Helicon Ape is the piece of software by Helicon Tech destined to introduce Apache functionality on IIS web servers. Helicon Ape is realized as an ASP.NET module for IIS 7 (and higher), implementing functionality of more than 35 Apache modules, that allows using Apache configurations (leaving syntax intact) on IIS and extend standard IIS capabilities.
Aside from realization of Apache modules Helicon Ape possesses some proprietary modules for server-side debugging and profiling (mod_developer), SEO optimization (mod_linkfreeze) and hotlinking protection (mod_hotlink).
Helicon Ape has a GUI interface (see the screenshot) that allows easy configs editing (directives auto-completion and spell-check features supported) and browsing, includes a regular expressions tester and a password generation utility.
Here's the list of modules currently supported in Helicon Ape:
mod_asis - sends files that contain their own HTTP headers
mod_auth_basic - enables HTTP Basic Authentication functionality
mod_auth_digest - enables MD5 Digest Authentication functionality
mod_authn_anon - configures anonymous users access to authenticated areas
mod_authn_dbd - provides authentication based on user look-up in SQL database
mod_authn_default - rejects whatever credentials if no authentication is set
mod_authn_file - provides authentication based on user look-up in plain text password file
mod_authz_default - rejects any authorization request if no authentication is configured
mod_authz_groupfile - allows or denies access to particular areas of the site depending on user group membership
mod_authz_host - allows access control to particular parts of web server based on hostname, IP address or other characteristics of the client request
mod_authz_user - allows or denies access to portions of the web site for authenticated users
mod_cache - allows caching local or proxied content
mod_core - provides the use Helicon Ape core features
mod_dbd - allows managing of SQL database connections
mod_deflate - enables server output compression
mod_developer - brings extensive requests debugging functionality
mod_disk_cache - allows the use of disk-based storage engine for mod_cache
mod_env - grants control over the environment provided to CGI scripts and SSI pages
mod_evasive - protects your site(s) from HTTP DoS/DDoS attacks and brute force attacks
mod_expires - sets Expires HTTP header and max-age directive of Cache-Control HTTP header in server responses in relation to either the time the source file was last modified, or to the time of the client access
mod_filter - allows the use of context-sensitive content filters
mod_gzip - offers HTTP responses compression
mod_headers - modifies HTTP request and response headers
mod_hotlink - protects the content from hotlinking
mod_linkfreeze - changes links on pages to SEO-friendly format
mod_log_config - enables custom logging
mod_logio - logs input and output number of bytes received/sent per request
mod_mem_cache - allows the use memory-based storage engine for mod_cache
mod_mime - associates requested filename's extensions with the file's behavior (handlers and filters) and content (mime-type, language, character set and encoding)
mod_proxy - grants forward and reverse proxy functionality
mod_replace - allows editing of HTML body, HTTP request and response headers
mod_rewrite - rewrites requested URLs on the fly based on regular-expressions-based rules and various conditions
mod_setenvif - sets environment variables depending on whether different parts of the request match specified regular expressions
mod_so - emulates loading modules functions
mod_speling - corrects misspelled URLs by performing case-insensitive checks and allowing one misspelling
mod_usertrack - tracks and logs user activity on the site using cookies
Helicon Ape was designed specifically to benefit from all advantages of IIS 7 architecture, so 100% operability is ensured only on IIS 7 and higher (Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2). On IIS6 (Windows Server 2003) Helicon Ape offers slightly limited functionality (see compatibility chart).
There are three license types available for Helicon Ape:
Free - for up to 3 sites; costs nothing
Per-site - for one extra site; costs $25
Server - for unlimited number of sites; costs $95; includes 45-day Trial period.
