What exactly is a “server” in computer stuff?

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I hear the word server in all sorts of contexts whenever computers are involved. What is a server and how does it relate to a PC?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

A “server” is more like a job description than anything else.

With computers you have something called the server client model, that describes one way how computers can interact with each other. Other models include a concept called peer-to-peer.

A servers serves up information that a client asks for.

Any computer that plays the role of a server is a server. This means that the same computer can be a server and a client at the same time.

You have programs running on computers that do the serving, these applications can be seen as the server or the entire computer can be seen as the server.

There are special versions of Operating Systems like Windows Server that are optimized to allow a computer running them to act as a server.

The computer hardware itself can also be optimized to allow a computer to act as a server.

One feature of server hardware is redundancy, a hardware server will often have two or more of parts that your desktop computer has only one of. Another is simply being bigger and more expensive. One final feature is form factor servers usually don’t live on people’s desks but in racks in data centers. They end being shaped like big flat metal drawers.

However as mentioned above you don’t need special hardware or a special operating system to get a server you just need a program running on a computer that acts as a server.

Something like a webserver that serves up websites. If you run a webserver program on a computer it acts as a server.

Among the many programs that come with standard operating systems there are a number that act or can act as a server.

Almost all smart devices or Internet connected devices these days have server components. If your printer is configurable through a webbrowser it acts as a server. The little box that you get Internet from is often called a router, but in addition to being a router it usually is a number of otherbthings like a switch or a wifi-access point and several different kinds of server, like DHCP, DNS, NTP and many more.

So in the end anything that acts like a server is a server and a large number of things act asva server if you look closely.

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