Feature Comparison (IIS 4 Through IIS 6)
The best way to look at the differences between the systems is actually to compare the various features in a table, which is what I've done in Table 7.1. Rather than concentrating on some isolated features, I've tried to give a well rounded comparison of specific elements within the different versions.
Feature | IIS 4 | IIS 5 | IIS 6 |
|---|---|---|---|
Supported Services | |||
Web (HTTP) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
FTP | Yes | Yes | Yes |
SMTP | Limited | Yes | Yes |
NNTP | Limited | Yes | Yes |
POP3 | No | No | Yes |
Management Facilities | |||
MMC | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Web | Limited | Limited | Limited |
Command line | Limited | Limited | Yes |
Programmatic | Limited | Yes | Yes |
Direct Metabase Edit | No | No | Yes |
Supported Environments | |||
FrontPage | Yes | Yes | Yes |
ASP | Yes | Yes | Yes |
ASP.NET | No | Yes | Yes |
Perl | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Python | Yes | Yes | Yes |
PHP | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Application Management | |||
In Process Execution (part of Inetinfo.exe) | Yes | Yes | No |
Out of Process Execution | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Pooled Process Execution | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Automatic Process Management | No | No | Yes |
Authentication Support | |||
Basic Authentication | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Anonymous Access | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Integrated Windows Authentication | Yes (NT Domains) | Yes (Active Directory) | Yes (Active Directory) |
Digest Authentication | No | Yes | Yes |
.NET Passport Integration | No | No | Yes |
Process/CPU Management | |||
Hits based throttling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
CPU throttling | No | Yes | Yes |
Application throttling | No | No | Yes |
CPU Affinity | No | No | Yes |
Bandwidth throttling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
FEATURE PARITY
The most important step in upgrading?and where this chart can help?is in making sure that all the features you require are implemented on IIS 6 and that they're implemented in the same fashion as on your current version of IIS.
