Everyone who browses the web hears the term server. But most casual web users just expect the server to dish up a web page when they click on that underlined link.

There are really two sides (actually more than two, but for simplicity lets say two) to any web browsing experience. One is the client side; the computer you are actually browsing on. The second is the server side; the computer(s) where the web page(s), information and databases actually reside.

Many novice web developers concentrate only on the client side. But without knowledge and expertise on the server side interactive web sessions become impossible. Sure you can display information, but you can't create an interactive environment with the user without server side technology.

There are different levels of server technology that enable the web programmer to enhance the visitor's experience. At the root of this technology is the operating system that the server is running. Interactive Webs has experience on:

• Windows Servers
• Linux Servers
• Unix Servers

Server side scripting languages provide web developers the ability to create web pages that actually interact with visitors. Users may want to sign-up for a newsletter, submit information to a database or enter an order online. All of these operations require server side scripting skills.

Interactive Webs primarily uses two server side tools in the development of server side scripts:

• ASP - Active Server Pages - Active Server Pages is a server-side scripting technology developed by Microsoft.
• PHP - Just like ASP, PHP is a server-side scripting language that allows you to create dynamic web pages by putting script code inside your HTML pages. The code is executed by the web server before the page is returned (or served) to the browser.

Data is stored on web servers in databases and Interactive Webs has experience in knowledge in three of the most widely used databases today:

• SQL Server- Microsoft's SQL Server is one of the most popular database software for database-driven web sites with high traffic. SQL Server is a very powerful, robust and full featured SQL database system.
• Access - When a web site requires a simple database solution, Microsoft Access is a very popular option. Access is not well suited for very high-traffic, and not as powerful as SQL Server.
• MySQL - MySQL is a popular database software for web sites. MySQL is an open-source inexpensive alternative to the expensive Microsoft SQL Server solution.