Introduction

LiteSpeed web server is an Apache interchangeable, high performance, secure and easy-to-use web server. It can handle thousands of concurrent connections with small memory footprint. It is much stronger and less vulnerable when facing various attacks.

HTTP/1.1
• Chunked Transfer Encoding
• Basic Authentication (password file and LDAP backend)
• Entity Tag
• Range/Multi-range Request
• Static/Dynamic Response Compression (gzip)
• Apache compatible URL rewrite
• Microsoft FrontPage Server Extension 2002
• IPv6 support
• Apache mod_geoip compatile Geotargeting support


Dynamic Content Generation
LiteSpeed Web Server support the following dynamic content generation methods:
• CGI/1.1 with suEXEC
• Fast CGI with suEXEC
• PHP with suEXEC through LiteSpeed PHP SAPI (best PHP performance with mod_php equivalent feature set)
• JSP/Servlet (Interface to AJP v1.3 compatible back-end Servlet engine)
• Proxy (interface to any web server/application server that support HTTP protocol)
• Ruby on Rail with suEXEC through Ruby LSAPI module, easiest deployment platform with best in class performance, support dynamic spawning.


Virtual Hosting
• LiteSpeed web server supports IP based and name based virtual hosting.
• Virtual host templating make configuration of virtual hosting easy.
• Compatible with existing hosting control panels like cPanel and Plesk.



Per-Directory configuration file (.htaccess) support
Unlike other lightweight web servers, Apache compatible per-directory configuration overridden is fully supported by LiteSpeed Web Server. With .htacess you can change configurations for any directory under document root on-the-fly, which in most cases is a mandatory feature in shared hosting environment.
It is worth noting that enabling .htaccess support in LiteSpeed Web Server will not degrade server's performance, comparing to Apache's 40% drop in performance.

LiteSpeed web server provides the following security features:

SSL
Supports SSLv2/SSLv3/TLSv1.
This product includes software developed by the OpenSSL Project for use in the OpenSSL Toolkit (http://www.openssl.org/)


IP Level Throttling
Network bandwidth and request rate for a single IP address can be limited regardless number of connections.


Comprehensive Connection Accounting
Comprehensive control of concurrent connections allowed from a single IP address.


Request filtering
Apache mod_security compatible request filtering, block known as well as potential attempts of SQL/script injection for XSS attacks.


Access Control
Access control rules can be set at server, virtual host and per-directory (context) level.


External Application Shield
LiteSpeed web server shields CGI, Fast CGI and Servlet engine from talking directly to web clients to ensure maximum reliability and performance.


CGI Resources Consumption Limit
LiteSpeed web server limits system resources that can be consumed by CGI applications to prevent server overloading by bad CGI scripts.


suEXEC and chroot CGI/Fast CGI
LiteSpeed web server can run CGI scripts and Fast CGI applications in a chroot jail and in different user/group ID, minimizing possible damages from vulnerable scripts.


DoS Attack Prevention
LiteSpeed web server is much less vulnerable to HTTP Denial Of Service(DoS) and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, thanks to the IP level throttling, connection accounting and its outstanding performance and scalability.


Chroot [Enterprise Edition only]
LiteSpeed web server can run in chroot environment (also known as a chroot jail).

LiteSpeed Web server runs completely in user space. The server can be easily upgraded or switched between different versions. The reliability of the Operating System is not affected.
CGI, Fast CGI and Servlet engine run in their standalone processes, the reliability of web server is not affected by the quality of third party software.
LiteSpeed web server is capable of automatically recovering from crash instantly.

• No need to build the executable yourself.
• Easy to install.
• Easy to control and configure through the web administration interface.
• Setup PHP and PHP accelerators automatically.
• Apply most changes without restarting the server.

LiteSpeed web server is designed to be interchangeable with Apache, the most popular web server. LiteSpeed web server can even run directly from Apache's configuration files.
Currently, functionalities of the following Apache modules have been implemented:
mod_alias, mod_access, mod_auth, mod_cgi, mod_suexec, mod_mime, mod_ssl, mod_php, mod_frontpage, mod_fastcgi, mod_jk, mod_gzip/mod_deflate, mod_throttle, mod_proxy, mod_auth_ldap, mod_rewrite and mod_autoindex.

LiteSpeed web server also uses the same syntax for distributed configuration file (.htacess) and URL rewrite rules, which makes the migration as easy as setting document root to the same directory as Apache's. If you do not use a control panel to manage Apache configuration, it is recommended to convert Apache's configuration file to LiteSpeed native XML configuration file, thus you can manage server configuration from our web administration interface. An Apache migration tool is included in the package.