Web Server

Web Server

Before you can display your HTML pages on the Web, you'll need access to a Web server. This may already be taken care of for you, especially if you work with an Information Systems (IS) department in a larger corporation. If this is the case, you'll just need to know how and where to send your HTML files when you want to update the site. Otherwise, you'll need to make some arrangements on your own.

It isn't terribly difficult to set up your own Web server-especially if you already have a high-speed connection to the Internet. If you access the Internet through an Internet service provider (ISP), you'll want to discuss this with them, though. More than likely, they're willing to provide you with space on their Web server computers. If your Web site is a fairly small venture, or if you're not ready for a heavy investment in equipment, then using your ISP's Web server is a great (and very common) alternative.

In its essence, it's the job of a Web server to accept connections from Web browsers all over the Internet and, when requested, send them the HTML documents that are available from your site. A Web server is simply a computer with an Internet connection that runs software designed to send out HTML pages and other file formats.The server computer should have a relatively high-speed connection to the Internet (faster than any available modem connections, for instance) and be powerful enough to deal with a number of simultaneous connections from the Internet.

Web server software generally requires a fairly robust operating system (like UNIX, Windows NT, or OS/2), although software is available for other versions of Microsoft Windows, and the Macintosh OS is a very popular choice for Web server computers. The software you use depends on your level of experience with Internet connections and various operating systems.

Speed of the Server

The other major consideration is how popular your Web site will be. The more hits, or connections, your Web server receives at one time, the more powerful the computer should be-and the faster your connection to the Internet. What do I mean by a fast connection?

Most Internet connections are measured in terms of bits per second (bps), which translates loosely as "how many bits of data can be transmitted across the Internet in a second." In computerese, it takes eight bits to make up one byte of computer information-and a byte is what is required to create a character of text.

The typical modem connection is 14,400 bps, which translates to roughly 1,800 characters (bytes) transferred every second. If a typical page of text contains 300 words then, and each word averages six characters per word, this connection would yield roughly a page-per-second transmission rate. A 25-kilobyte (KB) file (such as a very small GIF file) would take about 14 seconds to transmit over this connection.

This doesn't sound terribly slow, until you start to take into account the idea that more than one connection might occur with the Web server. If ten people connect to our server over this connection, it will take ten seconds to complete the task of sending each of them a single page of data. If that page totaled 25 KB in size (that is, if it included graphics and other elements), it could take over 140 seconds to complete that same task.

Types of Internet Connections

So your server will need a faster connection. But how do you get one? If Internet access is available to you through your company's Local Area Network (LAN), you probably already have a high-speed connection. Ask around your IS department. If you're running a small business or home office, you won't have to worry about high speed if you make your Web pages available on your ISP's Web server.

Dealing with an ISP

For any sort of connection to the Internet, you'll probably need to deal with an Internet service provider. These companies offer dial-up and special high-speed connections to the Internet, as well as generally offering Web and other types of Internet servers for your use.For the typical smaller Web site, you'll want to buy space on the ISP's Web site. Generally this will give you an URL that begins with the name of the ISP's host computer, but points to a special directory for your HTML pages.With most Web server programs, the default page that is first loaded is named index.html, so that's the name you'll use for the first page you'd like presented to users when they access your Web site.