Microsoft makes its new Internet Information Server available free to owners of Windows NT 3.51 and includes it as part of Windows NT 4.0. Netscape servers come in a variety of flavors. Prices for Unix systems are higher. The Communications Server is the company's entry-level software, but it comes with powerful graphical administrative tools and proved an excellent performer. The Commerce Server adds support for secure transactions, which is a must for those doing business on the Internet and may be important to those starting an intranet.
Secure transactions allow encrypted communications between clients and servers.
Web server-access control comes in a couple of flavors. Typically only some people will have the ability to create pages for your Web server. Then there are two ways to control user access, or their ability to read Web pages. There is what is called IP or host-name filtering, through which certain IP addresses are allowed access to certain pages on your Web server. There is also user verification, or password-controlled access to Web pages.