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# Microsoft Deliberately Limiting NT Workstation 4.0 as a Web Server

This page last updated September 17, 1996
Andrew Schulman
Senior Editor, O'Reilly & Associates
andrew@ora.com

Exactly what limit has Microsoft placed on the use of NT Workstation (NTW) as a web server? At this point, the answer is totally confusing.

The End-User License Agreement (EULA) for NTW 4.0 states:

> "you may permit a maximum of ten (10) computers to connect to the Workstation Computer to access and use services of the software product, such as file and print and peer Web services. The ten-connection maximum includes any indirect connections made through software or hardware that pools or aggregates connections." [emphasis added]

The explicit inclusion of "peer Web services" seems at first to refer to Microsoft's own "Peer Web Services" (PWS), a web server that comes bundled with NTW. (Incidentally, it turns out that PWS is identical to the Internet-Information-Server [IIS] that comes with NT Server [NTS]: the identical files use registry settings to decide whether to come up as PWS or IIS.)

So it would seem from this that, if you're using NTW 4.0 to run a non-Microsoft web server, such as WebSite from O'Reilly, or one of Netscape's line of web servers for NT, you're fine.

Unfortunately, Microsoft has made it clear that it interprets "and peer Web services" to mean any web serving on NTW. For example, Microsoft's lawyers have sent email to Netscape, complaining about a price comparison chart at Netscape's web site. According to Microsoft's letter (July 30):

> The price comparison is unfair and deceptive because the cost on the Netscape side of the ledger erroneously assumes the user can run the Netscape Web server software on Windows NT Workstation and make unlimited connections to a Web site without violating the Windows NT Workstation license agreement and without additional charge. That is not the case. The end user license agreement for Windows NT Workstation only permits up to ten connections. If the user wishes to utilize more than the ten connections, the user must license Windows NT Server. Windows NT Server is designed and optimized to provide maximum performance to support server services.

So Microsoft views the NTW 4.0 EULA as a prohibition on ten web-server connections. And Microsoft had during the NTW 4.0 beta attempted to physically prohibit more than ten connections, from any web server (indeed, from almost any program that uses TCP/IP). Microsoft backed off from this physical prohibition. But it maintains the limitation in the NTW 4.0 EULA. This is spelled out in a Microsoft document, "Connection Limits in Windows NT Workstation 4.0" (August 16).

In other words, if you want to run a serious web server on NT 4.0, you must get NT Server, which costs about $800 more than NTW. Given the actual minimal technical differences between NTS and NTW, and given in particular the irrelevance of these differences to those running web servers, we regard this price difference as little more than a web tax. Yet, Microsoft's position is actually not so clear. Look at the company's KnowledgeBase article, "Maximum Number of Inbound Connections in Windows NT 3.5x" (ID Q122920, revised August 28, 1996). Despite only mentioning NT 3.5x in the title, the article starts off:

> "The information in this article applies to:
> - Microsoft Windows NT Workstation version 3.5 and 3.51
> - Microsoft Windows NT Workstation version 4.0

> Ten is the maximum number of users that can simultaneously connect to Windows NT Workstation 3.5, 3.51 and 4.0 over the network."

The article goes on to say that this connection limit applies to File Server connections, Print Server connections, Named Pipe connections, and certain types of Mailslot messages.

Not only is there no mention of "peer Web services," but if you read down, you find this nice, encouraging paragraph:

> "Essentially, the limit is the number of simultaneous user sessions the server allows. However, this limit does not affect the number of simultaneous null sessions that are used by many services and some of the administrative tools. In addition, the limit does not apply to anything that does not use the server and runs directly over the transport, such as Windows Sockets." [emphasis added]

Sounds good, right? Web servers run on top of WinSock, which is the Windows version of Berkeley sockets. It makes sense that MS wouldn't include use of these within its NTW limits, especially since Microsoft didn't invent, and doesn't own, sockets, or even WinSock.

Unfortunately, it's not so simple. This Q122920 document has been around for quite a while (mid-1995), with exactly the same "...the limit does not apply to ... WinSock" exemption. Given the Microsoft lawyer's threatening letter to Netscape, this exemption apparently did not apply to Netscape, nor to anyone else wanting to run a web server on NTW 4.0. And the EULA language still stands.

So, at this point it's hard to know what Microsoft's intentions are. Perhaps you can get some guidance from ntbug@microsoft.com.

Background:

NT Workstation 4.0 Limit on IP Connections. A letter from Tim O'Reilly about a serious reduction in functionality that Microsoft plans for NT Workstation 4.0.

Microsoft has backed down:

- Microsoft press release
- PC Magazine Online article
- InfoWorld article

Hmm, they really haven't backed down:

- MS NT Workstation 4.0 Maintaining Limitations
- O'Reilly cries foul, again, over IP restrictions in NT 4.0 (PC Week Online, July 31)
- NT integrations worry ISVs (PC Week Online, August 5)
- Letter from Tim O'Reilly to US Dept. of Justice Antitrust Division (August 16)
- Connection Limits in Windows NT Workstation 4.0 (Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 4.0 Market Bulletin, Summer 1996).
- John Fricker of program.com has made the excellent point that "Microsoft has claimed that the new EULA just represents something that has always been a legal restriction yet this Q article proves otherwise": Maximum Number of Inbound Connections in Windows NT 3.5x (Microsoft KnowledgeBase Article Q122920, last revised August 28, 1996).

Netscape jumps into the fray:

- Netscape's price comparison
- Transcripts of Microsoft and Netscape letters
- Netscape Notifies Justice Dept. of Complaint Against Microsoft on NT by John Markoff (New York Times, August 7)
- Netscape accuses Microsoft by Michelle Quinn (San Jose Mercury News, August 7)
- Netscape-Microsoft rivalry threatens to erupt into legal fracas (InfoWorld Electric, August 7): According to Microsoft, "NT Server is several times faster than NT Workstation on Web server functions -- seven times faster."
- But according to Bob Denny, "Our experience at O'Reilly is not the same. At under 2,000,000 hits a day (the design envelope for WebSite), we cannot see any significant difference between Server and Workstation. Both can fill a T-1 line using a P-90 and WebSite."
- So where's the "seven times faster" figure come from? Interestingly, Microsoft's document on Differences Between Windows NT Workstation 4.0 and Windows NT Server 4.0 has a chart showing "Client Response Time" for Workstation vs. Server. It is clear from the context that the chart refers to LAN connections, not web connections. The right-hand side of the chart shows that, with 50 connections, Workstation yields a client response time of 1400 ms, while Server yields a response time of 200. In other words, "seven times faster"!
  It seems likely that the Microsoft product manager quoted above looked at this document, and didn't understand the difference between LAN clients and web clients. If so, this would reflect what seems to be a widespread confusion at Microsoft. For all the company's claim of being "hard core" about the Internet, its 10-connection limit in Workstation reflects a deep misunderstanding about how the web differs from the old days of PC LAN. The 10-connection limit is instructive for anyone wondering whether Microsoft really "gets" the web.
- Netscape says MS plays dirty (c|net news, August 7)
- Netscape goes to jail, does not collect $200 (Nicholas Petreley, InfoWorld, August 7)
- Net strategy at Netscape is puzzling by Dan Gillmor (San Jose Mercury News, August 11)
- Microsoft: Remove connection ceiling by John Dodge (PC Week Online, August 12)
- Netscape to present DOJ with Microsoft antitrust info (PC Week Online, August 19)
- Netscape knocks Microsoft (cnnfn, August 20)
- Netscape goes public with its Microsoft letter (San Jose Mercury News, August 21)
- Text of Netscape's letter to Justice Dept. (Gary Reback)
- Netscape, Microsoft escalate war of words (PC Week Online, August 21)
- Market-leader Netscape charges Microsoft with anti-competitive browser practices (InfoWorld, August 20)
- Netscape's complaint against Microsoft will collect dust, analysts say (San Jose Mercury News, August 22)

Microsoft responds, claiming that "The crux of this issue is that NT Workstation and NT Server are two very different products intended for two very different functions":

- Microsoft Corp dismisses Netscape complaints
- Netscape-Microsoft deadline passes without incident (PC Week Online, August 16)

So what exactly are the differences between NT Server and NT Workstation? NT Server comes with a lot more bundled apps, but I mean what are the differences between the OSes themselves? Mark Russinovich has found the answer to this question, and the answer is quite interesting: see Differences Between NT Server and Workstation are Minimal: Registry Settings Used to Force Use of Microsoft Web Server. Here are some other discussions of this topic:

- Microsoft Deliberately Crippled NT Workstation, Says Rival Firm (Jesse Berst, ZD Net AnchorDesk, September 9; includes "Backtalk" online discussion)
- Simple way found to turn NT Workstation into Server (Eamonn Sullivan, PC Week Online, September 6)
- NT Licensing Terms Questioned (Barbara Darrow, Computer Reseller News Online, September 9)
- NT 4.0 license, not speed, is key (Eamonn Sullivan, PC Week Online, August 26)
- Microsoft: "significant differences" between NTS, NTW (Norvin Leach, PC Week Online, September 10)
- When it comes to judging Microsoft products, the devil is in the details (Nicholas Petreley, InfoWorld, September 16)
- How Different Are NT Workstation And NT Server? (Marcia Jacobs, CommunicationsWeek, September 11)
- MS protests O'Reilly NT claims (Martin Veitch, PC Daily News [UK], September 11)
- Differences Between Windows NT Workstation 4.0 and Windows NT Server 4.0 (Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Market Bulletin, Summer 1996)
- Windows NT Workstation and Server Optimized For Different Roles (Microsoft Knowledge Base, NT 3.5, May 8, 1995)
- PC Week Special Report on NT 4.0 (August 13)
- According to one reader, a course on NT internals at WinDev East '96 by David Solomon stated that:

  > The same NTOSKRNL.EXE image is used for both NT Workstation and NT Server. MMIsThisAnNtasSystem() is the decider. It is used at boot time to make resource sizing decisions, and also at runtime for certain policy decisions.

- Another reader writes that:

  > In the "early days" of NT, version 3.1, there were essentially no software differences between NT/W and NT/S. The differences that did exist were mainly which way the OS was tuned. Workstations needed to be more responsive for interactive tasks, and servers needed to suck files off the disk and pump 'em out the network port; so servers were tuned for less memory for processes and more for disk caching, as well as having far less "priority boost" for the foreground process.
  > In fact, they were so identical, that many bright people bought NT/W instead of NT/S, and retuned it themselves. They'd crank down the "priority boost" and redistribute the machine's memory. This netted the same result and saved them the $600 price difference between the NT/W and NT/S licenses.
  > NT 3.5 introduced some artificial distinctions between the two (NT/W 3.5 had new software limits, like it would only allow ten simultaneous NetBEUI connections), and history goes on from there.

- Microsoft Executive VP Steve Ballmer has one perspective (quoted in PC Week) on the difference between NT Server and NT Workstation:

  > "It is a serious thing for us," said Ballmer. "We did about a billion [dollars] in server revenue. What is the difference in price between the two--maybe 800 dollars. One of them costs 35 percent of what the other does. So if a billion dollars goes to $350 million--that is a big hit to this company."

Further Microsoft response to Netscape:

- E-Mail from Microsoft to Netscape (Paul Maritz, August 15)
- Microsoft Responds to Netscape Letter to Justice Department (August 22)
- Microsoft Fires Back (Jodi Mardesich, Computer Reseller News, August 23)

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