FrontPage Server Extensions

Introduction

The FrontPage Server Extensions from Microsoft are a set of programs that support administering and authoring FrontPage Web sites. They provide tools for administering Web sites, managing security, and tracking site usage statistics. FrontPage Server Extensions provide enhanced functionality for Web sites created with Microsoft FrontPage, and they provide the ability for FrontPage users to publish Web sites from within FrontPage as well as edit Web sites directly on the server.

Important   FrontPage Server Extensions are NOT required to host Web sites created in FrontPage. If you do not wish to or are unable to write code for server-side processing, FrontPage Server Extensions can provide some limited server-side processing. Depending on the version of FrontPage that you are using, FrontPage Server Extensions provide server-side processing for databases, forms, and hit counters, among other features. For more information on the features that require FrontPage Server Extensions, see Features that require FrontPage Server Extensions.

How FrontPage Server Extensions Work

On Web servers based on Microsoft Windows, FrontPage Server Extensions use Internet Server Application Programming Interface (ISAPI) with Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) to provide server-side processing. On UNIX-based Web servers, FrontPage Server Extensions use Common Gateway Interface (CGI) with the FrontPage-patched Apache Web Server to provide the same server-side processing. Communication between a client computer and a Web server running FrontPage Server Extensions uses the same open HTTP protocol that a Web browser on a client computer uses to browse the Internet.

FrontPage Server Extensions do not require file-sharing access on the Web server computer, and FrontPage users do not need either FTP or telnet access. With FrontPage Server Extensions, FrontPage users can author and administer FrontPage Web sites from any computer that has a level 4 browser, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 or later or Netscape Navigator 4 or later.

Supported Versions of FrontPage Server Extensions

There are currently two supported versions of FrontPage Server Extensions: FrontPage Server Extensions 2002 and FrontPage Server Extensions 2000. We encourage Web presence providers and Internet service providers to use FrontPage Server Extensions 2002 because they provide the most recent security updates and the most updated functionality. FrontPage Server Extensions 2002 support customers that are using any version of FrontPage.

See also

For more information on FrontPage Server Extensions, see the following resources.