IIS limits to connections

I'm not sure if this belongs in the asp.net forum or the iis forum, but this seemed like the best fit.

I have a website on my machine. I'm running windows xp pro and using iis for a webserver. I eventually want this to be a production box. I realize it is not the best possible machine, but I want to use it for about 10 clients who will access my website.

I currently have the site up and running for test. After I am on the site for a few minutes, clicking through the pages during normal workflow, I get a page that says too many people are trying to access the site. I am the only one.

I understand that I can bump the number of connections up to 40-ish and either stop "keep-alives" or reduce the timeout to 10 seconds. If I reduce the timeout to 10 seconds will this kill the users session variable in the program?

Should I consider using apache? Would apache provide me with any benefits?

Long Range plan: after I get 10 clients (currently have 2 waiting on the product) I will be purchasing windows server 2003 and I think my current problems will go away. Am I headed in the right direction?

Thanks for any insight.

re: IIS limits to connections

I've been doing some research and it looks like I'll just make things easy on myself and look at getting Windows Small Business Server 2003/2008 instead. It has IIS 6.0 and will meet all of my needs for the next few years. Otherwise I think I'll just be making things head on myself.......MICROSOFT, YOU WIN AGAIN.


when do i get to win?

re: IIS limits to connections

I think that the benefits you will get from IIS6 & W3K will surpass the hassles and, hopefully, costs. You could have tried other solutions, but for performance and scalability I think that you are right to leave XP behind now and avoid the pain further down the track :).