It provides interfaces for commonly used services such as communications, security, database access, and Active Directory. These interfaces can be used from various programming and scripting languages.
A feature called Transaction Services, integrated with IIS and ASP (Active Server Pages), is designed for developing electronic-commerce applications with Web-based interfaces.
Active Server Pages is a server-side scripting environment that can be used with IIS to create and run dynamic interactive Web server applications. Developers can combine HTML pages, script commands, and Component Object Model (COM) components.
The server supports WebDAV, a standard that lets people collaborate on a document using an Internet-based shared file system. WebDAV addresses issues such as access permissions and conflict resolution. Support for Web Folders lets users navigate to a WebDAV-compliant server and view and manipulate files as if they were on the the local system.
FrontPage Server Extensions allow administrators to view and manage a Web site in a graphical interface. In addition, authors can create, edit, and post Web pages to IIS remotely.
Some advantages: "practically crash-proof" (but not entirely), easy to install (about 1 hour), GUI interface, more resistent to hackers than previous versions. But licensing is fairly expensive.
For more information on Microsoft servers, see:
Home