Clients, Servers, and the Internet
Meet clients and servers
A client asks for a service. A server answers that request. Your browser is a client; the machine that hosts a website is a server. The same computer can act as both in different conversations.
Follow a simple request
When you open a page, the client looks up the site name, opens a connection to the server, asks for a resource, and displays the response. Many steps happen automatically behind the scenes.
Picture the internet
The internet is not one computer. It is networks of networks linked by routers. Your home router hands traffic to an internet service provider (ISP), which connects to other networks until the destination is reached.
Remember roles can change
Cloud apps, game hosts, and peer-to-peer tools blur the labels, but the client/server idea still helps: who starts the conversation, and who provides the resource?
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