All About Server

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Server can be said as some hardware, software or device that serves or satisfies some request by a "client" over the "network".  A "client" is another computer asking for some service (request).  The type of request differs depending on which type of server requested.  A "network" can be a company-wide computer network, dial up connection or Internet.

Imagine you have a few computers networked in your office.  And you want to share a copy of your word-processing software, you can just put the software on a computer (server).  Then other computers can request for this software to be used on these computers.  In this case, the client is the computer asking for the software.  The server is the computer where the software is installed.  The request is the sharing of the software.  The network is the company computer network (LAN).

There are many types of servers specializing in various tasks, such as:

• File server - Files are located on this server to be shared by other computers.
• Print server - A printer is connected to this server to be shared by other computers.
• Database server - A database (such as customer information) is located in this server to be shared by other computers.
• Web server - A web page is located in this server to be shared by clients (Internet browsers).
• Mail server - There are a few types:  An outgoing mail server (SMTP server) sends out your emails.  An incoming mail server (POP server) collects and sends you your incoming mails.
• Application server - A software or application located in this server to be shared by other computers.
• Fax server - You use this server to fax something out.
• News server - Also called NNTP server, it hosts online discussion forums on the Internet.
• Chat server - You connect to this server to chat with other people on the Internet.
• Proxy server - This server enables sharing of Internet connection and controls access to Internet from a network (LAN).
• FTP server - Files are located here to be downloaded by Internet users.
• Wireless server - This server sits between wireless network and Internet to convert, encode and decode requests for wireless pages.  Also called WAP gateway.

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