Clarification on requirements to run vbSEO

Need some clarification. I copied/pasted your server requirements in an email to my host asking if we (they) meet the requirements.

Here's their response:

Yes we meet the server requirements, just one thing to be aware of though is that IIS does not support 'Apache mod_rewrite' and you may wish to research how much that affects the functionality before purchasing, I would imagine that something like this relies heavily on mod_rewrite to rewrite the URLs to be keyword rich.

Then another support person followed up with this:

To run a .htaccess on windows it would require an ISAPI rewrite module to be installed which I think is $99 to buy the licence for. This should make you be able to get the full use of vBSEO, but if you wanted to go that route I suggest running the trial isapi version on a test site and see if we can get some basic rewrite rules written and tested.

All of this is really over my head. I'm but a simple, newbie admin trying to learn as much as I can. So based on the above, I don't know what options exist for me or what the best solution is. And probably don't know enough to ask the right questions.

Can you help?

Yes, with IIS you will need ISAPI_Rewrite, but you don't need to buy it. The free version of ISAPI_Rewrite will work fine.

And, ISAPI_Rewrite rules are included with the vBSEO package.

Originally Posted by Keith Cohen

Yes, with IIS you will need ISAPI_Rewrite, but you don't need to buy it. The free version of ISAPI_Rewrite will work fine.

And, ISAPI_Rewrite rules are included with the vBSEO package.

Where is the free version?

Here it is: Helicon Tech - Download