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Most people never give a second thought to what type of server they are on when surfing the internet. Web designers would normally be concerned with three things. Price, control, and features.

Price involves how much the server will cost per year, or month. Control boils down to how much "control" you will have over the server once it is set up for you. Features means the type of scripts it will run, databases it uses, and how much "bandwidth" and "storage" you will have. Another feature is the type of "web" interface you will have for administration purposes.

If you are in the web "hosting" business you probably already know that there are many options to choose from when it comes to a "server", but what does a server actually "do"?

Not much, unless someone has already told it what to do.

A server hosts a file, or files, for you to browse. The person who runs the server makes the decision on which files you are allowed to see. Many files on a server contain nothing but program "code". You usually do not see these files.

The code in the files usually tells some other application on the server to "do" a certain action.

Applications on the web server determine what type of code must be entered into the files for them to perform properly. For example, PHP code cannot function on a server, unless the server has PHP installed.

Domain Name

A web server must have a domain name in order for you to find it. If you set up the server yourself, you know where to find it with a string of numbers, but others won't find it unless you have a name.

Once you have a "name" it is registered and you must assign that name to your servers DNS (domain name system). DNS is a large, separate topic, but every web server is supposed to have one.

Once you have registered your domain name, and assigned your DNS, then any requests on the internet for your "name" will attempt to go to your server. If you have public files on your server, people will see them when they go to your "name".

This is a simple explanation, for a complicated series of actions. There are books out that explain all of the "code" used for "web development". If you are interested in this area, I suggest "HTML" code for a good place to start.

I will not cover Internet Protocol addresses, or dynamic IP's, although they are very important to anyone running a server.

Once again, a "server" actually does very little, without someone telling it what to do.

Learn more about this author, Ross Valigura.
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