What is the function of a web server?

The function of a web server is to store, process, and deliver web pages to clients. This is fundamental to how the internet operates; when a user requests a webpage by entering a URL in their browser, the web server responds by retrieving the requested page and transmitting it over the internet to the user's device.

Web servers can handle various types of content, including HTML documents, CSS stylesheets, JavaScript scripts, images, and multimedia files, ensuring that everything necessary for the webpage to be displayed properly is delivered to the client. The ability to manage requests from multiple clients simultaneously is a key characteristic of web servers, allowing them to serve content efficiently to users around the world.

While processing images, managing databases, or optimizing website performance are all important aspects of web operations and can involve additional technologies, they do not encompass the primary role of a web server itself, which is primarily focused on delivering web content to browsers.