Servers and Their Role in Networking

The sheer size of some servers can discourage people from learning about them as it sounds too complicated. But in this article we will break it down for you and discuss the functions, the role of servers as well as types of servers, to help you better understand.

What is a server?

A server is a computer or device that offers resources, data, resources, or programs to other computers, referred to as clients, over a network. This network may be a local area network or a wide area network, such as the internet. The actual machine that a server program runs on is often referred to as a server in a data center. The machine could be a dedicated server or it could be a virtual machine.

What does a server do?

A network server’s job is to provide users with a range of services as well as access to network resources. This includes:

 • Registered users’ network permissions and log-ins.

• Plays the role of hosting multi user applications for a business for instance fax servers , print servers or even email servers.

• A company or organization’s connection to/gateway to the Internet.

• A shared cloud storage site.

 • Network connections to shared devices such as printers and scanners.

How does a server work?

Here’s as simple practical way of looking at it.

When you use the internet, you are connecting to a computer. When you type a URL into a browser, your computer connects with the website’s server and downloads the data to your computer.

Let’s take a look at this in detail.

• Your web browser requests a web page after you type in a URL.
• The web browser asks for the full URL of the website it wants to view.
• This data is transmitted to the server.
• The web server locates and creates all of the data necessary to view the website (this is why some sites load quicker than others)
• The data is received by your web browser, which then shows the website to you.             

What are the types of servers?

This classification is usually made based on their purpose.

Web servers- A web server serves Web pages to computers that connect to it. It can also resolve scripting languages such a PHP, ASP, and JSP. 

A mail server is a computer that stores, sends and receives e-mail messages for users. When you send an e-mail to a friend, for example, the message is transmitted via the SMTP protocol by a mail server.

A file server is a device that holds files that other computers can access. File servers are often used in local networks, and connecting to them usually requires a password or some form of authorization.

Virtual servers – virtual servers can share hardware and software resources. It only exists in the form of specialized applications known as hypervisor. Digital hardware is provided to the server as if it were actual physical hardware by the hypervisor. Server virtualization makes networks more effective.

Print servers – used to handle and administer printing capabilities. Rather than installing a printer on each workstation, a single print server can accommodate several clients’ printing requests. Some higher-end printers also have their own built-in print server, eliminating the need for a separate computer-based print server.

DNS servers- are application servers that offer name resolution to client computers by translating names that humans can understand into machine-readable IP addresses. The Domain Name System (DNS) is a globally distributed database of names and other DNS servers, each of which can be used to request a computer name that is otherwise unknown. When a client requires the address of a device, it sends a DNS request to a DNS server with the name of the requested resource. From its table of names, the DNS server responds with the appropriate IP address.

Data base servers- Companies, consumers, and other providers use a significant amount of data. Databases hold a lot of that material. Databases must be usable by several clients at the same time, and they can take up a lot of storage space. Both of these conditions lend themselves to storing databases on servers. These servers run database systems and handle a large number of client requests. Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, DB2, and Informix are all common database server applications.

TBM fact: just about any computer can be used as a server if the necessary server software is installed on it and the hardware is powerful enough to process the workload.

Why you need us

We can guide you in the right direction. We offer a wide range of servers, storage and virtualization solutions to satisfy all your business’s current and future IT needs.
From IBM aix powers servers, linux servers to intel based servers, we can support you.

At TBM, you get the best when it comes to infrastructure. With The Modern Datacentre, we can finally put an end to legacy IT design. To build an agile datacenter that scales with your enterprise, separate servers, storage networks, and storage arrays can be replaced with a single hyper-converged infrastructure solution.

Take a look at our client list and reach out to us today for more!