Yes, most of the servers are always on; they never turned off. Because the servers offer services that are continuously needed, accordingly, if servers fail, they can generate many problems for the network users and company. That’s why servers are usually set up to be fault-tolerant (capable of operating satisfactorily at the presence of one or more system failure conditions.) to reduce these types of issues.
Category: What is a server ?
Yes. Any computer act as a server with the right software, even a home desktop or laptop computer. For instance, you can install an FTP server program on your computer that allows you to share files between other computers over your network. However, you can make your home computer a server; you have to keep some important point in your mind:
- Your computer and the related server software must be in a running mode that to be accessible at any time.
- When your computer is in server mode, and other users are using it. Then, its resources (like bandwidth and processing) will not allow doing other things.
- To connect a computer with a network, and the internet connection can generate many problems for your computer.
- If the services become popular, which you are providing, a typical computer can not capable of handling all of the requests.
Where are servers stored?
In a corporate environment or a business, a server and other network tools are mainly stored in a glasshouse or closet. These sections try to separate all equipment and sensitive computers from people who have no authority to access them.
Servers that are not hosted on-site and access through remotely are located in a data center. These types of servers allow another company to manage the hardware and enables you to configure remotely.
In a local network, the server connects to a switch or a router that uses all the other computers over the network. When it is connected to the network, other computers have the capability of accessing the server and all its services. For instance, a user can connect to the server to visit a website and can communicate with other users over the internet via a web server.
Although, an internet server acts like a local network server on a bigger scale. Through a web host or an InterNIC, the server is assigned an IP address.
With a domain name registrar, a domain name is registered by which users can connect to a server. Once the users are connected to the domain name (like javatpoint.com), then automatically name is translated to the server’s IP address with the help of a DNS resolver.
A domain name is easier to remember as compared to an IP address, which is beneficial for users to connect to the server. Additionally, domain names allow the server operator to change the IP address of the server without affecting the services at the time of accessing the server. Although the IP address can be changed, the domain name always remains the same.
How DNS server works?
If you want to visit a website like google, you have to type “https://www.google.com” into the search bar of your browser. When the domain name is entered, it can be looked upon as a Domain Name System. Then, DNS translates it into an IP address (like 217.58.217.164). Now, your computer collects the web pages of google and sends that information or pages to your browser to display on the screen.
Domain name service (DNS)
It is a type of server that is able to manage, maintain, and process internet domain names and their records. In 1983, Jon Postel and Paul Mockapetris designed and implemented the first DNS. Mainly, it was designed to provide websites to end-users over the Internet. It is always required to connect to the internet to obtain services. It includes storage that stores different domain names, internet hosts, DNS records, network names, and other data. It has the ability to convert a domain name into its respective IP address.
Standalone server
A standalone server is a serial transmission replacement for the parallel SCSI, and it runs alone. It is an improvement of traditional SCSI and does not belong to a Windows domain. It supports a maximum of 128 synchronous devices at a transmission speed of 3 Gb in a second. It can also communicate with SATA and SCSI and includes two data ports. It offers local authentication and access control for any resource that is generated from a standalone server. Additionally, users only need to create user account other than it does not need any complex actions, as it does not offer network logon services.
Mail server
A mail server is a central computer that stores electronic emails for clients over the network. It is much like the post office that obtains emails sent to the user and stores them until it is not requested by a user. It uses standard email protocols to send and receive an email like, simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP) handles outgoing mail requests and sends messages. The POP3 and IMAP protocols are used to process incoming mail and also receive messages. These protocols handle all the connections when users log on to a mail server by using email or webmail interface.
Sometimes, mail servers and web servers are merged in a single machine. However, Hotmail and Gmail (public mail services) and large ISPs (Internet service provides) may use dedicated hardware to send and receive an email. A mail server software must be installed on the computer, which gives permission to the administrator of the system to create and manage email accounts for any domains hosted on the server. For instance, if the domain name ‘javatpoint.com’ is hosted by the server, it has the ability to provide email accounts ending in ‘javatpoint.com.
File server
It is a computer on a network that is used to store and distribute files. It allows multiple users or clients to share files, which is stored on a server. Furthermore, it can improve performance by maximizing readability and writing speeds.
Proxy server
A computer server that acts as an intermediary between a client and a server known as a proxy server. It is a part of another computer or gateway server that isolates a local network from outside networks. It takes requests from the client and passes it to another server for processing. It receives the requested information from the second server. Then, it replies to the original client as if it is giving a reply own self.
A proxy server loads the page faster and reduces the network bandwidth as it caches all pages that accessed through the network. A page that is not in proxy server cache, it accesses this page via its own IP address. Thereafter, it caches that page and sends it to the user.