We will learn about—What Is Server, Different Types Of Server with a list and how it works? You may have heard of servers or web servers all the time while being active on the internet or on technical online pages or websites. A server is a computer hardware or software that provides information to other computers, devices or programs. When we go to the bank, the bank employees often say that the current server is down so it will not work.
Not only banks, but almost all the offices are often shut down due to server down. This is because the banks or other offices that run programs or websites on their computers are connected to a main server (server computer). And when there is a problem to connect the various client devices or programs connected to the main server computer, then the receipt of information from the main server stops and as a result various programs or websites do not work. And so, various bank employees told us that; the current server is down so it is not working.
Let us know in detail about what a server is and some related information about web server. If you want to create webmail for your business, you can check it from here also.
What is a server?
A server is a computer that provides data and information to other computers. Server means a software or hardware device where different types of requests are sent by computers or programs through the network where the server accepts and responds to every related request. Devices or computers that request a server and then receive a response from the server are called clients. The job of the server is to provide services to its client devices or computers.
For example,
suppose you are watching videos on YouTube from your mobile or reading articles on a website on the Internet. In this case, the video of YouTube or the page of the website and other data is stored somewhere so that anyone can access them through the Internet. In fact, when we try to access YouTube or other websites through the web browser of our mobile or computer device, our mobile or computer as a client device is requested to receive various data and information from the main server of YouTube.
When the server accepts the device’s request and provides us with YouTube data and information, the device’s browser accepts them and we can view the entire YouTube website and the videos there. A server may use local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN) over the Internet to provide data to other systems. There are different types of servers, such as web servers, mail servers and file servers. The purpose of each type of server is the same, although they depend on different software.
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Similarly,
a web server may run programs such as the Apache HTTP Server or Microsoft IIS (Internet Information Services) that help access various websites via the Internet. Or, a mail server may run programs such as Exim or iMail that provide SMTP services for receiving and sending emails. Or, in case of file sharing over the network, a file server, Samba or operating system can use the built-in file sharing system. Then hopefully, the server has understood the matter well.
Types of server (List Of Server)
I have said a bit about the types of servers above, now we will know about the different types of servers in detail below in a list. In the case of computer networking, there may be different types of servers.
Data communication is the exchange of information between two computer devices. When we request information, we call it a client, and when another party provides it, we call it a server. This type of exchange can be of two types. One is Forward Proxy Server and the other is Reverse Proxy Server.
Suppose someone or a group blocks you on Facebook. Then you open a fake ID and chat with that person or join that group and post a comment. We can call this Forward Proxy. In the language of computer science, when a request goes from the client to the server, it does not go directly from the client machine to another machine, so it is the Forward Proxy Server.
Reverse Proxy Server is, you have called a customer care center, after a while received a call from the other side. You may not get the same person over and over again. The person who is retired in customer care at that time answers your phone. Reverse Proxy Server is widely used for load balancing. It means what is the benefit of working in this way !!! The client is always retiring me. He has to wait less.
Now our question may be, can we use Forward and Reverse Proxy Servers at the same time? The answer is yes, we can.
We will discuss now about the types of servers in list. Let’s discuss in details.
1. File server
A file server is a server or computer where different types of data files are stored and managed. Users can share files or data or information with each other through a common network without using any kind of external storage device (pen-drive, floppy etc.). A file server is any computer connected to a network that provides a location for accessing a shared disk. These shared files can be accessed from other computers through this location. Other computers that are connected to the same network will be able to access these data files directly.
2. Database server
It is a computer system whose job is to access the data from the database and provide services to retrieve them. It is like a huge warehouse where data and information of various websites etc. are stored and maintained. A database server uses a database application whose job is to provide database services to other computer programs or computers.
3. Web Server
A web server is a server software or hardware that runs various websites. It can also be called a computer program that basically stores and delivers data, information, content, etc. of a website. Every file, text, images, video, data of a website is stored in this web server. HTTP / HTTPS can be used to communicate with a web server via a network protocol. The main function of a web server is to store, process and deliver web pages for the user. Remember, all the websites on the Internet have their data stored in one of the web servers.
4. Application server
Application servers are primarily designed to run various applications. Different types of hardware and software are included here which makes it possible to run different types of programs. Application servers can also be called network computers where various applications are installed, hosted, operated and run for client computers.
5. Proxy server
Proxy server can only be called Proxy. It acts as a gateway between the user and the Internet. A proxy server is a server application or application that acts as an intermediary between the user request and the server involved in the request.
6. Mail Server
Mail server or e-mail server is a type of server that receives and delivers emails over the network. Mail servers are also called Mail Server Transfer Agent (MTA) or Internet Mailer. Every email we send is passed through a chain of mail servers. When we send an email to someone, it gets sent very quickly even though it is actually a very complicated process of the mail server.
7. FTP server
Almost every day on the Internet, a lot of files are transferred from one computer to another. Most of these files are transferred through File Transfer Protocol (FTP). It is basically a standard communication protocol through which computer files on a computer network are transferred from server to client device.
- Let’s check the ways of using Google SMTP server freely.
How Server Works?
Server is an essential thing in web development. Web development means server dependent work. After working in web development for a long time, when asked what is a server? Then many cannot answer correctly. Can’t give an accurate idea of why we need a server or what kind of server we need. In many cases the job interview can’t say exactly that. The reason is that even though we work with servers, we don’t study or want to study servers too much.
Again, here comes a question What is Protocol? The simple answer is, Protocol is a set of rules. How a protocol works is recorded, just as that protocol works. But why do we need Protocol? To understand this, we must first understand Data Communication. When information is exchanged between two computers, we call it Data Communication. Suppose one of the two people knows Hebrew and the other knows Bengali. Will there be any information exchange between them? Not being answered. For data communication, two people must have a common platform, one must have the ability to understand what the other will say. For this we need Protocol.
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So when we say HTTP Server, we understand that this server has the ability to process HTTP Request. If I want to send email with HTTP Server, I can’t. This is because the protocol required for sending emails (SMTP Protocol) is not configured there. Multiple servers may be configured on one machine (computer). Generally, large companies do not configure multiple servers on the same machine. For those of us who have a low budget, we configure 2/3 of the servers on one machine.
Conclusion
Today we have learnt what a server is and what the different types of servers are? I hope you understand the meaning of server and got a list of server as well. If you like the article written about Server in SpeedHost, you may share the article to help others. Also, if you have any questions or suggestions related to the article, please let us know in the comments below. Don’t forget to check some related article from our blog and knowledgebases.
