What is a web server?

In this article, we explain what web servers are, how web servers work,
and why they are important.

You should already know how the Internet works, and understand the difference between a web page,
Prerequisites:
a web server, and a search engine.

Objective: You will learn what a web server is and gain a general understanding of how it works.

Summary
The term web server can refer to hardware or software, or both of them working together.

1. On the hardware side, a web server is a computer that stores web server software and a
website's component files (for example, HTML documents, images, CSS stylesheets, and
JavaScript files). A web server connects to the Internet and supports physical data
interchange with other devices connected to the web.
2. On the software side, a web server includes several parts that control how web users access
hosted files. At a minimum, this is an HTTP server. An HTTP server is software that
understands URLs (web addresses) and HTTP (the protocol your browser uses to view
webpages). An HTTP server can be accessed through the domain names of the websites it
stores, and it delivers the content of these hosted websites to the end user's device.

At the most basic level, whenever a browser needs a file that is hosted on a web server, the
browser requests the file via HTTP. When the request reaches the correct (hardware) web
server, the (software) HTTP server accepts the request, finds the requested document, and
sends it back to the browser, also through HTTP. (If the server doesn't find the requested
document, it returns a 404 response instead.)

To publish a website, you need either a static or a dynamic web server.

A static web server, or stack, consists of a computer (hardware) with an HTTP server
(software). We call it "static" because the server sends its hosted files as-is to your browser.
A dynamic web server consists of a static web server plus extra software, most commonly
an application server and a database. We call it "dynamic" because the application server
updates the hosted files before sending content to your browser via the HTTP server.

For example, to produce the final webpages you see in the browser, the application server
might fill an HTML template with content from a database. Sites like MDN or Wikipedia
have thousands of webpages. Typically, these kinds of sites are composed of only a few
HTML templates and a giant database, rather than thousands of static HTML documents.
This setup makes it easier to maintain and deliver the content.

Deeper dive
To review: to fetch a webpage, your browser sends a request to the web server, which
searches for the requested file in its own storage space. Upon finding the file, the server reads
it, processes it as needed, and sends it to the browser. Let's look at those steps in more detail.

Hosting files

First, a web server has to store the website's files, namely all HTML documents and their
related assets, including images, CSS stylesheets, JavaScript files, fonts, and video.

Technically, you could host all those files on your own computer, but it's far more convenient
to store files all on a dedicated web server because:

 A dedicated web server is typically more available (up and running).

 Excluding downtime and system troubles, a dedicated web server is always connected to the
Internet.
 A dedicated web server can have the same IP address all the time. This is known as
a dedicated IP address. (Not all ISPs provide a fixed IP address for home lines.)
 A dedicated web server is typically maintained by a third party.

For all these reasons, finding a good hosting provider is a key part of building your website.
Examine the various services companies offer. Choose one that fits your needs and budget.
(Services range from free to thousands of dollars per month.) You can find more details in
this article.

Once you have web hosting service, you must upload your files to your web server.

Communicating through HTTP

Second, a web server provides support for HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol). As its name
implies, HTTP specifies how to transfer hypertext (linked web documents) between two
computers.

A Protocol is a set of rules for communication between two computers. HTTP is a textual,
stateless protocol.

Textual
 All commands are plain-text and human-readable.

Stateless

Neither the server nor the client remember previous communications. For example,
relying on HTTP alone, a server can't remember a password you typed or remember
your progress on an incomplete transaction. You need an application server for tasks
like that. (We'll cover that sort of technology in other articles.)

HTTP provides clear rules for how a client and server communicate. If you want to learn
more, you can read the HTTP documentation. For now, there are a few things to keep in
mind:

 Clients make HTTP requests to servers. Servers respond to a client's HTTP request.
 When requesting a file via HTTP, clients must provide the file's URL.
 The web server must answer every HTTP request, at least with an error message.

On a web server, the HTTP server is responsible for processing and answering incoming
requests.

1. Upon receiving a request, an HTTP server checks if the requested URL matches an existing
file.
2. If so, the web server sends the file content back to the browser. If not, the server will check
if it should generate a file dynamically for the request (see Static vs. dynamic content).
3. If neither of these options are possible, the web server returns an error message to the
browser, most commonly 404 Not Found. The 404 error is so common that some web
designers devote considerable time and effort to designing 404 error pages.

Static vs. dynamic content

Roughly speaking, a server can serve either static or dynamic content. Remember that the
term static means "served as-is". Static websites are the easiest to set up, so we suggest you
make your first site a static site.
The term dynamic means that the server processes the content or even generates it on the fly
from a database. This approach provides more flexibility, but the technical stack is more
complex, making it dramatically more challenging to build a website.

It is impossible to suggest a single off-the-shelf application server that will be the right
solution for every possible use case. Some application servers are designed to host and
manage blogs, wikis, or e-commerce solutions, while others are more generic. If you're
building a dynamic website, take the time to research your requirements and find the
technology that best fits your needs.

Most website developers won't need to create an application server from scratch, because
there are so many off-the-shelf solutions, many of which are highly configurable. But if you
do need to create your own server, then you will probably want to use a server framework,
leveraging its existing code and libraries, and extending just the parts that you need in order
to meet your use case. Only a relatively small number of developers should need to develop a
server completely from scratch: for example, in order to meet tight resource constraints on an
embedded system. If you'd like to experiment with building a server, take a look through the
resources in the Server-side website programming learning pathway.