Different types of Web servers

1. A Look at Webservers – What it is & Different Types If you are simply using a pre-set template of a website, you might need to know about servers and what they are. However, if you are looking to design websites from scratch or are looking to become a programmer/developer, then you need to understand what a web server is and how it works. Every website or app you design must be stored somewhere, until it is called through a source. Well, this place that the data is stored and called from is known as a web server. Every web server is connected to the Internet constantly through a unique address, made up of a series of four numbers between 0 and 255 separated by periods. This is known as the IP address. Let’s take a detailed look at web servers, including what it is what, what they are used for and the different types of servers that exist. What is a Web Server? A web server is a computer that stores data, uses the HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) to send and receive requests as well as deliver web pages to clients. A user agent, such as a web browser or a web crawler, establishes communication between the server and the client PC by making a request for a specific resource using HTTP and the server responds with either the resource or an error message, if the resource doesn’t exit. Let’s simplify it further. When users search a website on their browser, the browser opens up a communication line with the server that hosts that web page, let’s say facebook.com. The server that holds the data for facebook, will then pull those files from the storage and sent them back, which is what the client sees on their browser. Depending the size on the file, this process can take from milliseconds to several seconds or sometimes even minutes. These pages are mostly HTML documents that may include text, images, style sheets and scripts. Many generic web servers also support server-side scripting such as Active Server Pages (ASP) and PHP. What are Web Servers Used For? Web servers are commonly use to store, process and deliver web pages to users. They are often a part of a larger of Internet and Intranet related programs such as serving email, downloading requests for File Transfer Protocol (FTP) files, and building and publishing Web pages. Web servers are not limited to just World Wide Web, but can also be found embedded in devices such as printers, routers, webcams and serving only a local network. Types of Web Servers There are four very popular servers that are currently dominate the market share, but there are a few more serves that also exist, these are relatively unpopular among the masses, but do have a niche following. We will also cover them in brief in this article.

2. Apache Web Server Apache is the most popular server on the market and was developed by the Apache Foundation. It is an open source software that can be installed on multiple platforms including Linux, Windows, UNIX, Mac OSX, and more. Apache servers are excellent as they are extremely customizable and contain a modular structure. And since it is an open source platform, you can add your own modules and make changes as you see fit. IIS Web Serve r Internet Information Services (IIS) is a high-performance web server technology by Microsoft. This web server runs on Windows NT/2000 and 2003 platforms (and may be on upcoming new Windows version also). While, it shares similar features to the Apache, it is not an open source software, which means that you can modify it or add your own modules. IIS supports HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, FTPS, SMTP and NNTP. Nginx Web Server NGINX (pronounced Engine-X) Web server has a light-weight powerful server that is known for it’s high performance, stability, simple configuration and low resource usage. NGINX stands apart from other servers by using a scalable event-driven, rather than a thread system used by Apache. This results in its low memory consumption, compared to other servers. NGINX also doubles as proxy servery, reverse proxy and load balancer. You can learn more about NGINX here. Li te Speed Web Server LiteSpeed is a high-performance Apache replacement. It is currently the 4th most popular used server across the Internet. It is popular for it’s improved performance and low-cost. LiteSpeed is compatible with the most common Apache features including mod_security and .htaccess. Unlike other front-end proxy solutions, LSWS replaces all Apache functions, making it easier to transition from Apache. Lighttpd Lighttpd is an open-source web server that was designed for speed-critical environments, while maintaining being standard compliant, secure and flexible. It was originally written to target the c10k problem, similar to NGINX, but has become a popular server world-wide. Lighttpd consumes less power and can run on multiple operating systems including Windows, Mac OSX, Linux and Solaris. Jigsaw Jigsaw is the open-source web server that was introduced by the World Wide Web Consortium. It is not designed for enterprise-level applications, but instead a way to test your applications to keep yourself

3. ahead of the curve. It was originally created as a technology demonstration rather than a full-fledged release. Jigsaw can run on multiple platforms such as Linux, UNIX, Windows, Free BSD, and more. It is written in Java and can even run CGI scripts and PHP programs. These are some of the most powerful web servers that are currently on the market. Choosing the right web server is a strong challenge that companies face. Each company should consider their requirements before selecting the right type of server for their needs. If you have any favorite web servers, please drop a message and let us know!