Minimal NT Server/Workstation Variations

2023-12-24 12:45:45

Minimal NT Server/Workstation Variations

However first, a phrase from our sponsor, O’Reilly & Associates…

WebSite, the Net server for Home windows 95 and Home windows NT

Registry Settings Used to Power Use of Microsoft Net Server

This web page up to date November 14, 1996

Andrew Schulman
Senior Editor, O’Reilly & Associates
andrew@ora.com

A lot of the analysis mentioned on this article was carried out by NT
Internals skilled Dr. Mark
Russinovich, a Consulting Affiliate for Open System Resources, Inc. Russinovich
is coauthor of quite a few NT methods utilities, such because the NT registry monitor, the NT file monitor, and the NTFS file system for DOS. OSR makes a speciality of
file system, gadget driver, and knowledge communications consulting,
coaching, and growth for Home windows NT and different platforms. Neither
Dr. Russinovich nor OSR are chargeable for the conclusions drawn in
this text.

This text has been written to explain and clarify the variations
between Microsoft’s Home windows NT Server and NT Workstation merchandise,
not for the aim of encouraging readers to defeat
Microsoft’s licensing restrictions. The creator and
O’Reilly & Associates advocate that readers fastidiously overview the
phrases of Microsoft’s NT license settlement and comply in all respects
therewith.

For added technical particulars, see the article “Six in One, Half Dozen
within the Different? Contained in the Distinction Between Home windows NT Workstation and
Home windows NT Server” within the Fall 1996 subject of
The NT Insider.

Microsoft not too long ago launched model 4.0 of NT Workstation (NTW) and
NT Server (NTS), and claims that there are substantial technical
variations between the Workstation and Server merchandise. Microsoft
makes use of this declare to justify an $800 value distinction between NTW and
NTS, in addition to authorized limits on web server usage
in NTW, each of which have monumental affect on present NTW customers.
However what if the supposed technical variations on the coronary heart of NTW
and NTS are legendary?

We now have discovered that NTS and NTW have equivalent kernels; in actual fact, NT is
a single working system with two modes. Solely two registry settings
are wanted to change between these two modes in NT 4.0, and just one
setting in NT 3.51. That is extraordinarily important, and calls into
query the associated authorized limitations and dear upgrades that
at present face NTW customers.

Introduction
Identical Kernels
Microsoft’s Reponse: “700 Differences”?
NT 3.51: ProductType registry setting
NT 4.0: ProductType and SystemPrefix registry settings
NTWatch Utility
A Web Tax?

Introduction

In the middle of the continuing controversy over its restriction of only
ten web connections in NT Workstation 4.0, Microsoft
representatives have asserted that there are substantial technical
variations between NT Server and NT Workstation. From this,
Microsoft attracts these conclusions:

that
these variations justify the massive value distinction
between the 2 merchandise (avenue costs: NT 4.0 Workstation $260,
Server 4.0 w/ 5 consumer $730, Server 4.0 w/ 10 consumer $1080)
that third-party internet servers comparable to
O’Reilly WebSite or Netscape Enterprise Server shouldn’t be run on
high of the cheaper NT Workstation product, and
that clients ought to
as a substitute purchase Microsoft’s costlier NT Server product, which
comes already bundled with a “free” internet server, Microsoft Web
Info Server (IIS). IIS competes with internet servers from
third-party distributors comparable to O’Reilly and Netscape.

For instance, Microsoft spokesman Mark Murray was quoted by
Reuters:

“The crux of this subject is that NT Workstation and NT Server are two
very completely different merchandise supposed for 2 very completely different capabilities.”

And, in line with InfoWorld columnist Nicholas Petreley (“When
it involves judging Microsoft merchandise, the satan is within the particulars,”

InfoWorld, September 16):

“when Microsoft delivered last Home windows NT 4.0 code to InfoWorld …
I probed Microsoft concerning the variations between Home windows NT Server
and Workstation…. I requested particular questions and obtained particular
solutions: There is no such thing as a option to change any setting to make the
Workstation kernel behave just like the Server. The rationale, stated the
Microsoft consultant, is that the supply code for the kernel has
embedded statements — #ifdef statements. These trigger the compiler to
produce completely different executables relying on whether or not the goal is a
server or a workstation. In consequence, the 2 kernels are hard-coded
to make use of completely different caching algorithms and multitasking priorities,
amongst different issues. That is what the man stated, in entrance of a room
filled with InfoWorld editors and analysts.”

Actually, the current struggle between Microsoft and Netscape, together with
Netscape’s open
letter to U.S. Division of Justice’s Antitrust Division, was
touched off by this very subject: Microsoft asserted that NTW ought to
not (and, by license, apparently can not) be used to run critical internet
servers, as a result of that is what NTS (which, conveniently, comes as half
of a bundle with Microsoft’s personal IIS) is for. Microsoft despatched electronic mail
to Netscape, complaining a couple of price
comparison chart at Netscape’s site. Based on Microsoft’s
letter (July 30):

If the consumer needs to make the most of greater than the ten [web] connections, the consumer
should license Home windows NT server….

Microsoft can also be involved that Netscape is deceiving clients by
suggesting that Home windows NT Workstation is supposed for use as a
server working system for a Web page. It isn’t.

So Microsoft has lots invested within the widespread public notion
of essential variations between NTS and NTW. As Microsoft Govt VP
Steve Ballmer advised PC Week:

“It’s a critical factor for us,” stated Ballmer. “We did a couple of billion
[dollars] in server income. What’s the distinction in value between
the two–maybe 800 {dollars}. One in every of them prices 35 p.c of what the
different does. So if a billion {dollars} goes to $350 million–that is a
massive hit to this firm.”

On the similar time, even Microsoft’s personal doc on Differences
Between Windows NT Workstation 4.0 and Windows NT Server 4.0
(Microsoft Home windows NT 4.0 Market Bulletin, Summer time 1996) admits that
the 2 merchandise share “the identical kernel structure.”

This raises the query of precisely how NTS and NTW actually
differ.

Microsoft’s doc goes on to say its NT technique is “optimizing,
pricing, and licensing the merchandise for 2 particular segments”:

The distinction in pricing is evident sufficient (NTS prices greater than
NTW).
As for licensing, Microsoft quite bizarrely defines “consumer” to
embody anybody connecting to the machine by way of TCP/IP. As identified
in InfoWorld,
“the entire concept of getting value factors for various numbers of Net
hits (purchasers) is patently absurd.” Definitely Microsoft, like all
firm, is entitled to a value construction based mostly on the variety of
LAN purchasers — however for each consumer searching your site too?!
Because the InfoWorld article notes, this “makes an attempt to impose on
the Web the PC LAN server mannequin of licensed consumer entry.” It
is, in impact, an try at a “internet tax.”
It is also well-known that NTS is bundled with extra
elements — not solely IIS, but additionally DNS, DHCP, WINS, and different
providers. For probably the most half, these providers will not be Microsoft
working system improvements, however bundled functions that compete
with freestanding functions from different distributors. Apart from HTTP internet servers from corporations comparable to Netscape
and O’Reilly, MetaInfo has a industrial DNS that runs on each NTS and
NTW, and BIND 4.9.3 (the “reference” implementation of DNS) is
out there free, and runs on each WinNT and Win95. There are FTP
servers out there for NT, some Telnet servers, SMTP servers, and so
on.

So we all know that the licensing, pricing, and bundling of NTS and NTW
are completely different. However what does Microsoft imply by optimizing?
What kind of technical distinction are we speaking about right here?
How particularly does the working system itself differ between NTS
and NTW?

For the overwhelming majority of these fascinated about utilizing NT as an internet
server, there isn’t any practical distinction. NTW, like Win95, will work
simply high-quality for the overwhelming majority of websites:

all the servers we have
examined will simply saturate a T-1 connection (1.55M bps) to the
Web — after which the efficiency variations grow to be
meaningless.
Microsoft’s license settlement for Workstation, due to this fact, is the
solely factor holding many organizations from utilizing Workstation as
a Net server.
— Eamonn Sullivan,
“NT 4.0 license, not speed, is key”, PC Week On-line, August 26, 1996

Netscape estimates that 70% of its server clients utilizing NT are in
truth utilizing NT Workstation quite than NT Server. Microsoft is
claiming that almost all of those Netscape clients are in violation of
the NTW license settlement! For internet publishers to remain inside the legislation,
presumably they’re presupposed to get NTS with IIS.

A lot for utilizing NT as an internet server. Extra usually, while you strip
away variations in pricing, licensing, and additional bundled software program
like IIS, what are the actual technical variations between NTS and
NTW?

Similar Kernels

It seems that NTS and NTW not solely share “the identical kernel
structure” (as Microsoft places it), however in actual fact have equivalent
kernels: in NT 4.0, the very same file, NTOSKRNL.EXE, is used
for each the Server and Workstation merchandise. Likewise in NT 3.51.

Not solely are the NTS and NTW kernels equivalent, however in each NT 3.51
and 4.0, at any time when a binary file (EXE, DLL, gadget driver, and many others.) is
supplied with Workstation, the equivalent file is supplied with
Server. This contains such core information as NTLDR, NTOSKRNL.EXE,
HAL.DLL, KERNEL32.DLL, NTDLL.DLL, SRV.SYS, TCPIP.SYS, WINSOCK.DLL,
NTLANMAN.DLL, RASAUTH.DLL, NTFS.SYS, and so forth. This was decided
by wanting not solely at filenames, date/timestamps, and filesizes, however
by doing a full binary comparability. NTS and NTW are merely two choices
for working the very same, byte-for-byte equivalent working
system.

The setup/set up information (TXTSETUP.SIF, INF information, and many others.) differ
from Workstation to Server, and Server comes with about 100 information
that aren’t supplied with Workstation. These extra information
embody DHCP*.*, LICCPA.*, LLS*.*, NCADMIN.*, RPC*.*, SFM*.*,
SRVMGR.*, USRMGR.*, and WINS*.*, comparable to the extras bundled
with Server comparable to DHCP and WINS.

To us, having some extra packages bundled with NTS no extra provides
it a “very completely different perform” from NTW, than the mix of
Home windows 95 and “Home windows Plus!” has a really completely different perform from
plain Home windows 95. All of Microsoft’s technical descriptions counsel
that NTS is meant to be one thing greater than NTW with some bundled
add-ins.

It’s uncertain that clients would be ok with paying
roughly $800 for what is basically an “NT Plus!” add-in
bundle — particularly when Microsoft advertises that add-ins comparable to
IIS come for “free.” If the one technical distinction between NTS and
NTW have been exactly these add-ins, then one might hardly name them
free. On condition that NTS for 10 “purchasers” (nevertheless Microsoft chooses to
outline that) prices $1080, whereas NTW prices $260, we determine that
Microsoft would really be charging over $800 for what’s
successfully “NT Plus!”

So, with equivalent kernels, how does NT distinguish these ostensibly
“very completely different merchandise supposed for 2 very completely different capabilities”?

Based on a course on NT internals at WinDev East ’96 given by David Solomon, a single perform in
NTOSKRNL.EXE referred to as MmIsThisAnNtAsSystem() is the
decider. It’s used at boot time to make useful resource sizing selections,
and in addition at runtime for sure coverage selections.

Beginning with an examination of this perform, Mark Russinovich discovered
one thing fairly outstanding: the worth that MmIsThisAnNtAsSystem()
returns (Workstation vs. Server) comes instantly out of the registry.
In 3.51, a single registry setting is
used to distinguish between NTW and NTS. In 4.0, there are two registry settings, and
some code supposed to forestall the consumer from altering them.

That is it. By the use of comparability, there’s considerably much less
technical distinction between NT Server and Workstation than there was
between Win 3.1 Enhanced and Normal modes. These have been radically
completely different items of software program, bundled collectively for one remarkably low
value. In distinction, Home windows NT appears to be one piece of software program,
artifically differentiated into two merchandise with wildly completely different
costs. NT is one product, with two choices: server and workstation.
The Server choice comes with a bundle of add-ins and with a license
for extra customers.

However what of Microsoft’s “optimizations”? Microsoft makes nice claims
for a way its tuning differentiates server and workstation machines.
It is clear that this tuning just isn’t significantly helpful for the huge
majority of internet publishers (simply as Microsoft’s NTW license appears
irrelevant to these working internet servers as a substitute of LAN servers). It is
even been reported a few of these “optimizations” can really
harm when a site is working a number of CGI packages, as
against delivering static internet pages.

Microsoft has optimized NTS for LAN servers. However
since NTS and NTW use the identical kernel, this optimization relies on
nothing greater than checking the registry settings.
MmIsThisAnNtAsSystem() checks a worldwide variable based mostly on the registry
settings, and numerous components of the kernel in flip name
MMIsThisAnNtAsSystem(), and behave barely in another way relying on
this return worth. As an illustration, in Course of
Supervisor initialization, the return worth impacts the foreground
course of quantum. Likewise, the worth of most Reminiscence Supervisor world
variables are doubled if the registry signifies that NTS mode is
getting used.

One essential caveat: You may solely configure a server as a site
controller at setup time. We at present know of no option to take a
machine that is not already a site controller and make it one
with out reinstalling NTS. Really, this seems to be a limitation
(or maybe a safety characteristic) in NT itself. Based on one
not too long ago posted
Usenet message:

Sorry, the creation of the area takes place DURING the set up. The
ONLY option to put a PDC [Primary Domain Controller] in a brand new area is
to put in NT Server on one other machine, create the brand new area,
demote the primary server, then make it a backup controller within the NEW
area.

By the way, Mark Russinovich has additionally discovered that the Peer Net
Companies (PWS) shipped with NTW is completely equivalent with IIS
shipped with NTS. If PWS is put in on an NTS system, it comes up
as IIS. If IIS is put in on an NTW system, it comes up as PWB. How
does this single piece of software program decide which function it is supposed
to play? Utilizing his NTWatch program,
Russinovich discovered that when putting in INETSRV in workstation mode
after which in server mode, INETSTP and INETINFO verify the registry
settings.

Microsoft’s Reponse: “700 Variations”?

Responding to an earlier version of this text, Jonathan Roberts, a
division advertising supervisor at Microsoft, was quoted in PC Week
Online (“Microsoft: ‘important variations’ between NTS, NTW”,
Norvin Leach, September 10):

Roberts acknowledged that NTS and NTW are included within the
similar binary file. It was simpler to construct and take a look at them that method, he stated.
The setting within the Registry, he stated, triggers 48 adjustments to the
kernel. These adjustments cascade right down to 700 extra settings
in software program outdoors the kernel.

So Microsoft has now acknowleged that NTS and NTW have equivalent
kernels. This after all contradicts previous
Microsoft assertions. However what about these 48 cascading down
to 700 adjustments?

Whereas the quantity 700 (and even 48) sounds spectacular, all it appears to
signify are the kinds of configuration switches already famous above, comparable to adjustments within the measurement of
memory-management world variables relying on whether or not server or
workstation mode has been chosen. These are the form of adjustments that
customers have historically made in information comparable to CONFIG.SYS or
SYSTEM.INI. Whereas it is good to have the working system bundle many
numeric settings collectively in a single name-based setting (“Winnt” vs.
“Servernt”), this hardly appears to qualify as “important
variations,” any greater than it might if Microsoft had maybe had the
chutzpah to ship completely different variations of MS-DOS, at completely different value
factors, based mostly on completely different FILES=, LASTDRIVE=, and BUFFERS= settings in
CONFIG.SYS.

The quantity 700 is a recurrent theme in Microsoft’s discussions of this
subject. For instance, here is Alec Saunders, a Microsoft product supervisor
(quoted in Marcia Jacobs, “How Completely different Are NT Workstation And NT
Server?,”

CommunicationsWeek, September 11):

Microsoft’s Saunders claims that … each variations of NT make extra
than 700 configuration changes upon system boot up relying on
the kind of {hardware} the OS is put in on. The kind of changes
made embody figuring out whether or not the machine is a symmetric
multiprocessing system, whether or not it is a PDC and the kind of processor
it is working on. It’s these configurations that make the distinction
between the 2 OSes, Saunders stated.

It is troublesome to inform precisely what Alec Saunders is attempting to say
right here, however at any charge — apart from the reappearance of the magic
quantity 700 — it’s a completely different rationalization from the one simply
quoted by Jon Roberts. Saunders appears to be saying that NT goes into
both NTW or NTS mode, relying on the kind of underlying {hardware}.
However that does not make any sense. Alternatively, one reader has
made what appears like the same declare: that “the Present {Hardware}
profiles are what trigger [NTLDR] to load up server.” This is able to
appear to indicate that, when you’ve got a system with perhaps 4 Pentium Professionals,
you automagically get NTS quite than NTW. However absolutely Microsoft is not
claiming that, are they?

Yet one more Microsoft response involves us from Mark Hassall, NT
Server supervisor at Microsoft UK (quoted in PC Daily News,
September 11):

“We do not advocate that customers make the
adjustments that O’Reilly recommends. We do not advocate customers making
random hacks. They counsel 48 adjustments to system information, so what about
the opposite 700 NT does at boot time? We need to educate customers as to
what product is appropriate. NT Workstation just isn’t designed to be a giant
Net server so we put a restrict to limit it to 10 inbound
connections. If you need extra you must have NTS.”

We’re undecided the place Hassall obtained the concept this text was
suggesting that people go and alter their registry settings.
All variations of this text have been completely clear that we wish
Microsoft to vary its advertising and licensing of NT, not for
people to sidestep the Microsoft license settlement. We now have
intentionally refrained from giving directions
for altering NTW 4.0 into NTS 4.0.

At any charge, discover once more the numbers 48 and 700 — besides this time,
the Microsoft spokesman seems to suppose that O’Reilly has
really helpful that clients make 48 adjustments (!), however that this
in the meantime would miss a further 700 that NT supposedly makes.

In brief, Microsoft appears clear solely concerning the magic numbers 48 and
700. What the numbers imply, although, appears to be improvised on
the spot in no matter method appears most expedient to the Microsoft
spokesman on the spot.

Essentially the most imaginative Microsoft response was quoted in ZD Net
AnchorDesk (September 11), with an equally intelligent comeback:

Whereas the Large “M” people in Redmond keep the merchandise are vastly
completely different, critics allege Workstation could be switched into the Server
model with a number of straightforward tweaks. An official Microsoft marketer
means that’s like arguing the one distinction between males and
ladies is a Y chromosome. We predict it is extra akin to discovering your
date is in drag.

Having stated that these variations between NTS and NTW kernels are
principally managed by easy registry settings — and Microsoft
having now acknowledged this little bit of cross-dressing — let’s now look
briefly at these $800 registry settings:

NT 3.51: ProductType registry setting

In model 3.51, NTS and NTW are distinguished with the next
registry setting (see below for NT 4.0):

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemCurrentControlSetControl
ProductOptionsProductType

This can be a string worth that’s interpreted as follows (NTOSKRNL.EXE
itself solely cares concerning the “WinNT” string, however different packages verify
for the “ServerNT” and “LanmanNT” strings):

Worth	Interpretation
“WinNT”	NT Workstation
“ServerNT”	NT Server
“LanmanNT”	NT Superior Server*

*IMPORTANT NOTE: Do NOT experiment with altering this
setting to “LanmanNT”! We’ll put up some extra data on this
setting quickly, however within the meantime — DON’T TRY IT.

Click here to look at this setting on a machine working WebSite (and
a Win-CGI
based mostly registry browser).

This setting is described in a brand new guide printed by O’Reilly, Inside the Windows 95 Registry, by
Ron Petrusha. The guide covers the NT registry in addition to the Win95
registry (the NT “Product Sort” setting is described on p. 525).

Microsoft really describes this registry setting in an article on
its site, Determining
the Product Option of a Windows NT Setup. The “product choice”
wording is curious, given the trouble Microsoft makes elsewhere to
have NTW and NTS seem like considerably completely different methods.

Curiously, Microsoft’s doc warns: “Do NOT change the
ProductType [registry setting] underneath any circumstances. Adjustments to
the ProductType may end up in the failure of the Home windows NT working
system.”

What Mark Russinovich discovered, nevertheless, is that in NT 3.51 this
“Product Sort” setting could be modified by any end-user, utilizing the
Registry Editor provided by Microsoft (REGEDT32.EXE):

The system does nothing to forestall altering the worth from “WinNt” to
“ServerNt”. After rebooting for the brand new “ServerNt” setting to take
impact, the system perform as NTS. The NET ACCOUNTS
command says "Laptop Position: SERVER". And BackOffice can
be put in and run.

This system appears to have been recognized to others beforehand. An
AltaVista seek for “ServerNt” on the internet or
Usenet turned up a number of paperwork describing how to run IIS on top
of NTW 3.51, one in every of which famous that:

One catch, while you change the important thing to ServerNt and depart
it there, from one other NT machine (particularly a PDC [Primary Domain
Controller]), in the event that they browse the community, your machine will abruptly
“seem” as an NT Server…. so far as the remainder of the community is
involved, that [is] what your machine will seem like.

Certainly, altering this registry setting turns an NTW 3.51 machine into
an NTS 3.51 machine — albeit with out Microsoft’s license to make use of NTS,
and with out the extra packages bundled with NTS. As famous above,
a few of these functions can be found from third events. So the
actual distinction is Microsoft’s license, which prevents the cheaper
NTW product from getting used as a critical internet server, and which
makes an attempt to pressure internet publishers into utilizing the costlier
NTS/IIS “resolution.”

NT 4.0: ProductType and SystemPrefix registry settings

Some Microsoft workers have privately admitted that the variations
between NTS and NTW 3.51 have been minimal. Nevertheless, they’ve gone on to
declare that now the whole lot is completely different in model 4.0. We have already
established that in actual fact NTS 4.0 and NTW 4.0 have precisely the identical
kernel, and actually precisely the identical of the whole lot however the pricey
extras bundled in with NTS.

However what of the magical 3.51 “ProductType” registry setting? It is
nonetheless there, and it nonetheless performs the identical function in 4.0 that it did in
3.51 in distinguishing between the Server and Workstation modes (see
table above). Microsoft has merely added an
extra registry setting, and made some effort to forestall the consumer
from altering these settings. The additional setting is:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemSetupSystemPrefix

The SystemPrefix worth is a binary worth which the kernel treats as
two DWORDs, of which the one essential piece of knowledge appears to
be the bit represented by the masks 0x04000000 within the high-order
DWORD. If ProductType is “ServerNT” or “LanmanNT”, then this bit should
be set. If ProductType is “WinNT” then the bit should be
off (any inconsistency leads to a blue-screen error at
system boot).

The system spawns two employee threads that look ahead to, and override,
adjustments to the 2 registry keys. If an try is made to vary
ProductType, the threads adjustments the settings again (actually!
you’ll be able to see this occur in the event you manually refresh in REGEDT32) and pops
up the next warning field:

"The system has detected tampering together with your registered product kind.
This can be a violation of your software program license. Tampering with product
kind just isn't permitted."

Nevertheless, if the employee threads are overriden,^* then
after making these adjustments and rebooting, a previously NTW 4.0 system
capabilities as an NTS 4.0 system. The NET ACCOUNTS command stories
“Laptop Position: SERVER” and the taskbar begin menu’s bitmap adjustments
from “Home windows NT Workstation” to “Home windows NT Server”.

Eamonn Sullivan of PC Week has confirmed that, when an NTW
machine is tweaked by way of the registry into an NTS machine, internet
efficiency “exams on this “altered” Workstation have been equivalent
(inside the margin of error) to Server.” (See PC Week
article, “Easy method discovered to show NT Workstation into Server.”)

If an try is made to put in Microsoft’s BackOffice suite on a
workstation-mode NT system, the BackOffice setup program will stop
set up of the BackOffice packages and point out that NT Server
should be put in first. If the system kind is then modified to server
within the registry as described above and one other try is made to
set up BackOffice, then the set up of the suite packages is
potential. Curiously, in the event you then change the system again to NTW mode,
BackOffice continues to run high-quality — so it is just the setup/set up
program that cares.

NTWatch Utility

To provide an concept for what non-kernel processes depend on the
ProductType and SystemPrefix settings, Mark Russinovich has written a
utility, NTWatch, which intercepts non-kernel accesses to those
settings and shows them in a window. For instance, the next
display shot exhibits NTWatch working on an NTW 3.51 system; at line 19,
Microsoft’s registry editor (RegEdt32) has been used to vary the
ProductType setting from “Winnt” to “Servernt”. The NET ACCOUNTS
command (NET1.EXE) was then run; after all, it now reported “Laptop
Position: SERVER”.

Sadly, NTWatch cannot hook the MmIsThisAnNtAsSystem name; its
output solely exhibits direct entry to the registry settings.

Click here to obtain NTWATCH.ZIP. Directions for set up
and deinstallation are included contained in the zip file.

For a extra general-purpose NT registry monitor, see

A Web Tax?

To summarize, NTS is solely NTW plus some configuration adjustments, a
set of bundled packages (IIS, DNS, and many others.), a license for extra LAN
customers, and apparently for extra internet customers. NTS is a bundle
deal: if you wish to publish to an inexpensive variety of internet customers
(greater than ten!), you could get the costlier NTS bundle, which
additionally has issues it’s possible you’ll not want, comparable to Microsoft’s personal internet server.
Having paid the upper value which incorporates Microsoft’s personal internet
server, you are unlikely to think about buying a third-party internet
server. These third-party internet servers, mixed with the lower cost
of NTW, could be a less expensive resolution that Microsoft’s NTS/IIS bundle,
however Microsoft’s license settlement prevents you from choosing this
higher resolution. Microsoft is proscribing how you should use its
working system till you agree to purchase its server merchandise.

An lawyer for Microsoft, David Heiner, was quoted by the San
Francisco Examiner (August 29):

Heiner stated Microsoft has each proper to place situations on how its
software program is used.
“Circumstances on use are an ordinary apply within the software program
business,” Heiner stated.

That is right. However does Microsoft have “each proper to place
situations” on using requirements comparable to TCP/IP, HTTP, and WinSock?

Leaving that query apart, it is actually true that there could be
nothing unsuitable if Microsoft would simply come out and say that NTS and
NTW are technically equivalent, however that NTS comes with a license for
extra LAN purchasers, an obvious license for extra internet surfers, and an
“NT Plus!” bundle of add-ins. Microsoft may need hassle promoting
such an honestly-described model of NTS, however they may at the least
inform whether or not the market actually thinks the license to host an internet
server is price $800.

However so long as Microsoft claims that NTS could be very completely different from NTW
in something apart from licensing, pricing, and bundling, clients
may have problem making knowledgeable selections. And so long as
Microsoft makes an attempt to assert that NTW is not appropriate for working
opponents’ internet servers — and makes an attempt to make use of registry settings and
license agreements to discourage using third-party internet servers
on NT — the NTS/NTW value distinction could be considered as little extra
than a “internet tax.”

As famous earlier, InfoWorld says that “the entire concept of
having value factors for various numbers of Net hits (purchasers) is
patently absurd.” From Microsoft’s view, nevertheless, maybe it isn’t so
absurd. It has usually been famous that Microsoft needs to be “the
toll-collector on the data superhighway.” Such drained metaphors
apart, it’s clear that Invoice Gates seems to be at companies comparable to his
good friend Paul Allen’s Ticketmaster, and needs a chunk of the
per-transaction motion. The Microsoft Community (MSN) was a failed
try to gather this toll/tax. Pricing NT based mostly on the variety of
internet customers seems to be like one other such try.

NOTE: *The aim of
this text is to level out the minimal variations between NTS and
NTW, and to get Microsoft to vary its licensing and/or advertising of
NT. The aim is not to have particular person customers change the
registry and due to this fact bypass their Microsoft license settlement. We
need Microsoft, not you, to make this transformation.
On the similar time, we have obtained requests for additional data on
making this transformation in NT 4.0 (it’s, as proven earlier, trivial in 3.51). Mark Russinovich has written a utility,
NTTune, which may make the workstation-to-server registry change in
4.0. We’re fairly intentionally not making this out there,
nevertheless. We used NTTune to confirm our exams, and made NTTune
out there to some members of the press so they may independently
take a look at our claims. That is it.
NTTune makes use of a method developed by Mark Russinovich and Bryce
Cogswell referred to as “system name hooking.” This system can also be utilized in
their NT registry monitor, NTRegMon.
Russinovich and Cogswell shall be describing System Name Hooking in a
forthcoming article in Dr. Dobb’s Journal.
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