HTTP & WEB SERVERS
This page is part of the Web Development Resources
collection.
Most web site developers do not need to worry about web server configuration
or HTTP, the protocol used to transfer web pages between computers, as they
will be storing pages on a server which is run by somebody else. For those who
run their own servers or want to play with HTTP the resources listed below
should help you figure out how it all works.
Any computer connected to the Internet can run a web server, provided it is
powerful enough. Software is available on numerous different platforms, so you
should be able to find a server package for your machine.
- Serverwatch
- A good general resource which contains a comparison of all the major server
software packages, news, and links to server resources.
- WebCompare
- Detailed comparison of all the leading server packages and many more to
help you decide which one you should be using.
- Apache Week
- Information and news about the most popular server on the web, Apache.
If your web pages are on a machine using Apache you'll find this resource
extremely informative, it covers server side includes, user authentication,
and useful Apache links.
HTTP is the protocol used to transfer information between web servers and web
browser software.
- Programming with the HTTP Protocol
- An excellent guide to HTTP, including an introduction to the protocol and
example C code for connecting to web servers.
- HTTP - Hypertext Transfer Protocol
- The official specifications, including future plans and the current
standards.
Persistent cookies allow a web browser to send information to the server about
the user each time the site is visited. This allows designers to create web
pages which can be customised, depending on the content of these cookies.
- Guide to Persistent Cookies
- Starts with an overview of what cookies are and how they work, then discusees
security & privacy issues and finishes up with a set of useful links. A very
useful, yet concise, resource.
- Client Side State - HTTP Cookies
- Details of the specification for cokkies, from Netscape.
- Libwww
- A general purpose web API written in C which can be used as the code base
for web clients, servers, proxies and other software.
- libwww-Perl
- A collection of Perl modules which provide a simple and consistent way of
creating WWW clients and servers. Basically, it's similar to the World Wide
Web Consortium's libwww, only in perl instead of C.
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