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A plethora of Web Hosting Platforms
A variety of types of web servers' store and exchange information with other machines. These web service operating systems answer requests from other machines. The party that requests the information is referred to as a client. Both web servers and clients require software to handle this exchange of information.
Web Servers and their Responsibilities:
While clients' software remains simple (i.e., involving web browsers), web servers can utilize a wide variety of options. The server's operating system determines the type of server software that works for a particular computer. For example, Windows users often choose Microsoft Internet Explorer to request information from the web. Many Unix users, however, choose Apache Web Server as their number one option. A simple exchange between a web server and a client machine often involves the following steps:
The client's browser separates the URL into a number of different parts including path name, address, and protocol.
A DNS (domain home server) translates the domain name that the user has entered into its IP address, or a numeric symbol that represents the site's true address on the web.
The browser determines which protocol (e.g., FTP or file transfer, HTTP or HyperText Transfer Protocol) should be used.
The server sends a GET request to the web server to retrieve the address that it was given. The server responds to the client's request by verifying that the address exists, finding the necessary files, running appropriate scripts, exchanging cookies if necessary, and returning results back to the browser. The server sends an error message to the client if it cannot find the file.
The browser translates the data to readable language and displays results to the user.
Additional responsibilities of a web browser include recognizing error and data types, recognizing various elements on a web page (e.g., audio files), and others depending on the site's function.
Platforms for Web Hosting
The platform, or operating system, is software that makes the other computer software and hardware work together. In addition to the web server OS, a computer requires special software to render web pages on the internet known as web server software.
The most popular web server software includes Internet Information Services (IIS) for Windows and Apache for all platforms.
Features of Various Web Hosting Platforms
The following are common web hosting platforms and their various features:
Windows: Windows 2000 Server is a Microsoft product that is extremely popular due to its friendly interfaces which make the windowing environment simple and easy for the user. A simple point and click of the mouse will order most commands (rather than writing DOS commands). Windows is recommended for beginners because of its easy configuration and assistance available either through Windows or the internet. Windows is recommended if you use Active Server Pages (ASP) or .NET as the server technology on Internet Information Services. If Microsoft Access or MS SQL is used as a database, then Windows should be used as well. Server management is by far easier with Windows than any other platform. In addition, most vendors support Windows because the
popularity of the operating system. Windows also provides built in software such as email. Windows server software, however, can be expensive ($300 to $600 per license) and lead to higher web hosting costs. Other disadvantages include inability to move applications to other platforms, and high vulnerability to hackers and security flaws.
Linux: The Linux Server OS has become a highly popular operating system due to its free cost, open source, and support for a wide variety of technologies including PHP and MySQL. The Linux environment provides stronger reliability, stability, and performance than Windows. Web hosting costs are low because there is no cost to purchase the platform. Support is high for the free and open source technologies such as PHP and MySQL. The internet provides a large amount of support due to the increasing support of the Linux operating system. One disadvantage of using this platform is that a person requires special knowledge and skills to configure and maintain the server. Additional software for the Linux platform is not as extensive and common as it is for Windows.
Solaris: The Solaris server is an operating system developed by Sun Microsystems. Many core components of Solaris have made their way into an open source version, OpenSolaris. Solaris is designed and marketed as a combined package with Sun's SPARC hardware. This leads to more reliable service but at higher costs to the user.
FreeBSD: FreeBSD is an Unix-like operating system that is free of cost and has descended from AT&T Unix. FreeBSD runs on processors compatible with the Intel x86 family and various others. It is highly regarded as a reliable and robust operating system with a long uptime. FreeBSD offers binary compatibility with other Unix-like platforms (e.g., Linux) and free BSD dedicated server hosting.
Mac OSX: Mac OSX is developed and sold by Apple Computer and is the successor to the original Mac OS. Unlike the original, Mac OSX is a multi-user,
pre-emptively multi-tasking, Unix-like operating system. Mac OSX includes its own software development tools and is often compatible with many BSD and Linux doftware packages as long as they have been compiled for the platform. Mac OSX is bundled with hardware but can also be sold separately for between $129 and $499 depending on your needs.
As you can see, a variety of web server operating systems exist to serve your needs. Overviews of various types of web servers can be found at the Wikipedia website among other places.
