Tonight we’ll discuss basic web server operation—what gets sent back and forth between a client and a server, and what’s the order of operations.

We’ll cover how to create an .htaccess file to restrict access to a directory on your site (server side authentication), as well as to create a custom 404 error page, or change the way the server handles various file types.

Then we’ll talk about server-side includes, which allow you to process commands on the server for inclusion on your web page.