This website is a resource of articles about the windows server family of operating systems. Windows Server 2003 R2 is currently the most widely used. The latest on the market is Windows server 2008; which brings along several major updates including the windows power shell, upgrades to the terminal services & self healing NTFS.

Microsoft dns server is the DNS server that ships with windows server. IIS or Internet information services is the standard web server that ships with windows servers, which has native support for ASP & .NET. Note that other servers such as the Apache web server can also be successfully installed & operated on windows servers. Im Windows 2003, the manage your server administrative tool is a GUI for enabling/disabling & configuring the various functionalties the server is capable of providing.

To run a server on the internet using a windows server operating system, you are faced with 3 primary options:
  • Hosting it in your own location (like a basement) with a DS3 (or similar strength, usually highly expensive) connection.
  • Colocation; which means renting "rack space" & bandwidth/connection at a full fledged data center for your own hardware.
  • Renting: This can actually be a great option especially for startups or limited budgets. For a few hundred (US) dollars per month, you can rent a dedicated windows server from many reputed dedicated server providers. The cost of the operating system's license, a certain level of support, hardware maintenance/replacement, upgrades are all usually included in what you pay monthly.
More information on hosting.

Once your windows server is online, check back here for tips on how to manage it.

A lot of visitors to this website are just looking for a licensed windows 2003 operating system. Please see this catalog if you are seeking that.