Why NCSA HTTPd?

Here is a list of the server's features. Follow the links to read about them and see demonstrations of their use.

Low impact
Small, for ease of portability and security.
Fast, to handle the load on the ever-expanding WWW.
Compatibility
Designed to support HTTP/1.0 as implemented on the WWW
Can also handle older browsers using HTTP/0.9
Directory indexes
The user can create HTML indexes under a list of names (see the DirectoryIndex directive) or the server can generate an index dynamically (see the Star Trek example)
User directories
Easily allow your users access to the publishing end of the WWW, with enough security to keep them from harming your system.
CGI Server scripts
Customize your server to execute searches and handle HTML forms.
Security
Limit access to your server by directory.
Support for HTTP/1.0 Basic Authentication, MD5 Digest Authentication, and Kerberos versions 4 and 5.
Server Side Includes
Include the output of commands or other files in your HTML documents.

If you are interested, here is a version history of past releases.

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NCSA HTTPd Development Team / httpd@ncsa.uiuc.edu / Last Modified 09-11-95