Web server
From The IT Law Wiki
[edit] Overview
A Web server is a computer and software that supplies information and services to other host computers. The delivered content may contain text, image, audio, and video information, formatted in HTML or another markup language. A Web server performs this function by responding to HTTP requests sent to it from a Web browser.
A Web server can host multiple websites. Additionally, the files (Web pages) that comprise a single website may exist on more than one Web server.
[edit] How a Web server works
The transaction begins when a browser requests a resource from the Web server. In the simplest case, the Web server retrieves the requested content from a file system and transmits it to the browser. While this approach works well for static, non-volatile information, it can be unsuitable in situations where the information is volatile, already resides in a database or other repository under a different format, or varies according to the input provided. In such cases, the Web server responds to the request by creating the content dynamically, typically by spawning a process or lightweight thread to generate the information. The Common Gateway Interface (CGI) is an industry standard for communicating between a Web server and another program that is often employed in such instances.
