To start off this diary, here's the current status of the WebFeats Webserver project.
SYSTEM HARDWARE: My Zeos Pantera, a 100 MHz Pentium PC, arrived yesterday; I haven't even unpacked it yet. I bought a Zeos largely because I've already had two of their PC's, and they've performed quite nicely for me. Also, I wanted something right away, and they were able to ship within hours of when I placed my order.
It came with 16 MB RAM, which I'm told is not enough to make NT real happy; but changing the configuration would have slowed the order, and it's easy enough to add more RAM later. It also came with a quad-speed CD-ROM drive, which is faster than I need (I expect to use the CD-ROM only to load software), but I can swap it (I hope) with the double-speed drive on my home PC, which will make my home PC much happier when The Eleventh Hour finally comes out.
SYSTEM SOFTWARE: Getting a copy of Windows NT Server turned out to be more of a problem than I had expected, but everything turned out okay. I spotted a copy at CompUSA two days ago for $679 (it lists for $699 -- great discount from The Computer SuperStore, huh?), but didn't buy it because I didn't yet have a machine to load it on. And by yesterday, wouldn't you know it, none of the CompUSA stores in the Dallas area had it in stock; they told me it would take 7-10 days to get more.
This morning, my local computer store told me that they would match CompUSA's price, and they could get me a copy by tomorrow. (So why does it take CompUSA so long? Go figure.) And then another local store told me they had it in stock! They sold it to me for $650. Maybe I should stop assuming that CompUSA's prices are always going to be the best.
Anyway, sometime this afternoon or tomorrow I plan to actually unpack the computer and install NT. I've never even used NT, so this should be an interesting experience. I've also picked up the Windows NT Resource Kit that Microsoft is pushing so heavily; I was happy to see that it got a very good review in the new PC Magazine. I'll let you know what I think of it.
WEBSERVER SOFTWARE: I picked up a beta copy of WebSite at Internet World a couple of weeks ago. And at Web World last week, I had a chance to spend a few minutes with Robert Denny, WebSite's creator. Although he's hardly impartial, of course, he feels that WebSite is robust enough to hold its own against the NT version of Netscape's Netsite, which is supposedly due out soon. I hope he's right; I had planned to use Netsite, but if WebSite is as good as all that, maybe I won't have to switch.
INTERNET CONNECTION: My ISDN line was installed yesterday! Unfortunately, I can't do a thing with it, because I don't have a router yet. I'm buying an Ascend Pipeline 50 from UniComp, my Internet service provider; I ordered it yesterday, and they tell me that it should be available in about a week. Oh, well, that'll give me the time I need to begin to get familiar with NT and WebSite.
DOMAIN NAME: My domain name registration for webfeats.com
came through late last week. UniComp tells me that all
mail addressed to <anyone>@webfeats.com
will be delivered to me. And by next week, my Webserver should
answer to the name http://www.webfeats.com.
More news as it happens.
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