Explain the term web server
The term web server can
refer to either the hardware (the computer) or the software (the computer
application) that helps to deliver web content that can be accessed through the
Internet. The
primary function of a web server is to store, process and deliver web pages to
clients. The communication between client and server takes place using the
Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).
Web
servers are not always used for serving the World Wide Web. They can also be
found embedded in devices such as printers, routers, webcams and serving only a
local network. The web server may then be used as a part of a system for
monitoring and/or administering the device in question. This usually means that
no additional software has to be installed on the client computer, since only a
web browser is required (which now is included with most operating systems).
How
stuff works?
- Handling a client request
consists of several key steps:
Ø Parsing the request message
Ø Checking that the request is
authorized
Ø Associating the URL in the
request with a file name
Ø Constructing the response message
Ø Transmitting the response message
to the requesting client
Types of web
server
Apache web server:
This is
the most popular web server in the world developed by the Apache Software Foundation.
Apache web server is an open source software and can be installed on almost all
operating systems including Linux, Unix, Windows, and more. About 60% of the
web server machines run the Apache Web Server. You can have Apache with tomcat
module to have JSP and J2EE related support.
Internet Information Services:
The
Internet Information Server (IIS) is a high performance Web Server from
Microsoft. Because IIS is tightly integrated with the operating system so it is
relatively easy to administer it.
Lighttpd:
|
The lighttpd,
pronounced lighty is also a free web server that is distributed with the
FreeBSD operating system. This open source web server is fast, secure and
consumes much less CPU power. Lighttpd can also run on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux
and Solaris operating systems.
Sun Java System Web Server:
This
web server from Sun Microsystems is suited for medium and large web sites.
Though the server is free it is not open source. It however, runs on Windows,
Linux and Unix platforms. The Sun Java System web server supports various languages,
scripts and technologies required for Web 2.0 such as JSP, Java Servlets, PHP,
Perl, Python, Ruby on Rails, ASP and Cold fusion etc.
Jigsaw
Server:
Jigsaw
(W3C's Server) comes from the World Wide Web Consortium. It is open source and
free and can run on various platforms like Linux, Unix , Windows, Mac OS X Free
BSD etc. Jigsaw has been written in Java and can run CGI scripts and PHP
programs.
