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There are usually two definitions for web servers, one is software serving for HTTP requests and other is a computer running the above software. In this article, we focus on the former web server; the software which is responsible for accepting HTTP requests from web clients and properly responses.

There are many web servers software in the market, some for a price and some for free, sharing the same common features. Let’s discuss the common features of a web server. Every web server accepts HTTP requests from web clients and provides HTTP responses as a result. These HTTP responses are usually HTML data and sometimes it can be raw file, images and other resources. If the web client’s request has errors or the required action cannot be performed, then the web server needs to send an error response.

Logging is another features commonly offered ay almost all the web servers. Web servers log the usage statistics, error statistics etc. This helps the administrators to figure out the user load to the web site so they can do capacity planning etc.

Authentication is another one important provision of most of web servers. This may vary from simple authentication to high security encryption such as SSL (HTTPS). If the connection is encrypted, port 443 is used rather than standard HTTP port 80.

Content compression is another common but important features for optimum usage of the bandwidth. When web servers respond to requests, they can compress the response so it takes only a fraction of the original bandwidth increasing the speed of the communications and decreasing bandwidth cost.

Hosting virtual web sites is one common advantage of modern web servers where many web sites can be hosting through a single IP address. This allows web hosts to minimize the hosting infrastructure while minimizing the cost and further reducing the hosting package prices for clients.