We have been seeing a lot of chatter on Microsoft's Internet Security and Acceleration Server or ISA and HTTP compression. Here are our most recent posts and comments from folks:
> ISA 2004 SP2 gets HTTP Compression!!!
http://www.port80software.com/200ok/archive/2006/02/03/977.aspx
> Really Getting ISA and HTTP Compression to Work Together
http://www.port80software.com/200ok/archive/2005/10/25/861.aspx
> Does Microsoft ISA Server 2004 support compression?
http://www.port80software.com/200ok/archive/2005/01/10/241.aspx
On the first, most recent post, reader Kiliman references his open source ISA compression filter, which you can try out at ISAServer.org (we looked for the filter link -- if you find the direct link, please add it here as a comment)… Kiliman’s blog is at http://blogs.systemex.net/Kiliman/. Lots of good data here, and we applaud folks looking to solve ISA and IIS problems (it is a black art of sorts!).
Port80 Software itself is going to address ISA compression this year with our grade of solution. While we believe strongly in free and open source efforts (we use them internally to run some systems), we remind readers that free IIS compression solutions have a number of known problems -- that is why our products exist and are so popular. Consider even Microsoft has native compression (it works pretty well in IIS 6), but the MS solution does not handle the edge cases properly and has third party filter compatibility issues which seem to crop up more and more as we push the Web to be mission critical. Proceed with caution if you go on your own to save cash, and please remember Port80 is always here to help with products and our custom solutions and consulting as well.
We have heard the masses and promise to work ISA into this year’s development schedule! More to come...
Cheers,
Port80 Software