Current Topic: Over many years I have written client and server software for many standard protocols and even more custom varieties used for private communications over public networks.
Severs Play A Big Role In Networking But Are Fundamentally Quite Simple...
Severs have a big reputation in public networking even though they are severely misunderstood.
As an example... Our network long ago used to run Windoze. The 'Server' used to be the primary router and firewall as well as Web, Mail, FTP, etc... Whenever there was a problem (quite frequently) it was always the server. So I was constantly repairing it in order to restore network communications. To this day, even though our servers are no longer in the path between the public and private networks, my wife will still complain, when her laptop doesn't work, that the server is broken again. Even more interesting is that when she can't connect to our email server she complains that the Internet is not working. I've tried to explain the mechanics, in very simple terms, but it has made very little difference. She just isn't capable of understanding.
The ironic part in the above example is that even though our servers are on the private side of our network they are only accessible (routed) from the public side. Therefore... If the Public network (Internet) is down then the DNS (name-server) lookup will fail and the servers will appear 'Unreachable'. For my wife anyways. And so her perception that the Internet is not working, in this case, is oddly correct.
Ha ha!
So What Does A Server Do...
Usually... A server is a public interface waiting for requests on some arbitrary network.
What Is A Service Then...
Typically... A service is a server which uses a private interface and waits for requests from the machine it runs on. Locally. No perceived network.
Examples Of Different Types Of Servers...
File, Database and Hardware-Interface are the most common public Servers.
Clients, In Contrast, Can Be Very Complicated Providing User Experience...
Or not!
Skeleton (edited) Examples Of Clients I have written May Include...
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