The Apache Web Server:

The most popular web server today covers not only over 65% of all servers worldwide but is also free. (http://www.apache.org). Promoted by the Apache Software Foundation, the HTTP Server (or the Web server) remains it's most successful and popular product till date. Built on the philosophy of collaborative effort and open source, the Apache Web Server project has served as the template for the development of a number of other products in the community driven open source space.

Key features of the Apache Web Server:

• Powerful & Flexible, HTTP/1.1 compliant web server.
• Highly configurable and extensible with third party modules.
• Implements the latest protocols.
• Runs on multiple platforms such as Windows NT/9x, Netware, OS/2, Linux, Unix and others.
• Collaborative effort resulting in a solid product backed up a worldwide user/developer community.

...and many more. (http://httpd.apache.org/docs/misc/FAQ.html#what)

There are several other web servers in the market today. Some are open source like apache and some are commercial too. Most Assessments rank apache as to be a substantially faster, more stable, and more feature-full than most other web servers.

It's biggest endorsement is the fact that is is deployed on millions of Internet servers worldwide, with some sites getting millions of hits per day.

The httpd server comes with excellent documentation and usually that suffices to install your own server on any platform, Windows or Linux.

Currently there are 2 main Apache versions, the 1.3 series and the 2.0 series. While the 1.3 is the most common variation of the Httpd Server worldwide, key new features in the 2.0 series is generating a lot of interest and more and more people are converting to the 2.0 series.

How does a Web Server Work:

Apache Web Server like most web servers have a similar way of functioning. Web servers in general are responsible for storing and exchanging information with other machines or clients. When a client makes a request to the server, the server acts upon it and replies to the request by serving a web page along with some other actions. The client is usually your web browser such as Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Firefox, Opera etc. The chief protocol for the exchange of this data between the client and the server is the HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol). Whatever the web server, they all use the standarf protocols and the client does not have to be dependent on the server type.

When a user types in a URL in a web browser, the browser interprets this URL and contacts the DNS server (Domain Name Server) that translates the domain name contained in the URL to an IP address; a number that uniquely identifies the web server.

If the machine is switched off OR the web server on it is turned off, you will not get any response. The browser will determine the protocol or the language that needs to be used to communicate with the server. In this case it would be the HTTP protocol as we are assuming that the request is going to a web server.

A GET request will be sent to the web server to fetch certain pages or files and if such a file exists, the server find the file, run the necessary, scripts, and return the result back to the client. The client browser will then translate this data into HTML and show it to the requesting user.

Web servers have numerous additional tasks such as logging statistics, handling security and encryption, managing e-commerce functions etc.

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