WEB SERVERS

GenXTechno Tags: web, server, iis, pws, apache

A computer that runs a Web site. Using the HTTP protocol, the Web server delivers Web pages to browsers as well as other data files to Web-based applications. The Web server includes the hardware, operating system, Web server software, TCP/IP protocols and site content (Web pages, images and other files). If the Web server is used internally and is not exposed to the public, it is an "intranet server". Every Web server has an IP address and possibly a domain name.
Any computer can be turned into a Web server by installing server software and connecting the machine to the Internet. There are many Web server software applications, including public domain software from NCSA (National Center for Supercomputing Applications) and Apache, and commercial packages from Microsoft, Netscape and others.

Personal Web Server (PWS)

Personal Web Server is Microsoft's version of a Web server program for individual PC users who want to share Web pages and other files from their hard drive. PWS is a scaled-down version of Microsoft's more robust Web server, Internet Information Server IIS. PWS can be used with a full-time Internet connection to serve Web pages for a Web site with limited traffic. It can also be used for testing a Web site offline or from a "staging" site before putting it on a main Web site that is exposed to larger traffic.
PWS can be used together with Microsoft's FrontPage, a Web site design product, to upload Web pages from a remote location or to the local hard drive; to check for dead links; to create directories; and to set permissions. PWS is frequently used as part of the trend toward peer-to-peer exchange and publishing.
The equivalent program for the Macintosh is called Personal Web Sharing.

Internet Information Server

IIS (Internet Information Server) is a group of Internet servers (including a Web or Hypertext Transfer Protocol server and a File Transfer Protocol server) with additional capabilities for Microsoft's Windows NT and Windows 2000 Server operating systems. IIS is Microsoft's entry to compete in the Internet server market that is also addressed by Apache, Sun Microsystems, O'Reilly, and others. With IIS, Microsoft includes a set of programs for building and administering Web sites, a search engine, and support for writing Web-based applications that access databases. Microsoft points out that IIS is tightly integrated with the Windows NT and 2000 Servers in a number of ways, resulting in faster Web page serving.
A typical company that buys IIS can create pages for Web sites using Microsoft's Front Page product (with its WYSIWYG user interface). Web developers can use Microsoft's Active Server Page (ASP) technology, which means that applications - including ActiveX controls - can be imbedded in Web pages that modify the content sent back to users. Developers can also write programs that filter requests and get the correct Web pages for different users by using Microsoft's Internet Server Application Program Interface (ISAPI) interface. ASPs and ISAPI programs run more efficiently than common gateway interface (CGI) and server-side include (SSI) programs, two current technologies. (However, there are comparable interfaces on other platforms.)

Apache

Apache is generally recognized as the world's most popular Web server (HTTP server). Originally designed for Unix servers, the Apache Web server has been ported to Windows and other network operating systems (NOS). The name "Apache" derives from the word "patchy" that the Apache developers used to describe early versions of their software.