This may be a stupid question but h

[DonSJ67]

This may be a stupid question but how exactly does apache do and what does it do? Does a web server software like apache just enable typing in a name such as

http://www.name.com

and having a web page come up. Im not new to computers but have never learned what a web server does exactly and how to use it. Is there any info on how to use it for a beginner. I do understand HTML but not about web server. Thanks for any information.

 

[danielhozac]

This depends on whether you are running the server from (x)inetd or as a standalone server.
A standalone server listens to connections coming in to the computer, Apache usually listens to port 80 since that is the HTTP's port. When another computer establishes a connection to the right port, your operating system sends the packets to the server program, in this case Apache. Apache then reads the request and exracts the most important parts from the request and then it starts processing it. When it has the complete page, it sends it back to the client via the same socket as the client sent the request through.
In inetd mode, the server itself doesn't have to listen to the ports. inetd does that for you. When a packet is addressed a port that is in the inetd config file, inetd calls the program and sends the packets to standard input. Then all the server has to do is to read and process the request and then print to standard output. Writing servers for use with inetd is much easier, since you only have to deal with standard input and output.
//Daniel

 

[RhythmAce]

Hi Don, That's not a stupid question. Some time or other everyone has asked it. The world wide web is what it is because of servers. When you type a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) into your browser's location bar, that name is looked up in your ISP's DNS (Domain Name Service) servers. The DNS server will find the IP (Internet Protocol) address associated with that name and send the requset to that IP. If an HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) request comes to that IP (usually on port 80), a webserver will take the request and serve the "page". Apache is the web server that is used more than all the other webservers combined. Almost every distibution of linux (a unix clone) comes with apache and almost all distros come with sendmail. Sendmail is used by some of the biggest ISPs in the world for their e-mail servers. With both of these going for you, you would have a system worth more than any other out there. With linux you would have an OS that was doing 32 bit multi-user multi-tasking while Windows was just a twinkle in Bill Gates' eye. Most distros come with more software than you would ever use. And did I mention that all this was free?

 

[DonSJ67]

Does any one know of any good sites with info on setting up a Apache web server? Im looking for one that will show how to set up and use a basic web server. Thanks for your help

 

[RhythmAce]

You should be able to find everything you need at

http://www.apache.org

for setting up the server but if you are asking how to setup a good website, you might try

http://www.htmlgoodies.com