Thursday, February 20, 2020

What is a server and what is it for on the Internet?

Have you ever wondered where all the contents of your digital marketing strategy that you upload to your website are located?
It is, then, on web servers. These are essential for the Internet and if they did not exist, surfing the web would be very different from what we know today.
With the digital transformation and the increasing use of the Internet it was more than necessary to create servers that were capable of storing and issuing the (almost infinite) information library that we found on the web.
Imagine web servers as a "normal" office computer, unless in this case they are ready to be turned on 24 hours a day, 365 days a year .
Do you still have doubts? Do not worry, in this article we will answer what you need to know about web servers, keep reading!

What is a server?

A server (server) is a computer of great power that is responsible for "providing the service" to transmit the information requested by its customers server qualifications (other computers, mobile devices, printers, people, etc.)
Web servers (web server) are a component of servers whose main function is to store, in web hosting , all the files of a web page (images, texts, videos, etc.) and transmit them to users through browsers using the HTTP protocol (Hipertext Transfer Protocol).
What is a server on the Internet for?
The main role of a web server is to store and transmit the requested content of a website to the user's browser .
This process, for Internet users, lasts no more than a second, however, at the web server level it is a more complicated sequence than it seems.
To fulfill its functions, the server must have the ability to always be on to avoid interrupting the service offered to its customers. If this server fails or shuts down, Internet users will have problems entering the website.
How does a server work?
Communication between a server and its clients is based on HTTP, that is, the hypertext transfer protocol or its HTTPS encoded variant.
To know how it works, it is first necessary to know that the web server is permanently waiting for a request for information .
Also, keep in mind that every computer, smartphone or tablet has a unique and unrepeatable IP address that identifies it from another device on the network, this is how the web server sends the exact information that the Internet user is waiting for.
However, in order for the web server to fulfill its function, it is necessary to receive the request from a browser, in other words, an order is sent from an IP address to the IP address of the server that hosts the site's files in question.
Next, the web server searches its files for the information that is being requested, proceeds to interpret the lines of code and send the result to the browser whose IP address was the requestor.
This result is shown to Internet users and is what always happens when browsing Internet sites. When this process is complete we can say that the web server has fulfilled its function.
What are the characteristics of a server?
As necessary features of a web server at the software and hardware level , we can find:
Software level
OS
It ensures that the hardware works and manages to interact with the services that the system runs. Some examples are:
  • Unix,
  • Linux,
  • or Windows
File systems
It is a logical guide that allows the system to locate, sort and filter data on the hard drive, so that we can read, modify or delete them.
HTTP server software
They are the different types of web servers specialized in transmitting the content via web (Apache, Nginx, IIS, Caddy, etc.).
Virtual hosting
It allows that under the same web server and IP they stay in several different websites.
Dispatch of static and dynamic files
Static files provide support for hosting and dispatching files such as:
  • JPG,
  • GIF,
  • PNG,
  • BMP,
  • CSS ,
  • TXT,
  • HTML,
  • Javascript,
  • MP3
  • and MP4.
Dynamic files work for information in PHP, ASP, Python, Ruby and GO.
Network and Limit Monitoring
It allows monitoring network traffic, packets that come and go, as well as system services and hardware use such as:
  • the use of Storage;
  • RAM consumption;
  • CPU occupancy rate;
  • network speed;
  • write / read performance on disk.
Security system
The security system of a server must:
  • impose access limits per IP address;
  • deny or allow access to certain files or URLs;
  • request username and password for basic HTTP authentication;
  • filtering insecure requests;
  • Support to dispatch encrypted information with SSL security certificates via HTTPS.
Hardware level
Rack and cabinet
The rack refers to the place where the servers are physically housed and the cabinet is the frame that holds the hardware components of a computer.
CPU
It is the server's data processing center from which all the logical and mathematical calculations are performed so that the user can manipulate and access the data as needed.
RAM
It is used to store information and data temporarily depending on the user's demand through the operating system.
Storage units
The storage of web servers is done on hard drives, which allow you to store the information of the operating system, system services, and ultimately the data loaded by the user.
Network port
The bandwidth is what allows you to have enough volume to transmit information back and forth to and from your web server.
What types of servers exist?
There are many types of web servers, know which are the most used web servers today:
Apache
It is the most common and used in the world, however, it has lost popularity against Microsoft IIS and Nginx.
Among the advantages of Apache is that it is an open source, with free and cross-platform software , and among its disadvantages its low performance when it receives thousands of simultaneous requests (requests) in dynamic content processing or static files.
Known and popularized as one of the best Apache alternatives . Nginx is a free and open source web server (although there is also a commercial version) that stands out for its high performance.
Among its benefits, a simple, light, fast and excellent configuration in terms of safety and performance stands out, it also allows it to be configured to integrate natively with almost any modern technology and programming language.
As disadvantages we can find that it does not support .htaccess (Apache) files, although it includes its own rewriting language.
LiteSpeed
It is an HTTP dispatch software developed by LiteSpeedTech, there is an open source version and a commercial version that includes different types of licenses.
Some of the benefits of LiteSpeed is that it provides large amounts of simultaneous connections with a really low resource consumption (even with demanding applications such as those that use PHP) and at the level of static files it lives up to Nginx.
Microsoft IIS
Internet Information Services or IIS has become popular to offer cloud services , mainly in Azure (Microsoft's Cloud Hosting platform).
In addition, its perfect integration with Windows (of course), Visual Studio and its tools made this web server position itself as the leading server in the business world.
Other known web servers
Each web server is indicated for certain functions, so choosing which one you are going to use will depend on what you intend to do with them.
In conclusion
Do not forget that when considering choosing a web server you should consider:
  • how well it works with the operating system and other servers;
  • its ability to handle server programming;
  • security features;
  • the particular tools of publication;
  • search engine ;
  • the creation of sites that come with it.
Web servers not only allow you to publish your site on the Internet, but also deliver the content to your readers. Knowing which one suits you and your readers is essential for the web server you choose to properly fulfill its functions.
Did you like the article and want to continue learning? So, be sure to read our blog about the types of programming language . It will be very useful!
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