Home Web Server for Windows

User Reviews

• Simply does what it says, and does it well.

  russelldbrooksJanuary 12, 2008

  Pros

  I tried a number of different free web servers available on CNET. This one is light on features, but that's good. It was easy to set up, once I figured out what to do with my DSL modem and wireless router settings. (Each have a firewall that port 80 had to be forwarded through to my PC for the server to work.) I don't need it to auto-create any html code for me. This is for hosting a website. If you just want to make files available on the web, use an FTP server. (The author of Home Web Server has also made available on CNET Home FTP Server, which is also a very simple and functional program.) Once I got my hardware settings right, it was easy to make my personal website available on the web from my own PC. The software performed very reliably. Some of the others I tried would work for a few minutes, then the site wouldn't load until you stopped the server and restarted it. I didn't have that problem with this one. If you can't make it work, blame it on your hardware settings. Keep in mind that if you host a website over your residential DSL line, your server's speed will be limited to whatever your DSL upload speed is. In my case, it's only about 40 KB/s. The same is true with most DSL or cable services, so don't blame that on the software either. The program works great.

  Cons

  There isn't a lot of help or support information available on the author's home page. It's mainly a demonstration of a site running on the server software. The program interface itself could use a help section with suggestions for configuring your hardware and customizing the server settings. The author could also use a little help with his broken English on his homepage. That's just a suggestion. No offense intended. I still recommend the software.

  Summary

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