Web Servers, FTP, and Content Management: A Technical Deep Dive

Posted on Feb 14, 2025 in Computing and Communications

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Internet and Web Servers

Websites are hosted on computers called Web Servers. These servers use programs that accept requests from clients.

Examples of Web Servers:

  • IIS (Internet Information Server)
  • PWS (Personal Web Server)
  • WAMP (Windows + Apache + MySQL + PHP)
  • LAMP (Linux + Apache + MySQL + PHP)
  • XAMPP
  • Apache (.php)
  • Apache Tomcat (Pages .jsp)

Server Types

Services: FTP / Mirroring

A) Transfer Files with FTP

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) allows you to upload pages to the Web server. There are alternatives (Back Office) using pre-programmed web pages.

For example: http://karlikis.com/administrador connects to your FTP server to highlight aspects.

  1. Connecting to the server:
    1. Browser:
    2. FTP Clients:
      • No graphics
      • Graphics: File Zilla, Cute FTP, etc.
  2. FTP server means:
    • Machine ready to save files
    • Programs servers (e.g., IIS)
  3. Directory structure on an FTP server:
    • Free-organization (not desirable!)
    • Organized: e.g., /…/user/home/mi_usuario
  4. User Types:
    1. Anonymous
    2. Registered: login and password
  5. Table of permits (in access)
    1. Ratio / Fee
      • Ratio: numerical relationship between uploaded and downloaded files. [Detached credit system P2P programs]
      • Quota: Maximum space occupied by a user on an FTP server.
    2. Ports and modes
      • FTP works on port 21 for listening and responding on port 20.
      • Modes functioning:
        1. Assets (21 -> listen // 20 -> answer)
        2. Liabilities (only works on 21) -> my common if there is a Firewall

B) Mirroring

Mirroring involves techniques to create accurate images of an FTP server on another machine in case of the possible fall of the former.

We can generate a mirror:

  1. Manual (using FTP) [complex, heavy…]
  2. Automated (using applications)
    • WSFTP_Professional
    • Commands
      • Linux
      • Unix

Content Management

A) Question: How do we manage the contents of a site?

Answer: We can manage in 2 ways:

  1. Pedestrian (Creating Documents -> upload to FTP)
  2. CMS (Content Management Systems)

    Ex: PHPNuke, Joomla, [Blogger]

Features (desirable) for a CMS

  1. Simple to use

    Note: language-influenced, influence of documentation, influences the changes between versions…

  2. Supports multiple users (types of users)
  3. Flexible to change (add / remove forums, polls, chats…)
  4. Modular design (free, $(depago))

    e.g., gesture images, interactive calendar

B) Synchronization of content (versioning)

  1. Typology
    1. Manual: replace the modified files manager
    2. Automatic: a software programmed to synchronize a local folder with a remote folder via FTP
  2. Content Search
    • Types of search engines
      1. Internal Program by the webmaster (PHP -> MYSQL)
      2. External parasitize moter google search.

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