Product Reviews

WebStar 3.0 gives IT managers looking for Web servers a viable Mac-based alternative to Windows NT.

WebStar 2.1 is already the most popular HTTP server on the Mac, and in this major update, StarNine has successfully focused on producing a package that can compete with those running on NT and Unix while retaining the program's ease of use.

For less than £2000, you can buy a G3 Power Mac, install WebStar 3.0, and instantly own a Web server capable of handling nine million hits a day. Our extensive tests show equal stability between WebStar under Mac OS 8.1 and NT-based servers, even when undergoing heavy attack using benchmarking software. And the arrival of Rhapsody later this year should make WebStar faster and even more stable.

The server's security has been tightened further and, as you would expect, WebStar has been upgraded to the latest HTTP 1.1 protocol, allowing pipelined requests, persistent connections, and the sending of chunked data to plug-ins. If you incorporate these new features into your CGIs and plug-ins, visitors will start to receive search results faster than with the previous protocol.

The most obvious new addition to the revamped HTTP server is the FTP server, which allows a single Mac to act both as a Web site server and a file server. The FTP server is exceedingly fast and sturdy - exactly what your visitors want. During our tests, FTP download speeds were monitored on a busy server running WebStar 3.0 linked to a backbone-strength connection. As the HTTP server activity rose to a very high level, reaching a peak of over 200 connections, files continued to be served by the FTP server at speeds of over 225Kbits/sec. No transmission delays were seen either with dial-up access or with high-speed network downloads.

We noticed

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a couple of connection failures when we downloaded files over dial-up connections using an older browser, but this was probably caused by a poor implementation of FTP within the browser rather than any fault within the server itself. It makes sense to remind your visitors to use FTP clients (such as Fetch) instead of browsers for increased performance and reliability. Fourth-generation browsers gave no problems.

Yet another unfamiliar add-on to WebStar is a proxy server which, by saving recently visited sites to disk, speeds up network performance considerably. The proxy server can also be used to prevent unauthorised access from your LAN to named Internet domains. It seems a shrewd marketing move to include a proxy server, as Microsoft has a less than exemplary reputation for supporting proxies on the Mac.

To complement the new FTP and proxy servers, WebStar now takes advantage of Open Transport 1.3 to map up to three distinct IP addresses and domain names to your copy of WebStar. For example, you could register the domain names www.macuser.co.uk, ftp.macuser.co.uk, and proxy.macuser.co.uk to be used for your three servers. It is also possible to set up 'virtual hosts' - standalone Web sites which visitors are automatically redirected to depending upon their native language, IP address, or domain name.

WebStar SSL, the secure version of WebStar, includes support for SSL 2.0. This is adequate for the majority of users, who will be using a maximum of one SSL certificate per machine. But for those who need multiple certificates per machine, the lack of SSL 3.0 support is deeply worrying. StarNine must quickly update its SSL if it's to convert owners of large sites. Those users requiring multiple certificates per machine should try to work with either WebTen (www.tenon.com) and QuidProQuo (www.socialeng.com) until the problem is solved.

For the Mac-based Web designer, WebStar 3.0 will be a Godsend, allowing live testing of sites on a friendly machine. It's more stable than QuidProQuo 2 and is a true Mac solution, unlike WebTen, which is a port of the Unix Web server. For the IT manager looking for a new Web server, WebStar 3.0 offers the necessary performance, reliability, and value demanded of a truly serious solution, with the added benefits of the security and guaranteed Year-2000 compliance that come from choosing the Mac platform.