On a technological level, a server is quite similar to your desktop computer. In fact, using according software, you can actually turn your desktop computer into a server and offer service to other devices.
Networks and the Internet are based on client-server technology. Meaning, a server SERVES some kind of service to a client. That’s basically, what a server does. It just listens to requests and upon request it serves certain stuff and services. Depending on the type of server.
So, the difference between your desktop computer is, that the server has a specific job and is build to work and serve 24/7. Meaning, it doesn’t need a monitor, a keyboard or a printer. Unless it’s a printer server that allows you to print stuff from multiple devices on the network. But it needs to be reliable 24/7 and it needs to provide according performance upon tons of network requests.
There are tons of puproses, where client-server technology is being used. Like file transfer, email services, streaming services, chats, remote access and maintenance tools, cloud services, news, printing, authentication, dynamic IP assignment, domain resolution, time and geo data servers, API servers, proxy servers, database servers…
One of the best known is probably a web server. A server that serves websites to you.
Websites are more or less just files and directories on a computer. And a web server sends them to a client upon request. And guess what the client is! It’s your web browser. So, here is where the client-server scheme comes full circle. After you enter a website address and hit enter, the browser first contacts DNS (Domain Name Service) servers to resolve the server address, then sends a request to the web server. The web server is listening and waiting for your request. When it receives it, it gets the data and sends it back to your browser, which then displays the website on your screen.
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