Internet Information Service 2

INTERNET INFORMATION SERVICE 2

Version 7.5

IIS 7.5 is the latest update to the IIS 7.0 server. This release comes with Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7. This integrates many separate downloads available from Microsoft into the release.

Highlights include:

* Integration of the new FTP with the OS
* Integration of Admin Pack Extension with the OS
* IIS Powershell provider
* Rich Application Hosting
* Improvements to FastCGI
* IIS Core changes and improvements
* IIS Best Practice Analyzer

IIS Media Pack

The IIS Media Pack is a set of free add-on modules for delivering digital audio and video files from an Internet Information Services 7.0 (IIS7) Web server. Download delivery from a Web server to media player software is often as a progressive download, which allows the end user's media player to quickly start rendering the media file even as the download is still in progress. Examples of media player software that will work with the IIS Media Pack include Adobe Flash Player, Apple QuickTime Player, RealNetworks RealPlayer, Microsoft Windows Media Player, and Microsoft Silverlight. The IIS Media Pack provides some of the cost savings and content control benefits of streaming media servers to Web server delivery of media files.


The first module, Bit Rate Throttling, was released to the general public on March 14, 2008. For media files, Bit Rate Throttling uploads the first few seconds of the file as fast as possible, allowing playback to begin very quickly, and then automatically detects the encoded bit rate of the file and meters out the rest of the download at that bit rate. If an end user stops playback before the end of the file, the server has only uploaded a few more seconds of file than were actually consumed, reducing bandwidth costs when compared to traditional send-and-forget HTTP downloads. Metering the delivery of media files also reduces overall bandwidth and CPU usage on the IIS server, freeing resources to serve a higher number of concurrent users. The following eleven media file formats are supported by default in the Bit Rate Throttling module: ASF, AVI, FLV, M4V, MOV, MP3, MP4, RM, RMVB, WMA, WMV. Additional media file formats can be added using the IIS configuration system. Non-media files may also be throttled at a server-administrator-specified delivery rate.


The second module is called Web Playlists, and is now in its second Customer Technology Preview (CTP) release. This feature allows an IIS server administrator to specify a sequenced playback order for a set of media files without exposing the source URLs. Playback order and the ability to limit whether an end user can seek within or skip a file are controlled on the IIS server. The Web Playlists feature can also be used to dynamically generate personalized playlists for users.