(1) Short for personal Web server, a generic term for a Web server that is used to host Web page files for an individual.
(2) When capitalized as Personal Web Server, the name of Microsoft’s Web server program for individuals hosting Web page files from a personal computer. Personal Web Server is a smaller-scale version of Microsoft’s IIS technology and is therefore limited in its capabilities. It is designed to support Web sites that obtain limited traffic and/or to be used as a staging server for building pages that will be transferred to a server that can handle large amounts of traffic.