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Unit 10: Servers

z z Run as standalone or inetd / xinetd operation Notes
z z Per-user configuration
z z Bandwidth throttling
z z Per-source-IP configurability
z z Per-source-IP limits
z z IPv6 ready

z z Encryption support through SSL integration
z z And much more.

Self Assessment

Fill in the blanks:
5. ............................... is a TCP protocol for uploading and downloading files between
computers.

6. FTP ............................... constantly listens for FTP requests from remote clients.

10.3 Apache Web Server

The Apache Web server, for those of you who haven’t heard of it, is debatably the most popular
Web server in use on the Internet today. While Microsoft contends that its Internet Information
Server (IIS) is making huge gains, it’s still struggling in many ways against Apache. Why?
For beginners, you don’t have to be running Windows to run Apache. It was first developed on
the various Unix/Linux/BSD platforms, and then recently ported to Win32. Internet Information
Server, while a very good Web server on the NT platform, is trapped in the “Windows-only”
world. While IIS has many handy features, not everyone wants to run NT for their Web server’s
OS.
One more reason for Apache’s widespread acceptance is its overall stability. While you can slow
down an Apache Web server (especially if you run tons of PERL/CGI scripts on it), you can
rarely, if ever, kill one. The Apache Web server service is near bombproof.
Finally, it’s relatively fast. We say “relatively” as it’s relative to what you’re doing with it. If
you’re hosting a Web site with mostly static content, Apache is a fireball. If of desktop-centric
Linux such as Caldera, it’s rare that you won’t have the Apache server installed. During your
Linux installation, if you see an option for “Web services” makes sure to select it so that Apache
will be installed. If you’re new to the Unix/Linux/BSD world, we should warn you about
something. There are two types of installation packages – source and binary.

Notes If you’re new to the Unix world, try to download a binary format. A binary is the
fully compiled version of the application that\’s ready to be installed on your system.

A source package is just that, it’s the source code to the application. This way you have to
compile it into an executable program all by yourself. One often messes up while compiling an
application. If you’re fortunate, you’ll find your error immediately. If you’re unlucky, it could be
hours, days or weeks before you find out, and then you have to spend time re-compiling it again
to fix your mistakes. Do yourself a favor when first learning Apache – find the binary package for
your OS. You can learn the finer points of compilation later.

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