ASP .NET 2.0 on Apache (Windows XP)?

Question

I am building an ASP .NET 2.0 web app for an intranet environment. The site may have to be hosted on an XP machine in the LAN. IIS would restrict the number of connections to 40. My requirements are different - the number of clients in the LAN could be much higher - say upto 1000 or maybe even more.

The site is built using ASP .NET 2.0 and extensively uses ASP .NET Ajax 1.0. What options do I have? Is hosting it on an Apache server possible? (with ASP .NET Ajax) If not, any alternatives?

Thanks.

EDIT: I've heard about ultidev cassini. Is that a good option (ASP .NET 2.0+ ASP .NET AJAX 1.0)?

Answer 1

I wouldn't consider cassini, in my experience it's too slow for production. Other alternatives:

• Apache + mod_mono (but your app would be running under Mono instead of "standard" .net, which may or may not bring its own problems)
• Apache + mod_aspdotnet (but this mod seems rather old and unmaintained)
• Buy a Windows Web Server license (2003 or 2008), but I guess that's not an option is it? :-)

Answer 2

With those sorts of numbers, you should be able to justify a license really - will they all be accessing the server concurrently - if not you might be able to get away with the XP hosting.

How are you managing 1000 users without a single server instance in there - surely one of them has a bit of capacity to run IIS?

You can get a Windows Web Server 2008 License from around $469

This doesn't require CALs for access, but (IANAL) you might not be able use Windows Auth with that and it should be a public facing website...