WebSTAR

• Version: 1.2
• Author: StarNine (Chuck Shotton)
• Requirements: Macintosh Plus or greater, 4 MB RAM, AppleScript, MacTCP
• Cost: $295 - $599 depending on what type of institution you represent
• Pros: fast, easy to set up and administrate
• Cons: none
• Remote location: <URL:http://www.starnine.com/webstar/>
• Tricks location: <URL:>

WebSTAR is the commercial version of MacHTTP. Written by Chuck Shotton, WebSTAR is in the marketing hands of StarNine. WebSTAR offers significant improvements over MacHTTP. The most notable is the increase in speed. This is accomplished through the use of the a Macintosh extension called the Thread Manager. The Thread Manager allows applications to more effectively pass processing control to other applications. Thus, using the Thread Manager, WebSTAR is able to use your computer more efficiently and consequently run faster. Not incidentally, the increase in speed is quite noticeable over MacHTTP.

WebSTAR comes with a new administration program. This program enables you to setup and configure WebSTAR without sitting directly at the computer hosting the server. Consequently, it is possible to put your WebSTAR computer in a more secure environment while you administrate it from your office. Using this administration program you can specify what information you want to capture in your log files, add and remove passwords, set up realms as well as allow/deny settings, and configure file suffix settings.

New with WebSTAR are preprocessing, postprocessing, and ACTIONs. These functions allow you to perform user-defined functions before, after, or during the delivery of your data. Consequently, using these functions, you can customize your server environment to a greater extent.

If you are willing to spend the extra money to buy WebSTAR over MacHTTP, then your money will be well spent since this application is more robust than it predecessor and just as well supported.

Eric last edited this page on September 26, 1995. Please feel free to send comments.