Web Servers and how they work

Good day family. Today I will be writing about an important topic, Web servers. The use of websites and web apps can be seen to be growing exponentially as people keep on getting attached to the tech world. Web servers are the hearts of the web as they feed it with the contents as we interact with the various websites. Now let's get to know what web servers are and their role on the internet.

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Web servers are basically computers that store, process, and deliver website files to web browsers based on the user's request. A typical web server encompasses both software and hardware and communicates with web browsers through the Hyper Text Transfer Protocol(HTTP). Hence, for a browser to successfully communicate or send a request to a web server, it has to be done through the HTTP protocol.

When a web client sends a request to a web server, the web server will process it and then deliver the requested files through the web browser.

Other protocols web servers use are the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) and the File Transfer Protocol (FTP). SMTP for email processing and FTP for sharing various types of files with the client.

A web server must be connected to the internet before it will be able to share files with other devices. The Internet is a global interconnection of computer networks, and the web is just a part of the internet. Some of the most commonly shared files between a web server and a web client include HTML files, CSS files/stylesheets, Script files, images, etc.

Every web server has software that controls how the hosted sites are accessed by the client computers. The server software also contains the HTTP server, which is used to process HTTP requests and URLs.

Some of the most popular web servers include the following:

1.Apache HTTP Server

1. NGINX

2. Internet Information Services (IIS) from Microsoft

3. Lighthttpd

4. Apache Tomcat

Web Server Operation

Web servers communicate with browsers via the client-server architecture, with the user's browser as the client. The client basically requests resources from the server, and the server delivers them based on certain conditions.

Some few steps that web servers follow to process a client's request:

1. A web user who wants to access the web content sends a request through the internet. This request is known as an HTTP request. The web browser uses the URL of the requested web site to obtain the server's IP address through the Domain Name System(DNS). The request is sent to the server through its IP address.

2. The server then accepts the request and processes it with the HTTP server. The HTTP server matches the request with the relevant data.

3. If the relevant data is found , the server will then return those files to the web browser that made the request and they will be made visible to the user. If the relevant data is not found, the server will return an error message.

Conclusion

Basically, this is how web servers work. They take users' responses, process them with the HTTP server, and return the results to the user. The main functions of a web server include hosting of websites and web apps, processing FTP requests, and sending and receiving emails via SMTP. Thanks for your time.

Yours @salamdeen