Apache is still by far the most popular internet application server worldwide, with 58.82 per cent of all active machines running the software last month, an increase of 0.33 per cent on January.

Microsoft's Internet Information Server (IIS) offerings trailed behind in second place, with a market share of only 24.31 per cent in February, down 0.28 per cent on the previous month.

Iplanet's product family came in a distant third, claiming a 2.44 per cent share of the sector in February, an increase of 0.02 per cent over January.

These are the findings of the latest Netcraft web survey, which can be found at www.netcraft.com/survey/