Unix Servers

NCSA httpd

NCSA has released a server, known as the NCSA httpd; it is available at the URL ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Web/httpd .

EIT httpd

EIT has created the Webmaster's Starter Kit, which installs their WWW server on your system via the web through a painless forms interface. Recommended for those unfamiliar with server installation. You can learn more about the starter kit and the EIT httpd at the starter kit site (URL is http://wsk.eit.com/wsk/doc/ ).

Apache httpd

Apache is a powerful, reliable drop-in replacement for the NCSA httpd, currently available in beta test form: <URL:http://www.apache.org/apache/>

CERN httpd

CERN's server is available for anonymous FTP from ftp.w3.org (URL is http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/Daemon/Status.html ) and many other places. Use your local copy of archie to search for "www" in order to find a nearby site.

Netscape's Netsite Servers

Netscape Communications Corporation offers two server products, high-end Netscape Commerce Server (capable of secure transactions) and the less expensive Netscape Communications Server. Both products feature a more efficient replacement for CGI (common gateway interface) programming and are designed to be more efficient than traditional free-of-charge servers such as the NCSA and CERN http demons.

Compuserve Internet Office Web Server

Compuserve's Internet division (formerly Spry) offers the Internet Office Web Server, available for both Unix and Windows NT. The standard edition can be tried out for free. The professional edition includes editing tools and supports S-HTTP security and SQL database connectivity.

GN Gopher/HTTP server

The GN server is unique in that it can serve both WWW and Gopher clients (in their native modes). This is a good server for those migrating from Gopher to WWW, and includes some of the more powerful web server features as well (such as CGI scripts). See the URL http://hopf.math.nwu.edu/.

Perl server

There is also 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 .

WN Server

The WN Server, available at the URL http://hopf.math.nwu.edu/docs/manual.html , is designed with an emphasis on security and flexibility, and takes a different approach from the NCSA and CERN servers. It provides text searching facilities as a standard feature.

Phttpd

The Phttpd Server, available by anonymous FTP from ftp.lysator.liu.se in the directory pub/phttpd, is a multithreaded server for Sun's Solaris 2.X operating system which takes advantage of memory mapping and dynamic linking to achieve excellent performance.

Open Market Web Servers

Open Market offers two commercial products, WebServer and the Secure WebServer. The latter supports the Secure HTTP standard for secure transactions. Both are multithreaded for efficiency and emphasize strong logging features and access control (URL is <URL:http://www.openmarket.com> ).

Spinner

Spinner is a free web server for Unix platforms which supports extensive server-side parsing of documents, completely avoids forking for non-CGI accesses, and supports multiple roots for multiple host names (URL is <URL:http://spinner.infovav.se/> ).