What is Web server and its types

What is web server?

A web server can be referred to as either the hardware, the computer or the software, the computer application that helps to deliver content that can be accessed through the internet. Most people think a web server is just the hardware computer, but a web server is also referred to as the software computer application that is installed in the hardware computer. A web server is what makes it possible to be able to access content like web pages, or other data from anywhere as long as it is connected to the internet. The hardware part is what houses the content, while the software part is what makes the content accessible through the internet

A web server can mean two things – a computer on which a web site is hosted and a program that runs on such a computer. So the term web server refers to both hardware and software. We’ll look at each of these individually.

The web server computer – the hardware

A web site is a collection of web pages. And web pages are digital files, typically written using HyperText Markup Language (HTML). For a web site to be available to everyone in the world at all times, it need to be stored or “hosted” on a computer that is connected to the internet 27/7/365. Such a computer is known as a web Server .You can potentially host a web site on your home computer but this involves a lot of work and constant monitoring. It is easier to “buy” web hosting from a company because there are thousands that offer this service.

There are several requirements for a Server computer – it needs to be fast, have a large storage capacity hard disk and lots of RAM. But the most important is having a permanent internet address also known as an I.P. (Internet protocol) address. If the I.P. address changes, the web site would not be found and will appear offline – the browser will display a cannot find web site kind of error.

The web server program – the software

A web server program is software that runs on the web site hosting Server computer. Its main purpose is to serve web pages; which means it waits for requests from web browsers (also known as clients) and responds by sending the required data back. This client-server interaction is the hallmark of the web!

The most famous and popular of all web servers is Apache developed by the Apache Foundation. Not only is Apache free but it’s also available for several operating systems including Windows, Macintosh and Linux/Unix.

List of Web Servers

Here is a detailed and updated list of the most important and popular web servers:

Apache web server – the HTTP web server

Free and 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 and made to work on almost all operating systems including Linux, Unix, Windows, FreeBSD, Mac OS X and more. About 60% of the web server machines run the Apache web server – Refer Web server usage statistics from Netcraft.

Apache Tomcat

The Apache Tomcat has been developed to support servlets and JSP scripts. Though it can serve as a standalone server, Tomcat is generally used along with the popular Apache HTTP web server or any other web server. Apache Tomcat is free and open source and can run on different operating systems like Linux, Unix, Windows, Mac OS X, Free BSD.

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Internet Information Services (IIS)

The IIS for Windows Server 2003 operating system has been developed by the software giant, Microsoft. It offers higher levels of performance and security than its predecessor, the Windows 2000 server. It also comes with a good support from the company and is the second most popular server on the web.

lighttpd

lighttpd, pronounced “lighty” (don’t ask me why), is 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.

Jigsaw

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.

Klone

Klone, from KoanLogic Srl, includes a web server and an SDK for creating static and dynamic web sites. It is a web application development framework especially for embedded systems and appliances. No additional components are required when using Klone; thus, one can do away with an HTTP/S server or the active pages engine (PHP, Perl, ASP).

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 (at the time of writing the Mac OS X and FreeBSD operating systems were not supported). The Sun Java System web server supports various server-side languages and technologies such as JSP, Java Servlets, PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby on Rails, ASP and Coldfusion.

Xitami web server

Xitami is a free, open source web server developed by iMatrix Corporation. FYI, Xitami is iMatrix spelled backwards. The development has stopped after version 2.5, however, it remains popular on small networks. The server is not the fastest in the market but has a small footprint and is available for Windows, Linux and Unix platforms.

Zeus web server

The Zeus web server runs on Linux and Free BSD operating systems. It has been developed by Zeus technology Ltd. And is known for its speed, reliability, security and flexibility. The web server is used on some of the busiest web sites of the world including Ebay. Zeus web server is not free and costs more than a thousand pounds.

Below is the most recent statistics of the market share of the top web servers on the internet by Netcraft survey in Nov 2010