We quickly see what the Internet is and the services it offers. We will see what a server is and what they are for.
Internet is a network of computers connected throughout the entire Globe, which offers various services to its users such as email, chat or the web. All the services offered by the Internet are carried out by thousands of computers that are permanently on and connected to the Internet, waiting for the users to request the services and serving them once they are requested. As we say, there are servers for everything, there are those that offer email, others that make our chat conversations possible, others the transfer of files or the visit to web pages and so on until completing the list of Internet services. Often, the same Internet server offers several different services, that is, a single computer can offer email service, file transfer and web server.
There is also another type of servers that are in charge of providing Internet access to our computers, they are the access providers, the servers to which we connect with our modems. When we make the call with the modem to the servers that provide the access, we become part of the Internet and as long as we maintain the connection we can access all the servers throughout the world and request their services.
Currently, with ADSL connections, in many configurations the modem has been removed and a new device has been added, which is the so-called Router. The Router is in charge of connecting with the Internet access server and distributes the signal to all the computers that are connected to the local network of your home or office, either by cable or Wireless (Wi-Fi, wireless connection).
What should be clear to us at this point is that the Internet is a network of connected computers, where many of them are servers that offer different services. For our part, we access the Internet as clients of those servers, consulting information from websites or sending email. At the moment we request an Internet service (for example, we request to see a web page by typing the address of a website in the address bar of the browser) we become clients of the server that offers it.
To request one of these services it is necessary to have a special program that is usually different for each Internet service. For example, to access email we use programs like Outlook Express or Thunderbird, to access the web we use a browser like Firefox or Internet Explorer, or to enter the chat we use a program like Mirc or Pirch. All these programs, which give us access to Internet services, are called clients.
In short, we have the servers, which offer different services and to use a service we need a client program for the service we are trying to access.
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