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Web Servers

The document discusses web servers and search engines. It describes what a web server is and its basic objective to store, process and deliver web pages to users. It also lists some of the most common web servers like Apache, IIS, Lighttpd etc. The document then discusses components of a search engine like web crawlers, databases and search interfaces.

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11 views

Web Servers

The document discusses web servers and search engines. It describes what a web server is and its basic objective to store, process and deliver web pages to users. It also lists some of the most common web servers like Apache, IIS, Lighttpd etc. The document then discusses components of a search engine like web crawlers, databases and search interfaces.

Uploaded by

VBM Technologies
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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KNIMT, Faculty of Pharmacy Notes: Computer Application in Pharmacy(BP205T)

Faridipur, Sultanpur

Web Servers
A web server is a computer or more formally a software application that runs websites. It's a
computer program that distributes web pages as they are demanded.

The basic objective of the web server is to store, process and deliver web pages to the users. This
intercommunication is done using Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). These web pages are
mostly static content that includes HTML documents, images, style sheets, test etc.

Apart from HTTP, a web server also supports SMTP (Simple Mail transfer Protocol) and FTP
(File Transfer Protocol) protocol for emailing and for file transfer and storage. When anyone
requests for a website by adding the URL or web address on a web browser’s (like Chrome or
Firefox) address bar (like www.google.com ), the browser sends a request to the Internet for
viewing the corresponding web page for that address.

A Domain Name Server (DNS) converts this URL to an IP Address (For example
192.168.216.345), which in turn points to a Web Server. The Web Server is requested to present
the content website to the user’s browser. All websites on the Internet have a unique identifier in
terms of an IP address. This Internet Protocol address is used to communicate between different
servers across the Internet.

These days, Apache server is the most common web server available in the market. Apache is
open source software that handles almost 70 percent of all websites available today. Most of the
web-based applications use Apache as their default Web Server environment. Another web server
that is generally available is Internet Information Service (IIS). IIS is owned by Microsoft.

Faculty Name: Vivek Srivastava Page 1 of 5


KNIMT, Faculty of Pharmacy Notes: Computer Application in Pharmacy(BP205T)
Faridipur, Sultanpur
Examples
Following table describes the most leading web servers available today:

S.N. Web Server Descriptino

1 Apache HTTP Server


This is the most popular web server in the world developed by the Apache Software
Foundation. Apache web server is an open source software and can be installed on almost
all operating systems including Linux, UNIX, Windows, FreeBSD, Mac OS X and more.
About 60% of the web server machines run the Apache Web Server.

2. Internet Information Services (IIS)


The Internet Information Server (IIS) is a high performance Web Server from Microsoft. This
web server runs on Windows NT/2000 and 2003 platforms (and may be on upcoming new
Windows version also). IIS comes bundled with Windows NT/2000 and 2003; Because IIS is
tightly integrated with the operating system so it is relatively easy to administer it.

3. Lighttpd
The lighttpd, pronounced lighty is also a free web server that is distributed with the FreeBSD
operating system. This open source web server is fast, secure and consumes much less
CPU power. Lighttpd can also run on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and Solaris operating
systems.

4. Sun Java System Web Server


This web server from Sun Microsystems is suited for medium and large web sites. Though
the server is free it is not open source. It however, runs on Windows, Linux and UNIX
platforms. The Sun Java System web server supports various languages, scripts and
technologies required for Web 2.0 such as JSP, Java Servlets, PHP, Perl, Python, and Ruby
on Rails, ASP and Coldfusion etc.

5. Jigsaw Server
Jigsaw (W3C's Server) comes from the World Wide Web Consortium. It is open source and
free and can run on various platforms like Linux, UNIX, Windows, and Mac OS X Free BSD
etc. Jigsaw has been written in Java and can run CGI scripts and PHP programs.

Faculty Name: Vivek Srivastava Page 2 of 5


KNIMT, Faculty of Pharmacy Notes: Computer Application in Pharmacy(BP205T)
Faridipur, Sultanpur

SEARCH ENGINE
Search Engine refers to a huge database of internet resources such as web pages, newsgroups,
programs, images etc. It helps to locate information on World Wide Web.
User can search for any information by passing query in form of keywords or phrase. It then
searches for relevant information in its database and return to the user.

Search Engine Components


Generally there are three basic components of a search engine as listed below:
1. Web Crawler
2. Database
3. Search Interfaces
Web crawler
It is also known as spider or bots. It is a software component that traverses the web to gather
information.
Database
All the information on the web is stored in database. It consists of huge web resources.

Faculty Name: Vivek Srivastava Page 3 of 5


KNIMT, Faculty of Pharmacy Notes: Computer Application in Pharmacy(BP205T)
Faridipur, Sultanpur
Search Interfaces
This component is an interface between user and the database. It helps the user to search through
the database.

Search Engine Working


Web crawler, database and the search interface are the major component of a search engine that
actually makes search engine to work. Search engines make use of Boolean expression AND,
OR, NOT to restrict and widen the results of a search. Following are the steps that are performed
by the search engine:
 The search engine looks for the keyword in the index for predefined database instead of
going directly to the web to search for the keyword.
 It then uses software to search for the information in the database. This software
component is known as web crawler.
 Once web crawler finds the pages, the search engine then shows the relevant web pages as
a result. These retrieved web pages generally include title of page, size of text portion,
first several sentences etc.
These search criteria may vary from one search engine to the other. The retrieved information is ranked
according to various factors such as frequency of keywords, relevancy of information, links etc.
 User can click on any of the search results to open it.

Faculty Name: Vivek Srivastava Page 4 of 5


KNIMT, Faculty of Pharmacy Notes: Computer Application in Pharmacy(BP205T)
Faridipur, Sultanpur
Examples
Following are the several search engines available today:

Search Description
Engine

Google It was originally called BackRub. It is the most popular search engine globally.

Bing It was launched in 2009 by Microsoft. It is the latest web-based search engine that also
delivers Yahoo’s results.

Ask It was launched in 1996 and was originally known as Ask Jeeves. It includes support for
match, dictionary, and conversation question.

AltaVista It was launched by Digital Equipment Corporation in 1995. Since 2003, it is powered by
Yahoo technology.

AOL.Search It is powered by Google.

LYCOS It is top 5 internet portal and 13th largest online property according to Media Matrix.

Faculty Name: Vivek Srivastava Page 5 of 5

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