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What Exactly Is a Web Server?

What Is A "Web Server"?

A Web Server?

It's a computer that serves web pages.

In other words - every time you visit a web site, those pages are being served to you by a computer known as a web server.

And if we once again take the example of the BBC and their dozens (probably more) of servers, that's how many computers they need to deliver all the web pages people are asking for from them at the same time.

And so that there isn't a huge bottleneck and you (as a surfer) have to wait around for your page to appear, they've chosen to spend the money on enough servers to deliver instantly to you.

So that's what a web server is.

And in some respects it behaves just like an ordinary computer - a Pentium IV (4) web server will process requests faster than a Pentium III (3) web server.

(If you're not sure what Pentium's are, that's a model of CPU that runs in a computer.  Okay, so what's a CPU?  It stands for Central Processing Unit and you can consider it the brains of the computer.  The more powerful the CPU the faster your computer can calculate and process things.)

Now, if you have a computer at home with a broadband (Cable or ADSL) connection you could run that as a web server.

However, it's not recommended for lots of reasons.  One reason is it's a pretty inefficient way to organise your web business.  You could get serious traffic bottlenecks since your connection is limited by your ISP.  And of course chances are your ISP won't be happy with you using your connection in that way.

So one aspect of what a web server is, is it's a computer that delivers web pages.

Now, how does the web server send the pages from itself, to your computer?

Well, those pages travel across the internet of course.  BUT - they start out on a server.  How do they initially get from the server to the internet?

Well, a server needs a direct connection to the internet.  To cope with lots of traffic at the same time, that connection must be substantial and always on.

And that's why web hosting companies usually run their operations from something called a Data Centre.

It's a central area with lots of web servers together and they all access the internet through at least one huge "pipe".  Through this pipe information flows back and forth from web servers to web surfers and back again.

So if we imagine a web hosting company:

ACME Hosting Company

Let's assume they have 100 web hosting clients.

Each web hosting client has a dedicated server.

So each of those 100 servers are together in the company's data centre.

This data centre has two HUGE pipes to the internet to cope with all the data flowing back and forth from the servers.

Actually, one of those connections is the main connection, and the other connection is a back up connection that kicks in if there's ever any issues with the main connection.

Okay, so now we're clear what a web server is, let's quickly talk through the differences of a dedicated hosting account and a shared hosting account...

Dedicated vs. Shared Hosting

As we've already touched on, a dedicated web server means the server is all yours.  This allows you to handle a lot of visitors at the same time.

However, I started out with shared hosting and that's where most people start out.  And many people are quite happy to stay using shared hosting if it serves their business well.

So what is shared hosting?

It's pretty much exactly as the name implies - it's where you're sharing a web server with other people.

So let's imagine you're sharing a web server with 100 other people and let's assume the web host then gives you 1% of the disk space on that server and 1% of the CPU power...etc.

Of course, because the hosting company is having that web server shared by 100 people, they charge less per person since the numbers make up for it.

If we assume for this example:

The web server costs the web hosting company $1,000 a month to keep running.

The web hosting company chooses to put 100 customers on that server at $19.95 a month each.

Therefore, the web hosting company makes $1,995 in revenue each month from a web server that costs them $1,000 a month.

As you may have noticed, I generally talk in monthly costs for web hosting.  This is because most web hosting is paid month by month.

You can pay per quarter or even per year, and may get a discount that way, but you are in fact renting the web space and in the process are allowed to use the major internet connection at the data centre where the web server is located.

As a side note - you may occasionally see offers for "lifetime web hosting" and "pay only once".

All I can say about that is I would never risk my business on such web hosting.

If you only pay a company once for a service you use again and again for months and years to come, I can only expect the service to deteriorate.  And who knows how long the company will be around anyway?

Not recommended at all.

Now let's start going through the individual elements that actually make up a web server...

What Is "Disk Space"?

Disk space, is how much space there is on the hard drive, or how much space YOU'VE been allocated on the hard drive.

Okay, so what's a hard drive?

Well, you know on a computer - when you start it up in the morning it looks for Windows (or MacOS if you've got a Mac).  Well, it looks for Windows on it's hard drive.

The hard drive is the permanent memory - that's where information is stored, and which remains even when the computer is switched off.

So, the computer starts up, finds Windows, reads Windows into memory (more on this later) and then behaves as Windows instructs it to.

Therefore a hard drive is permanent storage - used to store information on how the computer is meant to run itself, and also for storing data - your documents, pictures...etc.

The hard drive of a web server works exactly the same way.  From the hard drive (also called the hard disk) the computer reads the instructions (the Operating System) so that it knows how to function.

The hard drive is also used to store your web pages and related information (like graphics).  So that when a web surfer visits your web site and requests a page through their browser, the web server searches the hard drive for that document, and then delivers it to the surfer.

That's what a hard drive is.

So, what's disk space?

Disk space is how large the hard drive is.  Not physically, but how much data can be stored on the disk.

This is usually measured in GB (gigabytes).

Hard drives keep getting larger and cheaper.  But for example let's take the drive in my web server:

It's 30 GB in size.  That means I've pretty much got 30 GB to use as my own.

A data DVD can store around 5 GB of data, so think about that - I could deliver up to 6 DVD's worth of information.  An AWFUL lot of data I'm sure you'll agree.

As I write this, I've only used a couple of GB, and even that's a lot compared to many web sites.

(The reason I've used so much is because I have a lot of audio & video on my sites, and those are usually quite large in size.)

Now, if my web server was a shared server, and let's assume 100 people were sharing my server, they could each only have a maximum of:

30 GB divided by 100 people = 300 MB  (megabytes)

(1 GB = 1,024 MB)

(1 MB = 1,024 KB - kilobytes)

(1 KB = 1,024 bytes)

See how that works?

So I'm paying $150 a month for my server.

If I charged 100 people $9.95 each and gave them 300 MB in disk space each, the server would be equally shared and I'll make a nice profit.

Of course, things aren't quite that straight forward as you'll discover as you read on in this report, but that's the theory.

What Is The "CPU"?

As we've briefly touched on, the CPU stands for Central Processing Unit.  You can consider it the "brains" of the computer.

This is the microchip that does all the calculations and generally keeps everything working together.

Each time you move your mouse or press the keyboard, that instruction goes through the CPU and the computer decides what to do about it.

So why's it important to know what a CPU is?

Well - what is important to know is that the more powerful the CPU is, generally the better your web server will cope with lots of traffic.

If you have a very busy site, a faster and more powerful CPU is better.

And it's also worth mentioning that some web servers have more than one CPU.  Some have two or more, and this obviously makes them even more powerful.  But for most web sites that's not needed.

As an example, let's talk through some cases from Pair.com.

As I write this, if you go to the following address:

www.QuickServe.com

You'll be taken to the page on Pair's main web site where they show you what dedicated servers you can host on.

Let's start with "QS-1".

This stands for QuickServe-1.  Pair consider this their entry-level dedicated server.

Now it is important to mention that these examples are accurate as I write this.  As technology and the internet keeps moving forward, by the time you read this these examples may not be strictly accurate.  However, the principles behind them remain.

Right - so QS-1 has the following CPU:

Intel Celeron 2.4GHz CPU

That's an Intel made microchip.  It's the model of chip called a "Celeron" which is pretty powerful.

And it runs at 2.4GHz.  That basically describes the speed it runs at.  The faster, the better.  So a 3GHz CPU can process instructions quicker than a 2.4GHz CPU, for example.

Now, let's take a look at their QS-2 web server.  They list the CPU as:

Intel Pentium 4 2.4GHz CPU

For this model of web server, Pair once again have an Intel made microchip.  And this time they have the make of chip "Pentium 4".

A "Pentium 4" is more powerful than a "Celeron".

However, the speed for this chip is the same speed - 2.4GHz, but since it's a more powerful model there's more processing power with this web server.

Now let's take a look at QS-3.  They list the CPU as:

AMD Athlon XP2800+ CPU

So in this model of web server, they're no longer using Intel made microchips and are instead using AMD made microchips.

The model of the chip is "Athlon XP".

And even though the speed is described as "2800+", surprisingly it runs at 2.083 GHz.

The faster and more powerful the CPU's are, the more powerful the "brains" of the web server, which means it can cope with lots of visitors better.

So how does this affect you when looking at web servers?

Well, if you're sharing a web server with others, you want at least one powerful CPU.

Think about it - if you're sharing a server with 100 other people, and you generally get 1% of the CPU's attention, you want that attention to be both powerful and able to make fast calculations.  An old and slower CPU would greatly affect the ability of a shared web server to function effectively.

So that's why it's important to look at what CPU the web server you're hosting your web sites on, has.

And as I mentioned earlier, for my first dedicated server which I'm currently still on as I write this - I'm using a low end server which Pair describe as a QS-0.

The CPU it has is an "Intel Celeron 866 MHz".

So it's made by Intel.  The CPU model is Celeron (not as powerful as a Pentium 4) and it runs as 866 MHz (0.866 GHz).

Now, that may sound a little feeble compared to some of the other servers we've just looked at, but it does the job perfectly fine.

As soon as my web sites and traffic justify the increased expense, it's very easy for me to upgrade to the QS-1 model.

Now, let's talk a little about "memory"...

Part 1 - An Introduction

Part 2 - What Exactly Is a Web Server?

Part 3 - Your Web Server Memory and Operating System Options

Part 4 - Bandwidth, and Backups

Part 5 - More About Backups, And How To Monitor Your Sites Automatically

Part 6 - Databases, Unmanaged Hosting, and More...