N-GEN Communications Web-based Seminars ©NGCS

Seminar - An Overview of Communications Technologies

Module 6 - Internet, Intranet, Extranet, e-Commerce and Web Services                                        Slide 4 of 70 _________________                                                                                  __________

                                        A Client and a Server Concept

                                            What is a client ?

                                            What is a Server ?

                                            Client Software

                                            Server Hardware and Software

_________________                                                                                  __________

The Internet network has many servers and user computers connected to it.

Client - A client is a software program, which resides in a user's computer and asks or requests information from a server. Anyone looking for a web page will use a web client to access a web server. To get e-mail one will use an e-mail client. Netscape and Internet Explorer have several different clients built into them. Both browsers can act as clients for web, gopher, ftp and e-mail.

Server - A server is a computer and/or a software package that provides requested information to clients.

Client software has to match up to a specific kind of server software and each server requires a specific kind of client software.

There are different kinds of servers.  A server could be software or hardware. Servers are available for web, e-mail, ftp, chat, and many others. Servers are available on many platforms: UNIX, Mac, Windows 95/98, Windows NT, Linux and many others. A single hardware server could have several different types of server software packages running on it.