Survey

Vendors Ready HTTP 1.1 Products

Kerry Hickox

The first products that implement the HTTP 1.1 protocol that proponents say will help ease the current Internet bandwidth crunch are now shipping. More will appear this summer and fall. BYTE polled several leading software companies to gauge their support for HTTP 1.1. (For more information on version 1.1, see "Less Is More," May BYTE, page 40.)

Netscape (415-937-2555 or http://home.netscape.com ): It already has released beta versions of Netscape Communicator, the company's e-mail, groupware, and browser suite, and Enterprise Server 3.0, the company's flagship Web server. Netsc ape hopes to release both products by the end of this month.

Microsoft (206-882-8080 or http://www.microsoft.com ): A future version of the company's Internet Information Server (IIS) will support all the server-side requirements of HTTP 1.1. Internet Explorer release 4 (slated for release late this summer) will support the top client-side performance enhancements in HTTP.

IBM ( http://www.ics.raleigh.ibm.com ): It has already released its HTTP 1.1-compliant Internet Connection Secure Server 4.2 for AIX, OS/2, MVS/OE (under the version number 2.2), Windows N T, Sun-Solaris, and HP-UX.

The Apache Group ( http://www.apache.org ): Version 1.2 of the popular Web server supports HTTP and should be shipping by the time you read this.

Lotus (617-577-8500 or http://www.lotus.com ): The company says the next version of its Domino Web server for Notes will support HTTP 1.1. The next version of Domino is slated for release sometime this summer.