W3C

World Wide Web Server Software

NOTE Note: Some of this information may be out of date.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 Library. yahoo's list of servers.

Basic World Wide Web servers

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
Spinner is a modularised, object oriented World Wide Web HTTP/1.0 and HTTP/0.9 compliant server, distributed under the GPL license.
Alibaba
A server for Windows NT provided by Computer Software Manufaktur.
CL-HTTP
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.
GoServe
A server for OS/2 supporting both HTTP and Gopher, from Mike Cowlishaw of IBM UK Laboratories.
GN
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.
GWHIS Server
Specialized WWW Servers. Commercial, from Quadralay, Inc.
HTTPS for Windows/NT
Service for NT. Configurable using control panel.
Jungle
Server in Tk/TCL being written by Lindsay Marshall
MacHTTP
Server for the Macintosh.
Netsite
Commercially supported server from Netscape Communications Inc.
Perl server
from Marc VanHeyningen at Indiana University. Written in perl. Platforms: unix
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)
Plexus
Tony Sander's server originally based on Marc VH's, but incorporating lots more stuff, including an Archie gateway, etc etc. Platforms: unix.
Purveyor
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 VM
By R.M.Troth. See list of sites using it.
VAX/VMS server
Uses DEC/Threads for speed.
SerWeb
SerWeb is a WWW server that can run on the Windows 3.1 system.
Website
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 details.
WN
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. (User's Guide, Features)
Whatever server you are running, you will probably be interested in:

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 new server.

Other servers and Gateways

These are servers which provide data extracted from other systems. they are built using code from the basic daemon, or scripts. See


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Last updated 18 January 2002