01-09-2014, 12:01 PM
A web server serves static and dynamic content to your web-browser. A web page can be a standard static HTML file with infrequent changes, all the way up to a dynamic web-site which changes based on the visitor, time of day, or other parameters. In larger environments, the web server is on one physical machine (called a server) and there are typically other support servers which the web server interacts with on your behalf - such as databases, mail servers and logistics systems which may, say, ship a product after a credit card server verifies that you've paid. The web server is typically the only part of this that you will interact with as a client (the official term for someone or something that uses a server in the client-server model is the "client").