Apr 20 2008
10 Reasons Why Not to Host Your Wordpress Blog on a Windows/IIS Platform
I’m sitting here on the phone with iPower, my web hosting company, who has been going through a lot of changes lately. Since I have been on hold for 45 minutes now, I have decided to write a post about
“10 Reasons Why Not to Host Your Wordpress Blog on a Windows/IIS Platform”.
I will, for now, reserve comment on my web hosting company since they have dominion over my content. Instead, I will focus on the fact that many of the problems I have dealt with have not only been my web hosting company, but the fact that my site is hosted on the Windows/IIS Platform. I frequently here “we don’t have these problems on our Linux/Apache platform.”
So, without further ado, here are the 10 reasons not to host your Wordpress Blog on a Windows/IIS Platform.
One: The “Upload Image” feature does not work by default
I might as well start with this one since it is the one that I am on the phone about. I just said to the iPower second level support, who claimed that they did not know the solution for this and that my situation was unique, “You mean to tell me that of your 800,000 customers that I am the only one who has Wordpress installed on the Windows/IIS platform?”
I opened this ticket 20 days ago and they have not contacted me once in that time. I’ve contacted them 7 times. I have just pointed them to three blog entries that address exactly this issue: IIS permissions for uploading, WordPress File Uploads With IIS, and Installing Wordpress on IIS 6.
I have probably lost the better part of 15 hours (10 of them on hold) on this simple issue…that’s still not resolved.
(Update: You won’t believe what happened with this ticket. See footnote below!)
Two: Bad Permalinks
If you look at the address bar on this page, it comes in this form:
Several SEO recommendations mention to keep the permalink name as short as possible. With my obscenely long domain name :), that might not be possible. But, at least, I did not want to have the unnecessary “index.php” there. Yet it is because this is an IIS server and does not support something called mod-rewrite. You need to use 3rd party tools on your Windows server. And since this involved modifications by my web host company, I know that it is not possible right now.
I will live forever with “index.php” as part of my permalink structure.
If you’re so inclined, you can read more about this issue here.
Three: Permissions are ALWAYS a problem.
The need often arises to modify your theme files. I am unable to do this within the Wordpress Admin console because it requires changing the server permissions…and then we get back to my non-responsive web hosting company.
When you look up these types of problems on the Internet, you’ll constantly find people who say that using CHMOD (a UNIX permission changer) fixed their problem. This is the fix on a non-Windows platform. Windows uses another Windows-y security level that prevents this from working.
You will see constant rejection notices in this form:
Warning: fopen(\\wserver\home\users\web\b500\ipw.webname\blog/wp-content/themes/join/join2/author.php) [function.fopen]: failed to open stream: Permission denied in \\wserver\home\users\web\b500\ipw.webname\blog\wp-admin\theme-editor.php on line 44
The syntax you see above in this form ” file://wserver/home…” is called a UNC (Universal Naming Convention) path which is Microsoft centric. No UNIX people care about this and nobody on the other end of your support call knows anything about a UNC path.
This warning might as well just say, “Sorry dude, you’re on a Microsoft Server, we can’t help you!”
Four: My 5-Minute Install Took 7 days
Wordpress has a document called The Five Minute Install. Mine took a week. Again, this was a combination of being with my hosting provider who was going through changes and the fact that, “well, you ARE on the Windows platform”.
You can read more about this in my article: Ten Things Every New Blogger Must Know
Five: After Installation, Wordpress Did Not Work
After the 7 days to get Wordpress installed, none of the links to the pages worked. Again, this was a Windows/IIS problem producing some sort of CGI error.
Having worked in the technology field for many years, I was able to research and find a solution to this problem (you can find it on Wordpress entitled CGI Error With Pages).
But do you really want to suffer through all of this?
Six: You’re Left With No Confidence
So many features DO work immediately on a Linux/Apache install and DON”T on Windows/IIS. Then, you’re stuck contacting your web-hosting provider…and mine will never answer me back!
Seven: Several Plug-ins Won’t Work As Advertised
This is often due to the permissions problem mentioned above. In particular, Gregarious did not fully work, the caching plug-in didn’t work, the backup plug-in had difficulties, and none of the photo plug-ins work because they all use the image upload feature. Refer to problem #1.
Eight: Wordpress Uses Mysql and Php as It’s Foundation.
These are not Microsoft tools. Microsoft prefers that you use SQL Server and ASP. Mysql and Php are not designed for Windows/IIS and, thus, do not perform as well in that environment.
Nine: Many Internet People Hate Microsoft
I know that this does not seem like a technical issue but it is. All of the support people out there (especially in Wordpress land) are Unix/Linux people. They seem to despise Microsoft. Every mention of Microsoft is met with a grimace, sneer, or snide remark.
Ten: Listen to Coyote
Wordpress on Windows/IIS just causes to much grief.
If you won’t listen to me, listen to c0y0te in this Wordpress post:
If I was to setup a new site tomorrow I would certainly NOT use windows/IIS. I’d go with Linux/Apache to avoid the grief.
Summary:
If you are just starting a Wordpress blog, and choosing a web hosting provider, make sure that you choose the Linux/Apache platform and NOT the Windows/IIS platform.
If you are a web hosting provider, and you still want to provide Wordpress on Windows/IIS platform as an option, these sites below all seem to give very good instruction (listen up iPower).
Now, back to being on hold with my web hosting company…at least they are playing some groovy music!
How to Properly Install Wordpress in a Windows/IIS Environment:
And avoid most of the problems mentioned above!
- Running WordPress 2.0 under IIS
- http://www.joeslab.com/2007/02/02/installing-wordpress-on-iis-6/
- How To Install WordPress on IIS 6.0
- Installing WordPress on IIS 6
Anybody else had similar experiences with Wordpress in the Windows/IIS environment? Share them in the comments below:
Footnote to this story: I began this story while I was on hold with iPower. I was withholding comments on their service and trying to focus on the Windows/IIS issue. However, this cannot go unsaid. In trying to fix my image upload problem, they broke all of my permalinks. Yes, all of them. This meant that not one internal or external link worked. I wrote about it here on Wordpress.org. But, the reality is…if I was not on the Windows/IIS platform, I would never have had to deal with this issue in the first place.
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Apostrophe’s
Thanks for the link to my article. As you can guess, I am running WordPress on top of IIS, but at least with mod_rewrite capabilities. While it does work for me, I do agree that you are much better off under Apache. If I had to do it again, I’d choose an ISP that used Apache rather than IIS.
This seems more like a post with 10 reasons why your hosting provider sucks and wont give you adequate support. I’m running Wordpress on IIS on an internally hosted server and sure it takes some fiddling but it works just fine.
Chris, very good point.
If my provider would have set it up correctly from the get go, I would not have had many of these problems.
However, by not using IIS/Windows as a Wordpress host, you do not have to fiddle to make it work and thus there is much less room for error.
Hi, I agree with Chris, if you had a proper ISP most of your list would be gone.
Um … strike me if I’m wrong, but most of iPowerWeb’s hosting is on *nix platform, and you have to specifically sign-up for or request Windows hosting. I just signed-up with them recently (after many years of neglecting to do so for other host’s I’m “friendly” with), and I was automatically put on a *nix platform for hosting (Pro plan). Changing my permalink structure works automatically for me!!! (Just did it a few minutes ago from the WordPress admin panel.)
1.) Valid Gripe
2.) Valid Gripe
3.) Valid Gripe
4.) Are you kidding? I’ve always been able to get WP to install & work on an M$ platform in 5 minutes or less (all things considered, the servers are configured correctly).
5.) Wrap it up with number 4; invalid complaint for a round number (10).
6.) Somewhat true; but not unexpected (if you think and plan ahead like any experienced webmaster, web host and programmer does).
7.) DUH! You’re working with M$ … nothing works as expected, you’re always going to have complaints.
8.) DUH! (Again.)
9.) Invalid complaint. Many people could say the same about their experiences with *nix platforms.
10.) What if you listened to Steve Ballmer?
’nuff said.
I am using wordpress on a windows/IIS setup. However, i host it myself through the use of DynDNS.Com. this way its my box, i am in full control (as much as windows lets you be) over settings and the like. Getting MySQL setup was a bit of a task as it was the first time i had even heard of it much less tried to use it. But i still managed to get my wordpress up and fully functional from the time i started downloading the various setup files (WordPress, MySQL, and PHP) to users logging in was 2 hours.
If you ISP is so bad, maybe you should host your own with DynDNS. its free.
I read that you decided to use Fused network. Is this correct? Do you like them?
MP, yes, I switched to Fushed network in the beginning of June so I have had about 3 months of experience with them.
I will write about my experience with them at some point but I can tell you that thus far I have been extremely satisfied.
I have scarcely had any issues and the couple that I had in the beginning were responded to quickly and properly.
A quick note from the author on some of the comments above…all of which are appreciated.
–A few comments indicate that the problem may have been my ISP and not Wordpress running on top of Windows. Certainly, it was both. I think that we would all agree that Wordpress on Windows/IIS requires much more tweaking. Which is fine…if you’re a good tweaker, which my host iPower was not.
–Chip comments that iPower defaults to setting you up on the *nix platform. I believe this is true but several years before I was a Wordpress user, I was using all Microsoft stuff (Frontpage, .asp) and thus requested a Windows platform. I cannot comment on iPower with *nix but, if you do run into problems with iPower, expect to be on the phone for awhile! Also, in regards to # 4 & 5, they are legitimate gripes because of iPower (they did not even know the value to put in for dbhost!).
And, of course, iPower kept saying, “We don’t have any of these problems on the non-Windows” platform.
Bottom Line: Wordpress runs on Windows but requires significant tweaking. Why bother?
I only know that I am so much happier now that I’m off iPower, off Windows. My experience with Fuse has been great!
Thanks,
Richard
Hi Richard
An interesting thread. The comments about running stuff developed on a LAMP stack on W2K3 are generally true across the board. I deal a lot with Yabb and the issues are really basically the same. (I have 2 WordPress installs humming along nicely on a W2k3/IIS6 box - BUT its mine and I’m a former MCSE) LOL and a bunch of other stuff that was never designed to run that way…
I think the root problem is two-fold.
ONE - people don’t qualify their hosting companies they just sign up with the cheapest package that says it will fit. Can you say BAD IDEA? I have always believed in going to the User Forums of software packages as the very first step in making decisions. Nobody on MY box type - maybe bad idea, complaints about Hosts - good place to weed them out. I send an e-mail and ask for a reference account. If they ask you to explain the app, time to move on. Just me…
TWO - Hosting companies that run *nix but ‘offer Windows’ too, tend to be staffed by penguin heads
- Hey I love Tuxedos! - who know little to nothing about IIS and NTFS. All you have to do is look at how Plesk is designed to know its a GRAFT of FTP/CPANEL/APACHE onto a Windows platform. (most hybrids are sterile for good reasons - they are unnatural!). Imagine having shared public_HTML folders on an IIS box and a tool that tells you its CHMOD - can you say designed for ease of support by people unfamiliar with IIS? If you must go with a Windows Host for a good reason - get a Windows only host and YOU will need to research the app first, AND e-mail them nicely and ask if they have any other wierdos like you, LOL. You never know!
I guess I can for sure say I agree with you on the ‘put it on the box it belongs on’ in the Hosted scenario unless you have a compelling reason to do otherwise.
Thanks for an Interesting Thread.