Web Server

Web Server is the computer or the virtual machine that runs the programs that used to deliver the web contents such as web pages, images, etc. using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol(HTTP) over the World Wide Web(www). The main function of the Web Server is to deliver the web pages to the clients. A client makes the request to the web server for the resources using HTTP and server responds to the request made for that resources. If the server has the requested resources it delivers it to the client and if not then error message is given to the client.

Web site is the collection of web pages and web pages are the files which are written in Hypertext Markup Language(HTML) and these web pages are to be stored on the computer that is connected to internet. Such a computer is called Web Server. A server computer needs to be fast, have a large storage capacity hard disk and lots of RAM. But the most important is to have the permanent IP address. If the IP address changes then the web sites could not be found and appears to be offline.

Web Server has the vital role on the internet. The server machine hosts the web site while the server program helps in delivering the web pages and their associated files like images and flash movies. The process of loading a website/web page starts with user entering the URL in the address bar. Web server now searches for the web pages that are requested on the hard disk of the server. On finding the requested web page it sends back the response and the web page to the browser which then start displaying the web page.