Basics of Web Servers
Web servers are servers that get websites onto the internet. This article will cover the basics of web servers as well as options to build your own web server.
Web pages can be thought of as raw materials. It is made up of videos, images, text files, database content, and more.
The web server is what puts all the raw materials together and then sends the website across the internet so that you can access it.
Most web designers no longer have to think about web servers. You can get a machine on the internet to build and experiment on your own web server, though. The most popular are Apache and NGINX.
Apache has been around for over two decades. It’s a very powerful server engine and has multitudes of people working on it. NGINX is newer and smaller, but way faster.
Which server you choose depends on your needs. If you want power and flexibility to do a variety of things, Apache is probably the best option. NGINX is better for pumping out web pages quickly.
It’s a good idea to get a web server package called Local. It works on PCs and Macs, and allows you to swap between NGINX and Apache. Therefore, it makes it easy to work on both server engines.
For more information on web servers, take a look at the video above and get started tinkering with your very own web server.
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