In the previous article, we had read about free Web Hosting and how it was suitable for personal needs and not for business needs. In the following articles, we will read about another type of Web Hosting, which, is more suited for the field of Business.

But first, we need to understand a basic concept with which we will be working – The Web Server

What is a Web Server?

You will remember, that a Server performs many duties. It can handle Email, FTP, Remote Backups, and the like. In order to perform all these activities efficiently, each function is run by a program that takes care of that particular service. Each of these programs is called a Server in its own right.

The terminology is a bit confusing here. A Server can be used to refer to a big powerful computer, and it can also refer to the Operating system that runs on it. To make matters worse, it can also refer to individual programs that take care of each service provided by the Main Server!

To ease understanding, each program that is designated by the word server, is prefixed by the function it supports. Hence the term Email Server, FTP Server, and Web Server. Because these programs serve that particular function.

So when a computer that is sitting somewhere else (called a remote computer) connects to a Server, how does the Server know what type of service it wants? How does it know whether the remote computers is requesting a file transfer, an online Backup, or an Email request?

The answer is, that when a remote computer connects to a server, it does so in a particular manner, which indicates what type of service it is looking for. This special type of manner is called a protocol. Each protocol is specific to the type of service that the remote computer is requesting,
and is understood in the same way, by computers all over the world.

So, when a remote computer requests a certain page from a Server, it is seeking for the Service called the Web Service. This then, is handled by the Web Server. The protocol that is used to communicate with the Web Server, is the Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP). This is why, every address that you see typed into the address bar (assuming you are requesting a web page), starts with HTTP. Sometimes, you will see the words HTTPS, or FTP. This means, that the server is being called with different protocols, and different types of services are being requested.

What does a Web Server do?

The primary purpose of a Web Server, is to respond to HTTP requests by remote computes. These requests are made by your browser when you surf the Internet. The Web Server responds to these requests, with a response that usually consists of an HTML page.

Web Server however, also typically perform several of the following functions:

1. They record information
   about how many requests have come in, and from where. What sort of browsers
   have generated them, and how many repeat requests etc. This allows the
   people who are running the Server, the generate log files and detailed
   statistical analysis of the pattern of traffic.
2. They support HTTPS. HTTPS
   like HTTP, is a protocol that is used to serve web pages. However, it
   is special in the sense that the data that is sent between the Server
   and the Remote computer is scrambled or encrypted in such a way
   no one intercept the information and use it for malicious purposes.
   Such precautions are needed when sensitive information like Credit Card
   numbers are being transferred over the internet.
3. They allow the browsers
   to request for the Web Pages to be sent in compressed format so that
   they arrive faster, and less bandwidth is used up
4. They have the ability to
   support more than one domain at the same IP address. This means, that
   a single Web Server, can have www.xyz.com, as well as www.abc.com. As
   long as abc.com and xyz.com are not very high performance websites,
   no one will even know that they are being hosted on the same computer
   and sharing the same resources!
5. They can decide how fast
   or how slowly they want to respond to a remote computer’s requests
   so that they don’t exceed the Bandwidth.

Different Servers available

The following table shows the Different Web Servers that are available in the Market today. These results were published in a Netcraft Survey in December 2007

Now that we have learned the basics of Web Servers, we can start discussing the other means by which businesses use Web Servers in order to provide efficient means of hosting their Web Pages on the Internet.