Sams Teach Yourself TCP/IP in 24 Hours, Third Edition

The View from the Client

As you have heard many times in this book, most of what we know as networking results from the interaction of a client (a computer requesting a service) and a server (a computer supplying that service). The server is an important central feature of the network. The server is the hub, the storehouse of services and data upon which the other computers depend. And though the server can be very busy filling requests, the activities of the server are largely predictable and passive. The client workstation is where the user sits and, ultimately, where the work gets done. The most inefficient connection in all of networking is the messy interaction of the user with a client workstation. Many believe that creating a better and ...