Clients and Servers

Clients are computers that are connected to a network, and can interchange information with other network devices like printers and servers. A client may also be called a workstation or a node. An example of TISD network client is a computer that is located in a TISD classroom or lab. Client computers are used by students and staff for instruction and learning throughout the district.

Servers are specialized computers connected to a network and/or the Internet. A server provides services to its clients. Servers can be used for the storage of files or they can operate special programs or applications. Servers can provide multiple services or they may be dedicated to performing a single task. Temple ISD maintains a number of servers that perform a variety of operations. For instance servers are used to provide teachers access to grades, attendance, webpages, email and many other services. Servers are usually more powerful and sophisticated machines than are clients and they rarely misfunction. However, like any other computer they must be routinely maintained and occassionally restarted. During the time when this occurs, the server is said to be "down". This may cause a single service related to that particular server to be temporarily unavailable while other services on different servers continue to operate normally.

The picture above is a simplified diagram of how a web server connects to its clients. The server sits in a remote and secure location. It is connected to the network and Internet through a wiring system. A computer user opens a web browser such as Internet Explorer and requests a web page by typing an address or URL. The client computer sends the request to the web server. The web server recognizes the client computer's request, locates the web page file, and sends it to the requesting computer. The computer user views the web page from his/her own computer or workstation. Networks and servers work so efficiently that the same web page can be requested and sent to a number of different machines all within fractions of a second. Other types of servers specialize in other tasks like storing files, sending and receiving email, serving various applictions and processing data.