Servers and Clients

The network computer that contains the hard drives, printers, and other resources that are shared with other network computers is a server. This term comes up repeatedly, so you have to remember it. Write it on the back of your left hand.

Any computer that's not a server is a client. You have to remember this term, too. Write it on the back of your right hand.

Only two kinds of computers are on a network: servers and clients. Look at your left hand and then look at your right hand. Don't wash your hands until you memorize these terms.

The distinction between servers and clients in a network has parallels in sociology-in effect, a sort of class distinction between the "haves" and "have-nots" of computer resources:

• Usually, the most powerful and expensive computers in a network are the servers. There's a good technical reason: Every user on the network shares the server's resources.

• The cheaper and less powerful computers in a network are the clients. Clients are the computers used by individual users for everyday work. Because clients' resources don't have to be shared, they don't have to be as fancy.

• Most networks have more clients than servers. For example, a network with ten clients can probably get by with one server.

• In many networks, a clean line of demarcation exists between servers and clients. In other words, a computer functions as either a server or a client, and not both. For the sake of an efficient network, a server can't become a client, nor can a client become a server.

• Other (usually smaller) networks can be more evenhanded by allowing any computer in the network to be a server and allowing any computer to be both server and client at the same time.