Netcraft is well known throughout the web hosting industry for measuring and publishing the response times of the top 50 leading hosting company’s servers.  The firm’s measurements are made at 15 minute intervals from individual points around the web while the averages are calculated immediately over the following 24-hour period.  According to the data compiled by Netcraft, 34SP is currently ranked as 25^th amongst the world’s top 50 web hosting providers.

Stuart Melling, 34SP cofounder, stressed the importance of upholding server uptime for their customers in a recent interview.  Melling states that 34SP was founded on the core values of high availability and reliability, qualities that enable every individual, developer and small business owner to get the most out of their hosting solution at a reasonable price.  34SP has been able to thrive in the industry by utilizing the best server hardware and software technologies coupled with an expert support staff that works tirelessly to make the customers happy.   Now recognized on a global scale by Netcraft for its network reliability, it is clear to see that these investments have paid off.

According to a recent statement, 34SP dramatically enhanced the reliability and overall performance of its network and hosting services by investing in an extensive infrastructure upgrade.  This upgrade was powered by the substantial increase in sales for the provider’s hosting solutions, an impressive lineup that features personal hosting, business hosting, VPS hosting, dedicated servers, reseller hosting and add-on products that range from SSL certificates to additional scripting technologies.  34PS has also made significant improvements to its customer service and technical support system.  Investments have been recently made toward hiring additional support staff members, upgrading local office and data center hardware, and expanding the customer support operations within the 34SP global headquarters.

The reasoning behind the additional support investments came as the result of an active client survey 34SP conducted early 2009.  This survey involved a large number of approximately 15,000 34SP hosting clients with personal, business, VPS and dedicated server accounts.  The provider revealed some intriguing statistics from the survey regarding its referral rates.  When presented with the question of whether or not they would recommend 34SP’s hosting services, 98% of the clients involved responded with a definite “Yes”.  The host points to this finding as confirmation of the positive impact its reliability and quality customer support has on referral rates.

About 34SP

Based in Manchester England, 34SP is an award winning web hosting provider that specializes in solutions designed for individuals, web designers, seasoned developers and small to medium sized businesses.  The company puts an emphasis on delivering industry leading reliability, personalized support and world-class service.  34SP compliments these qualities with generous incentives and a money back guarantee to assure customer satisfaction.

What is a Web Server?

There term web server actually describes to different elements.  One is the computer that stores the data for a website.  The other is a software application that runs on the computer and processes requests from web browsers and other client-side technologies.  Though often used interchangeably, these two components are quite different.  For this reason, one should always clarify the mentioning of a web server as it can refer to either a machine or an application.  This article will focus on the latter and give a brief overview on how this type of software works.

The Web Server in Action

A web server application helps the actual hardware serve web pages upon the request of a browser such as Internet Explorer or Opera.  Because it deals primarily in HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) requests, this type of application if often referred to as an HTTP server.  After receiving a request, the server runs HTTP, which is a protocol for transferring data over the internet and enabling two computers to communicate with each other.  When using your web browser to access any given website, a request is transmitted to a web server on a remote computer.  The server application then processes the browser’s request and attempts to locate the requested web page.  If it is found, the server sends the page to your browser which then displays the appropriate content.

Commonly Used Web Servers

The Netcraft Web Server Usage Survey reports that the Apache HTTP server is the most the widely installed web server in the world, claiming that it has nearly 60% of the market share.  As an open-source application, Apache supports numerous open-source technologies such as the Linux operating system and MySQL database server.

The main competitor to Apache is IIS (Internet Information Services), a robust server application developed by Microsoft.  This web server was designed to work with various server editions of the Windows operating system.  Though it is compatible with MySQL and other open-source technologies, IIS was designed to be integrated with Microsoft products such as ASP (Active Server Pages) and the SQL Server.  Other web server applications exist but they are rarely used in comparison to Apache and IIS.

Using a Web Server off the Web

While primarily intended for the web hosting arena, web server applications can also be used for other purposes as well.  For example, many techies have the Apache server installed on their Windows-based computers.  This is great for someone who scripts custom programs for their own servers.  Several developers find this method much easier than working on a remote server.   So, if you have a powerful computer with a need to create PHP or ASP scripts, a web server like Apache or IIS could work wonders on your system.