What is a server?

[JohnHarten]

Exactly what is a server?
I hear windows server, using your box as a server
mail server, web server, irc server, blah

How do you go about hosting a server
what is the difference?

I wish someone would write a tutorial on this

Please help me out !

Edit:

[©opy®ight]

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&l...er&btnG=Search

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/web-server.htm
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/dns.htm

It's a computer that serves a specific thing. Hosts files for the network for everyone to access, it can be a protection against unauthorized access to the network etc....

[Negative]

My wife is my server... or wait... sounds like server, anyways.

[©opy®ight]

Negative []
Moderator
MathGirl's Slave

My wife is my server...

Sure she is Neg.

[mathgirl32]

Memory, you missed my title:

0\/\/|\|3d by Negative

Men rule the world. I am my master's servant.

[©opy®ight]

Well if he's your slave and your owned by him, you tell him what to tell you what to do right ? YOure one messed up couple hehe

[Negative]

Behind every strong man, there's ... umm.... something...

[TheSpecialist]

I need to go to Germany and grab all of your throw away trim. And with that said, |The|Specialist gets his air tickets and puts on his leather gimp suit with a swastika armband.

Men rule the world.

|The|Specialist punches someone in the jaw and yells, "The world is mine, *******!" Ahhhhahahah!

Thanks, I wasn't sure if the ladies like that level of confidence or not.

[mathgirl32]

Assuming there is something to back it up....confindence goes a *long* way.

[ZT3000]

(no tutorial here, just simplified basic information)

Any device or computer whose regular job is to give "what users are needing" can be looked at as a Server. Simply, it serves you something, hence the word Server.

Servers can be data storage boxes hooked up to your network for the purposes of storing your backups, usually called Network Attached Storage or NAS.
OR
Servers can be expensive complicated computers that serve multiple users something, say, files, applications, or Internet access, etc., and with the proper equipment even a printer can become a Print Server.

An operating system doesn't necessarily need a title with the words "Server" in order to qualify as being a Server, as in System 36, IBM AS400 or IBM RS6000. Although a proper Server sometimes has the words "Server" in it's name, like Linux Enterprise Server or Windows 2003 Server.

Even Windows 98 or XP Home can and has acted as a limited Server for some people, but realize that a TRUE Server is created with the idea of being a Server from the ground up, boasting a unique Operating System with special options, different hardware, special software tools, dedicated setups and other necessities in order to perform it's job in a way that sets it apart from other computers. Servers are also much more expensive than regular desktop computers.

Hope this helps.