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Web Server Survey Finds IIS Powers More High-Traffic Sites Than Apache

Microsoft Internet Information Services slightly edges out the open-source Apache Web server in the percentage of the 1,000 highest-traffic sites that run each Web server, a new survey finds.

The survey by Port80 Software checked the Web server software running the 1,000 sites with the highest Internet traffic, as ranked by Nielsen//NetRatings. It found IIS with 43.1 percent, Apache with 39.7 percent and Netscape Enterprise with 8.7 percent. Port80 Software, an ISV that makes IIS performance and security tools, released the results of its survey on Wednesday.

The company raised a minor stir last month with a similar survey checking the sites used by companies in the Fortune 1000. Aside from self-promotion, Port80 released that survey to criticize the methodology of Netcraft, the U.K.-based firm that each month reports major Web servers' percentage share of more than 47 million hostnames on the Internet.

In that January survey, Port80 found that 53.4 percent of Fortune 1000 firms ran IIS, 19.4 percent ran Apache and 17.1 percent ran Netscape Enterprise. Surveying the whole Internet, and using a different methodology, Netcraft puts Apache's share at 67.2 percent, Microsoft's share at 20.8 percent and Netscape Enterprise's share at 3.5 percent.

Port80's survey can be found at www.port80software.com/surveys/hightrafficwebservers/.

Netcraft's survey can be found at news.netcraft.com/archives/web_server_survey.html.

About the Author

Scott Bekker is editor in chief of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.

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