Hello, I'd like to use oneWindows Server 2008 machineto host web for public, being able to offer ASP.NET, Silverlight, WCF and other services on Microsoft platform. I have a few questions about this: 1) Which edition of the server is sufficient forsuch task? 3) How to create users? Should I add every customer toa domain? Or how could I controldisk quotas, ftp accounts etc. per user? 2) How to add virtual hosts and assign a 3rd order domain with separate log to them? What are the general practices with setting up a web hosting on the Windows Server? Thank you for any hints or references, Jan

Hi Jan IIS 7 is a great choice for webhosting and there is an article on IIS.net that describes step by step how to setup a Webhosting environment for thousands of sites. I strongly recommend you to read this article even if it uses three servers and not just one as you intend to do. http://www.iis.net/articles/view.aspx/IIS7/Deploy-an-IIS7-Server/Deployment-for-Web-Hosters/Shared-Hosting-on-IIS7 Answers to your questions, covered in article above as well. 1. The webserver itself could be a Web Edition but you might want to useadomain account foreach websitethen you will need one of the other versions to be able to setup Active Directory for your accounts. this is discussed in the article as well. 2. Setup user accounts in AD for your sites and in doing that you will have easy access to features in the operating system such as File System Resource Manager to setup quotas for each site owner. You would use same account for http and ftp, with the new ftp server you also have secure ftp. For individual users accessing the websites after they have been created it is more of a development choice where to place the user accounts, in AD is fine but some developers like SQL Server as a user store as well.. 3. Not sure what you are looking for here, each website created will be able to log access to separate log and the separation between sites can be done as before; IP address or Host Header. I recommend reading the Understanding Sites, Apps and Vdirs in IIS article as well: http://www.iis.net/articles/view.aspx/IIS7/Managing-IIS7/Getting-Started/Understanding-Sites,-Apps,-and-Vdirs-in-IIS7 Hope this helps a bit. If not, post back here or even better post at http://forums.iis.net. If you move your post to the iis.net forums, please close this thread and maybe add link to your new forum thread so other users can learn from this as well. Brjann

Hi Brjann, thank you very much for your answer. I'll read through the article and post further questions on the iis.net forums. Jan

ALthough I've been exposed to cPanel/WHM, Plesk, and Helm in various shared hosting configuations, it always sesms to me that people are more familiar with--and demand more--packages that offer cPanel/WHM. For a long time, that predestined the client to select a linux host, not because of the technologies offered, but because of the prevalence and popularity of cPanel and WHM. Of course, Plesk by no means undesirable, and personally I am very impressed with Helm, but it just seems I am always asked for cPanel accounts. But soon this will no longer predestine a customer to choose a linux hosting plan. According to www.cPanel.net all this is about to change (http://www.cpanel.net/products/cPanelandWHM/windows/index.html) Designed--and only compatible with IIS 7 and WIndows Server 2008--cPanel will release the "cPanel Server Suite" for IIS 7 and Windows Server 2008. Featuring largely the same functionality and look and feel as the linux implementation, by the sounds of your post, you'll be happy when Windows Server 2008--and cPanel Suite for Windows--is officially released. Incidentally, the Web site I quoted has a form accepting applications for beta testers. SIncerely, Robin L. M. Cheung, BScH, MBA

I've never heared about cPanel/WHM, but will give a try. As far as webhosting is mentioned, local licencing office poped up withSPLA licence. Could anybody explain me what's in and if it brings something fo me as a web hoster? Different pricing for server products? Orwould Ihave topay more? Jan

Brjann,Do you have a copy of the first article that you linked to? I can't access it at all.Thanks!Tim