Wrapping Up Page 11

That’s it! How a Web server works in a nutshell. Well, OK, so it’s a pretty big nutshell. On the surface, it is difficult to believe that there can be so much to a piece of software that distributes HTML documents and images.

When discussing how a Web server works, it is not enough to simply outline a diagram of how low-level network packets go in and out of a Web server.

Seven years ago that was the case. Since then, the concept of content has evolved to include application data, streaming multimedia, security models, and integration with other data and content servers. Likewise, the mechanisms behind how the Web server integrates with the rest of the world to provide this content has expanded as well.

In summary, this tutorial has gone over all the bits and pieces that make a Web server work. We have covered everything from how the server works internally to how it works within an existing infrastructure.