World Wide Web Server Software
Some of this information may be out of date.
A World Wide Web server, like the ftp
daemon , is a program which
responds to an incoming tcp connection and provides a service to the caller.
There are many varieties of World Wide Web server software to serve different
forms of data.
See Also: a list of servers
in the Web Developer's Virtual
list of servers.
Basic World Wide Web servers
Whatever server you are running, you will probably be interested in:
- Apache server
- The Apache project has produced a full-featured, general purpose HTTP
server, including non-forking server pool operation, an API for server
extensions, content negotiation, extended logfiles, etc. Includes the
complete source code. Platforms: unix.
- CERN server
- The World Wide Web daemon program, full featured, with access
authorization and research tools. This daemon is also used as a basis
for many other types of server and gateways. Platforms: unix, VMS.
- NCSA server
- A server for files, written in C, public domain. Many features as
CERN's httpd. Platforms: unix.
- Spinner is a modularised, object oriented World Wide Web HTTP/1.0 and
HTTP/0.9 compliant server, distributed under the GPL license.
- A server for Windows NT provided by Computer Software Manufaktur.
- CL-HTTP is a full-featured, object-oriented HTTP server written in Common
Lisp by John
Mallery at the M.I.T.
Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. It runs on MAC, UNIX, and the
Lisp Machine, and ports are underway to the PC.
- A server for OS/2 supporting both HTTP and Gopher, from Mike
Cowlishaw of IBM UK Laboratories.
- A single server providing both HTTP and Gopher access to the same
data. In C, General Public License. Designed to help servers transition
from gopher to WWW. Platforms: unix.
- Specialized WWW Servers. Commercial, from Quadralay, Inc.
- HTTPS for Windows/NT
- Service for NT. Configurable using control panel.
- Server in Tk/TCL being written by Lindsay Marshall
- Server for the Macintosh.
- Commercially supported server from Netscape Communications Inc.
- from Marc VanHeyningen at Indiana University. Written in
- Phttpd server
- A general WWW server written in C, using features like
multithreading, memory mapping and dynamic linking to achieve its goals
of high speed, scalability and light weight. Written by Peter Eriksson
of Signum Support AB. Platform: SunOS 5.4 (Unix)
- Tony Sander's server originally based on Marc VH's, but incorporating
lots more stuff, including an Archie gateway, etc etc. Platforms:
- Process Software's server for Windows NT and future Win32 platforms
such as Windows 95.
- REXX for VM
- A server consisting of a amall C program which passes control to a
server written in REXX.
- HTTP for
- By R.M.Troth.
See list of sites
- VAX/VMS server
- Uses DEC/Threads for speed.
- SerWeb is a WWW server that can run on the Windows 3.1 system.
- A server for NT and Win95 from O'Reilly.
- Windows httpd 1.4
- A Windows server created by Robert Denny; see the home page for full
- The design of WN is based on the use of a small flat database in each
directory with information about the files in that directory. Fields
associated with a file include its title, and may include keywords,
expiration date and any user defined fields like author or document id.
Writing a new server
This daemon is often used as a basis for a more specific server for a given
application. A server which allows a world of data to be seen as part of the
World Wide Web universe is known as a gateway. (Most servers could therefore
be regarded as gateways, but the term implies some conversion or mapping
between dissimilar worlds) . For short tutorials with examples, see:
It is a good idea to pick the basic daemon or one of the servers in the list as a starting point when making a
These are servers which provide data extracted from other systems. they are
built using code from the basic daemon, or scripts. See
Last updated 18 January 2002