Understanding Apache Web Server Concepts

Apache is a free application that turns any computer into a web server . So if you have Apache on your computer, you can host your website on your own PC.

Apache is an open source, which means that many people have contributed to its development. You can download from the developer’s site and use it freely and without paying any license.

Let’s get technical

Apache can negotiate HTTP from a machine that would serve as a server web and other computers who want to see certain web site hosted here (customers).

What is a protocol?

A protocol is a set of instructions that allows two computers to communicate with each other. Apache is precisely what a computer provides the ability to communicate through the web, and thus host a web site and transmit it to a user’s browser like Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox.

Examples of protocols are TCP / IP and HTTP, that appears every time you visit a web address. HTTP means Hyper Text Transfer Protocol. Break down a little: Hyper Text is neither more nor less than the old link, i.e., it is a hypertext link, and HTTP is a protocol that lets you send documents, web pages, links to other machines. In short, Apache gives your machine the ability to “talk” to other computers, transfer the contents of a website.

What is it to install a server

Many companies that are dedicated to hosting working with Apache . Simply put, there are companies that have “farms”, i.e., large room full of powerful computers, they rent their machines offering web hosting plans .

Apache is also used by private companies who want to ride, for example, your company’s computer system and configure your network with Apache. That is, not that anyone can see that information from home, but it is an Intranet, a private network.

Apache is very popular among those engaged in the business of dedicated hosting because it allows you to manage databases and manage the security of your files, allows sites to provide a user name and password to the users and thus, offer permits differential (like when you log in a forum, you can view and edit your profile, but not edit the profiles of other users, these are examples of permits differential).