I haven't read all of this book yet, and I probably never will, considering that some of the chapters are irrelevant once you've decided on which programming platform you are going to use. But what I've read so far I like.This book is somewhat unusual in that it discusses two normally separate topics: setting up and administering IIS 6.0, and basic server-side programming techniques.
Concerning the part about setting up IIS, I was pleased to discover that the book also includes some very useful information about how Windows Server 2003 should be installed and set up to ensure good basic security. I've read two other books about IIS 6.0 and neither of them had this kind of material.
My one quibble is the lack of information about how to set up an FTP server for use in uploading and maintaining the content of a web site. OK, I know that FTP is an obsolete technology for doing this, but still, it is the traditional method, so a simple example showing the best way of doing this would have been nice. (On the other hand, the two other books I've read about IIS 6.0 didn't cover this either, although one of them included enough information to allow the proper technique to be figured out.)
Turning to the server-side programming part, there are examples of simple applications using the following technologies: ASP, COM, ASP.NET, ATL and ISAPI. The book does not include a CD-ROM but one of the authors has a web site from which you can download all of the sample files, 19 MB in all.
Two final criticisms: There is no mention of possible alternative programming platforms such as Perl, PHP, MySQL, etc., and where to find them. And some of the screen shots have a resolution that makes the text almost impossible to read.
In conclusion, if you're involved in both setting up an IIS 6.0 web server and in creating a web site to run on it then you'll find this book very useful.
Rennie Petersen
