What is Web Server?
A web server is a computer that runs websites. It’s a computer program that distributes web pages as they are requisitioned. The basic objective of the web server is to store, process and deliver web pages to the users. This intercommunication is done using Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). These web pages are mostly static content that includes HTML documents, images, style sheets, test etc. Apart from HTTP, a web server also supports SMTP (Simple Mail transfer Protocol) and FTP (File Transfer Protocol) protocol for emailing and for file transfer and storage.
How It’s Work?
The main job of a web server is to display the website content. If a web server is not exposed to the public and is used internally, then it is called Intranet Server. When anyone requests for a website by adding the URL or web address on a web browser’s (like Chrome or Firefox) address bar (like www.bangla.programming-hero.com), the browser sends a request to the Internet for viewing the corresponding web page for that address. A Domain Name Server (DNS) converts this URL to an IP Address (For example 192.168.216.345), which in turn points to a Web Server.
The Web Server is requested to present the content website to the user’s browser. All websites on the Internet have a unique identifier in terms of an IP address. This Internet Protocol address is used to communicate between different servers across the Internet. These days, Apache server is the most common web server available in the market. Apache is an open source software that handles almost 70 percent of all websites available today. Most of the web-based applications use Apache as their default Web Server environment. Another web server that is generally available is Internet Information Service (IIS). IIS is owned by Microsoft.
Types of Server:
There are a number of common web servers available, some including:
- Apache HTTP Server. Developed by Apache Software Foundation, it is a free and open source web server for Windows, Mac OS X, Unix, Linux, Solaris and other operating systems; it needs the Apache license.
- Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS). Developed by Microsoft for Microsoft platforms; it is not open sourced, but widely used.
- Nginx. A popular open source web server for administrators because of its light resource utilization and scalability. It can handle many concurrent sessions due to its event-driven architecture. Nginx also can be used as a proxy server and load balancer.
- Lighttpd. A free web server that comes with the FreeBSD operating system. It is seen as fast and secure, while consuming less CPU power.
- Sun Java System Web Server. A free web server from Sun Microsystems that can run on Windows, Linux and Unix. It is well-equipped to handle medium to large websites.