To distribute information via the WWW, you first need to set up an HTTP server. The HTTP protocol is stateless, lightweight, and extremely fast, and it provides capabilities that are not found in earlier protocols, such as FTP.
One of the first steps in setting up a server is getting server software. HTTP server software is available from various WWW sources for Unix, Macintosh, Windows, and VMS systems (see
http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/Daemon/Overview.html
for more information on writing servers and gateways in general).
UNIX SERVERS
NCSA httpd
. This is available at the URL (universal resource locator) ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Web/ncsa_httpd.
CERN httpd
. CERN's server is available for anonymous FTP from info.cern.ch (the URL is http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/Daemon/Status.html). It's also available from many other sources; use your local copy of Archie to search for "www" to find a near-by site.
GN Gopher/HTTP server
. The GN server is unique in that it can serve WWW and Gopher clients (in their native modes). This is a good server for those migrating from Gopher to WWW, although it does not have the server-side script capabilities of the NCSA and CERN servers. See the URL http://hopf.math.nwu.edu/.
Perl server
. This is a server written in the Perl scripting language, called Plexus, for which documentation is available at the URL http://bsdi.com/server/doc/plexus.html.
MACINTOSH SERVER
MacHTTP
is available at the URL http://www.uth.tmc.edu/ mac_info/machttp_info.html.
WINDOWS AND NT SERVERS
HTTPS
. A server for Intel- and Alpha-based Windows NT systems. It's available via anonymous FTP from emwac.ed.ac.uk in the directory pub/https (the URL is ftp://emwac.ed.ac.uk/pub/https). Make sure to download the version that's appropriate for your particular processor. You can either read a detailed announcement at the FTP site or use the URL ftp://emwac.ed.ac.uk/pub/https.txt.
NCSA httpd for Windows
. This server includes most of the features of the Unix version, including scripts (which generate pages on the fly, based on user input). This server is available by anonymous FTP from ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu in the Web/ncsa_httpd/contrib directory as the file whtp1 1ab6.zip, or at the URL ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.u/Web/ncsa_httpd/contrib/whtp11ab6.zip.
SerWeb
. A simple, effective server for Windows. It's available by anonymous FTP from winftp.cica.indiana.edu (or one of its mirror sites, such as nic.switch.ch), as the file serweb03.zip, in the directory /pub/p
c/win3/winsock. There is also a Windows NT version of SerWeb, available by anonymous FTP from emwac.ed.ac.uk as the file /pub/serweb/serweb_i.zip.
WEB4HAM
. This server is available via anonymous FTP from ftp.informatik.uni-hamburg.de as the file /pub/net/winsock/ web4ham.zip.
OS/2 SERVER
OS2HTTPD
. For information, see the home page for details (the URL is ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/kfan/overview.html) or fetch the package by anonymous FTP from ftp.netcom.com in the directory pub/kfan.
DOS SERVER
KA9Q NOS
(nos11c.exe) is an Internet server package for DOS that includes HTTP and Gopher servers. It can be obtained via anonymous FTP from inorganic5.chem.uf1.edu or biochemistry.cwru.edu.
VMS SERVERS
CERN HTTP for VMS
. This is a port of the CERN server. It's available at the URL http://delonline.cern.ch/disk$user/duns/doc/vms/distributio
n.html.
Region 6 Threaded HTTP Server
. A native VMS server that uses DECthreads. This offers a performance advantage, because VMS has a high overhead for each process, which is a problem for the frequently forking NCSA and CERN servers that began life under Unix. A multithreaded server avoids this overhead. It's available at the URL http://keg11.eng.ohio-state.edu/www/doc/serverinfo.html.
AMIGA SERVER
NCSA's Unix server
. This Unix server has been ported to the Amiga and is bundled with the AMosaic browser. See the URL http://insti.physics.sunysb.edu/AMosaic/home.html for details.
Setting Up a Server
