Alan McCollough

This article applies to developers and site administrators working in an environment using Macromedia ColdFusion running on a Windows server using Internet Information Server 4.0 or better. Those who work in an intranet environment will be especially interested. It will conclude with information on specific Fusebox applications, though non-Fusebox users may find that it's applicable to them as well. Anonymous Access vs Integrated Windows Authentication With Internet Information Server 5.0, the built-in Web server provided with Windows 2000 Server, there are several user authentication schemes available. The ones we are interested in are Anonymous Access and Integrated Windows Authentication. These controls can be set at the Web site, virtual directory, and file levels, which can be useful for controlling access to any of these resources. With Anonymous Access, all i... (more)

Use WDDX to Store Complex Variables for Clustered Web Servers

In the beginning there was a Web site. Over time, the humble site matured into an e-commerce application. Hundreds of hits per day turned into thousands, then tens of thousands...until the server crashed and all the e-customers and all the e-money went elsewhere. Innovation comes to the rescue, and somebody decides that servers can be lined up like phonebooths at a busy airport. If one server fails, the others will take over. If one server's too busy, others will take on the new demand. This concept is called clustering. Today, a variety of schemes are available for clustering se... (more)