HTTP Server : Apache

Apache is a open source HTTP web server. It handles HTTP Requests sent to it and then it is able to them.

Apache is comprised of Two main building Blocks with the Latter being comprised of many other little building blocks. The Building Blocks are the Apache Core and then the Apache Modules that in a sense extend the Apache core.

What is a Web Server? 

A Web Server is any Machine that receives requests from a client machine and is able to turn around process the requests and send back a response. This is usually in terms of a Web Server to send back a Web pages when people what to go navigate to a webpage that is hosted on that server now one may ask how do you send and receive the information to and from the server. This is where HTTP begins to play a role into how this all goes about.

What is HTTP?

HTTP Protocol: HTTP stands for Hyper-Text-Transfer-Protocol

This is the protocol that is used in order to send and receive information from the server. This is the protocol that the Apache Web Server Understands and it is what it uses to send information back to the client Machine. If you would want to get a bit more technical on the subject the Client Machine this case the Browser sends a HTTP.Request Object to the Server then the Server responds back by using an HTTP.Response Object. This is the general back and forth between the server and the browser. Apache is made to handle all of these requests.

Apache Web Server

As I mentioned Before The overall overview of the Apache Web Server is comprised of a Modular approach to the way the system is built instead of just having the server just be one piece of code handling everything. This in turn allows for more robustness and allow for better customization without getting rid of the security that is implemented within the Apache Core.

In order to achieve this Modular Approach the Apache Designers decided to break down the server into two main Components.

       The Apache Core: Which Handles the Basic functionality of the Server. Such as allocating  requests and maintaining and pooling all the connections.

       The Apache Modules: Which are in a sense the added extensions to the server which handle a lot of the other types of processing the server must achieve such as doing user Authentication.