel with the Suite?

No. These types of panels come with their own setup of Apache, PHP, MySQL, etc and are not compatible with our Suite. They are also primarily Linux based.

My current development production environment is Linux. Do you have a Linux build for either Fedora or Ubuntu?

The only build we have right now is for Windows.

In the future (as the product expands and grows) there are definite plans to integrate with LAMP.

I'm looking to build a website using Drupal, and I have purchased space with a hosting company that provides Apache, PHP and MySQL. Do I buy this software and then transfer it to my hosting account, running Linux?

The Suite is a Windows based package that cannot be uploaded and used on a Linux host.

However, you can developer and test your Drupal website using the Suite locally (on your system), and when you are done, upload the Drupal database to the Linux host for deployment. This part is completely independent of the underlining OS.

This will provide you a safe and productive environment to work on, verses doing the development and testing on a live server -- which is never a good idea.

Occasionally you might need to update a configuration file after transfer that changes a path or some other host dependant setting.

Support

How do I contact you about support? What information do I need to provide?

Once payment is made the email address you supplied goes on record. If you contact us via this email we will automatically know that you have purchased the Professional Edition, and have support. You can also use other email addresses if you just let us know the original one, or your name, or anything else we can trace back to the payment transaction.

What level of support can I expect from you when trying to host my own web server?

The support provided with the Suite is basic troubleshooting, help, and answering any questions you might have.

My tech guy is in need of a phone number for a few small questions.

At this time no phone support is provided. Support is only provided via email and the forums.

Hardware

Will my PC at home be quick enough to run a web server?

Yes. Any modern PC will do just fine. The bottleneck is mostly the internet connection you have at home.

Note that unless you are experiencing great amounts of concurrent traffic, your home setup it will be indistinguishable from a regular hosting provider account.

What would be my minimum PC specs to run this software?

My tower is 2.4Ghz and 1Gig RAM, on Windows XP Professional. Is this enough or do you recommend more?

The minimum specs would be a P3 with 256MB ram, running Windows 2000.

Other Requirements

With your product what else will I need?

Everything that you need is provided in the Suite package. There is no additional software or hardware required.

The only exception is that if you use the Tomcat server you will need to install the Java Runtime.

Does your product require a functioning IIS Server?

IIS is not required nor used in any way by the Suite. And unless you take additional steps of binding IIS to a specific IP and port, it will conflict with Apache.

Installation

Should I uninstall another Apache/MySQL server I have before installing the Suite?

Any previously installed Apache and MySQL Services have to be removed before installing our Suite.

Any previous installs of Apache and MySQL Services will:

1. Have the same Service names [conflict issues].

2. Bind to the same IPs/ports.

This will prevent our Apache and MySQL Services from installing.

Sometimes users also have DLLs and configurations files from previous installs of Wamp-type servers (or standalone application installations) which might not have been properly removed.

Most of this can be easily identified and solved.

Run ‘services.msc’ and check to make sure that if there are Apache2.2 and MySQL Services present; that their ‘binary path:’ locations are pointing to a folder under C:\www\... If they point somewhere else, this is a foreign Service that should be removed before installation. Contact support or our forums for instructions.

Email & DNS

Does the Suite do email?

You can connect to a Mail Server via PHP, but we do not include an actual SMTP Server into the package. The Suite is primarily a Web Server.

What email server will integrate or work well with the Suite?

You can use any Mail Server software with the Suite.

Most users either use the native Windows 2003+ SMTP Server or the free hmailserver program.

Once you have the Mail Server configured to allow relaying from the host the Suite is running on, you should be able to send mail via PHP.

Is there a DNS server built in?

There is no DNS Server packaged into the Suite.

Suite Components

I was under the impression that this software contained a built in PHP editor.

The Suite does not come with a PHP Editor. But we can recommend some good ones on our forums.

Does this software come with Cron? Can I task my script for any X minute rate?

The Cron daemon is a task scheduler used under Linux.

Most web applications come with their own cron.php scripts that emulate Cron (in most ways).

If you are looking for a Cron daemon directly on the system, the Windows Task Scheduler is considered to be just as robust and functional -- and is included with Windows XP and up.

After creating a task with the Windows Task Scheduler, under Properties for that task, there is an Advanced Options dialog that lets you set to repeat the task every 1 minute and above.

I have an application that needs the Zend or IonCube PHP encoders to be installed. Does your server come with either of these installed?

No. But they can be installed without a problem.

ASP.NET

Can we run both .NET and PHP applications in the Suite?

You can run both .NET and PHP applications under the Suite. Though some features might be limited under the Apache/.NET option (you might or might not need to stick with .NET 1.1 or 2.0).

The Apache .NET Host is provided by the Apache module mod_aspdotnet.

See the mod_aspdotnet project page for more information.

You can also proxy requests from Apache to IIS, and have IIS directly handle all ASP.NET based domains or URL requests.

Does your web server offer support for classic ASP?

Out of the box: No.

There are Perl modules that support classic ASP but our support for this was dropped a few years back. The Suite does have an Apache module that handles ASP.NET, but IIS is where you want to go if you plan on using ASP/ASP.NET (over PHP).

Other

I want to set up an own web server on a Netgear Ready NAS Duo. Do you think it will work with your software?

Only if you use it as a transparent storage device (that gives you a drive letter) for the websites, database, and/or log files. You will need to install the actual Suite on a hard drive and under a Windows OS.

Other devices that use an underlining Linux OS and file system are not compatible with our Suite.

Do you have any plans to continue what is now called the “Community edition”? Or is v2.0 the last release?

The Community Edition has been temporarily taken down (from our site) until we can finalize the core and architecture of the next version of the Suite.

The Community Edition is based on the Professional version, minus some features, and any new release now without a solid base, would just be temporary and transitional.

The next release of Community Edition will coincide with the release of the next major branch of Professional Edition. Until then we will not support or update Community v2.0.

But we do promise that we have not discontinued Community Edition and it will be released again (on our site) sometime in the near future.