Field Guide · hardware

Also known as: Server

A server is a computer that provides services or data to other machines over a network — serving web pages, running an application, or storing files for clients to fetch.1

Overview

Under the hood a server has the same four building blocks as any computer: a CPU, RAM, storage, and I/O. What sets it apart is how it is built and run: for long uptime and to handle many simultaneous clients without falling over. A “server” can be a rack machine in a data center, a virtual slice of one, or an old box in a closet.

Where it fits

This is the umbrella entry for the category. You usually do not buy a bare server so much as choose how you get one: web hosting for the simplest sites, a virtual private server for more control, a dedicated server for the whole machine, a home server you run yourself, or cloud computing on demand. In GopherTrunk terms a server can store and serve decoded data, but it cannot capture RF — that still needs an antenna and a dongle on a machine with a radio front end.

Sources

  1. Server (computing) — Wikipedia, on servers as machines that provide services to networked clients. 

See also