From owner-freebsd-questions Fri Apr 16 4:42:40 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mta1-rme.xtra.co.nz (mta.xtra.co.nz [203.96.92.1]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A4D4614EF6 for ; Fri, 16 Apr 1999 04:42:37 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from junkmale@pop3.xtra.co.nz) Received: from wocker ([210.55.164.76]) by mta1-rme.xtra.co.nz (InterMail v04.00.02.07 201-227-108) with SMTP id <19990416114150.CHIR5596385.mta1-rme@wocker>; Fri, 16 Apr 1999 23:41:50 +1200 From: "Dan Langille" Organization: The FreeBSD Diary To: peter kok Date: Fri, 16 Apr 1999 23:40:13 +1200 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Subject: Re: virtual websites Reply-To: junkmale@xtra.co.nz Cc: questions@FreeBSD.ORG In-reply-to: <371720AF.3B16BA3C@sweda.com.hk> X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v3.01d) Message-Id: <19990416114150.CHIR5596385.mta1-rme@wocker> Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On 16 Apr 99, at 19:36, peter kok wrote: > what is the 'virtual websites'? > and what is the function and advantage about 'virtual websites' When something is referred to as "virtual", it generally means there is an ability to host or emulate more things than actually physically exist. For example, virtual memory is the appearance of having more memory than actually physically exists on the computer. Extending that example, a virtual website means that the webserver can host more than one website, yet maintain the illusion that each website has its own machine [at least from the website's point of view]. The main advantage/function is utilisation of plant, specifically the webserver. If each website had to run on it's own webserver (i.e. box), we'd soon run out of space, money, and IP addresses. It's much easier and more economical to host multiple websites on the same box. Hundreds if not thousands. They can even all have the same IP number. This is made possible by the http protocol which passes the name of the website from the client to the server. The webserver then looks this name up in its configuration files and directs the incoming requests to the appropriate directory on the server. If you want to read more, see http://www.freebsddiary.com/freebsd/virtualhosts.htm and follow the links through to the apache documentation. Between those two resources, you should have it sussed. hth -- Dan Langille The FreeBSD Diary http://www.FreeBSDDiary.com/freebsd To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message