The web hosting statistics of 2021 reveal that there are over 330,000 web hosting service providers globally. All these service providers use web servers for hosting the files of their clients’ sites, in order to provide the service of website hosting to them. Web hosting, as a service is required for making websites accessible online to site visitors and is provided by web hosting companies through their variously priced web hosting plans. Server space on the web servers of website hosting companies, along with the necessary technologies are provided through these plans. Let us elaborate on web servers and subsequently proceed to comprehending the difference between dynamic and static web servers.
The Role of a Web Server in Web Hosting
Web servers have
the most important role to play in web hosting. That is because web servers not
only store and process the files of the websites (text, application data,
images, videos) that have availed the service of hosting, but also let web
browsers retrieve that content from the servers in order to make websites
accessible online to site visitors. Web servers not only store the component
files of websites but also web server software. All the best website hosting services are powered by efficient web
servers.
Web servers
function on the client-server model. Whenever a site visitor initiates the
process of visiting a website on his Internet connected device, his web browser
communicates with the web server that hosts that particular website’s files.
The web server responds to the incoming request by locating the files,
processing those and subsequently delivering the files over the Internet to the
same browser. At this stage the website becomes accessible to the site visitor.
The content of
the site that is hosted on a web server can be static or dynamic. Static
content is shown as it is, whereas dynamic content can be updated and changed.
Server-side scripting languages are supported by most web servers for encoding
business logic into the communication, in order to deliver dynamic content.
In the context of
the service of website hosting, which is of many types, a web server can either
host a single website or multiple websites. Shared web hosting refers to the website
hosting solution wherein multiple sites are hosted on a single server and share
its resources. Dedicated web hosting entails hosting a single site on a single
server. In this type of hosting, the hosted site reaps the benefit of utilizing
the entire resources of the server for its exclusive use. These are two of the
examples that reflect the way in which hosting services differ from each other
in terms of how the web servers host website’s/websites’ files.
The most common
web servers that are available are Apache HTTP Server, NGINX, Microsoft
Internet Information Services (IIS), Lighttpd, and Sun Java System Web Server.
There are some other web servers, such as GWS (Google Web Server), Domino
Server, Novell’s NetWare Server, etc.
As mentioned
previously, web servers can be shared or dedicated, based on how these host the
files of websites. Another way of classifying servers is as dynamic and static.
How
Do Dynamic Web Servers Differ from Static Web Servers?
As you are aware,
websites can have static as well as dynamic content. Hence, a web server can
cater to the requirement of serving either dynamic content or static content.
There will be a
computer and HTTP software in a static web server. Since the web server in this
case sends the hosted files of the site as it is to the browser, it is regarded
as static. On the other hand, when a web server is considered dynamic, software
such as application server and database are involved. The reason it is
considered dynamic is that the application server can be used for updating the
hosted files, prior to these being sent to the browser.
Conclusion:
Regardless of the
type of web server, its function is to respond to client requests which are
made over the Internet. Web servers are meant for displaying the content of the
sites that have availed the service of web hosting, by storing and processing
the files of websites and delivering those over the Internet to site visitors.
HTS
Hosting, the best
Website Hosting Company, provides all types of web hosting solutions
at the most affordable prices, wherein powerfully configured and fully secure
web servers are used to host the files of websites. These web servers exist in
HTS Hosting’s state-of-the-art data centres and deliver continuously high
uptime, fast speed, powerful security and performance.
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