A daemon, often referred to as HTTPD, which executes on a Web server and carries out the process of waiting for an HTTP request, decoding the request, obtaining any information required by the request such as data held in a database or a Web page, carrying out the request, initiating an HTTP response, closing the network connection with the client that made the request, and then idling, waiting for the next request. It is the HTTP daemon which instigates all the main functions of a Web server.