Need a lightweight web server for Windows XP Home

Question

I need recommendations for a "light weight web server" to be ran on a Windows XP Home edition system to host a small web service (not web pages - but web service).

The web service can be written in either .NET or Java. The Windows XP Home system will serve up the web service to clients consuming the service.

Any suggestions? (before it's asked, no, I can't replace the Windows XP home system)

Answer 1

For Java, Jetty seems to fit the bill.

Having said that, very few web servers are "heavyweight" on modern hardware. Apache or Tomcat wouldn't strain your machine too much.

Answer 2

You could use the Cassini sample that comes with visual studio. It's essentially what is used in VS as the development host server when you are debugging asp.net pages directly in VS.

There is also the more advanced UltiDev Cassini 2.0 that was built using the original MS Cassini as a starting point.

Both are obviously written in .net

Answer 3

On WinXP Home, here are a few choices:

• install a virtual machine environment. Then install a guest OS like Windows 2003.
• you could install IIS on WinXP home, after some hacks

If you're leaning towards Java, you may have a few more options like:

• lighttpd with modifications for SOAP
• Apache

Answer 4

XP home is going to cause you a ton of problems in the long run; if your site gets a significant amount of traffic it's going to be a real headache.

That being said, I'd go with Apache for a plain webserver, or JBOSS for the Java server piece (Tomcat would also work fine).