What is a web server?
A web server is the computer, and the software on it, that stores website files and sends pages to browsers when they ask.
The term web server covers two things. One is the hardware: a computer in a data center that stores your website's files. The other is the software running on it, which listens for requests from browsers and sends back the right page, image or file. Every time someone opens a page on your site, their browser sends a request and the web server answers. A slow or overloaded server means slow pages or errors.
Why it matters for your business: Many of the error codes you see, such as 500, 502 and 503, mean something went wrong on the web server rather than on your visitor's device.
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