Internet Information Services

What Does Internet Information Services Mean?

Internet Information Services (IIS), formerly known as Internet Information Server, is a web server producted by Microsoft. IIS is used with Microsoft Windows OSs and is the Microsoft-centric competition to Apache, the most popular webserver used with Unix/Linux-based systems.

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Techopedia Explains Internet Information Services

IIS was initially released for Windows NT and, along with ASP (Active-Server Pages), finally made a Windows-box a usable alternative for web-hosting. That being said, it was also noted for being completely wide-open out of the box and required significant configuration to be made secure.

This changed with later releases, and IIS is now generally considered by many to be a stable and usable product. As of 2011, the most current version is IIS 7, which includes pretty much all modern features you’d expect to see in a webserver, including tight integration to ASP.NET. Though, as with any Microsoft vs Linux debate, some would argue that Apache is the only way to go.

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Margaret Rouse

Margaret Rouse is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical, business audience. Over the past twenty years her explanations have appeared on TechTarget websites and she's been cited as an authority in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine and Discovery Magazine.Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages. If you have a suggestion for a new definition or how to improve a technical explanation, please email Margaret or contact her…