can you use a server computer, like any other computer?

Question

Am not understanding the concept of a server computer well. Is the server computer, a computer that just stands alone, processing things alone, and therefore can't be used like other ordinary work computers?
Or can an employee use a server computer to do basic office stuff like email, word, ect?

Answer 1

There are three reasons to install a server; sharing files, security, and centralized administration. Yes there are others but these are the really important ones. You should never use a server as a workstation; it can cause all sorts of problems and is never, from a network standpoint, a good solution. According to webopedia.com a server is: "a computer or device on a network that manages network resources. For example, a file server is a computer and storage device dedicated to storing files. Any user on the network can store files on the server. A print server is a computer that manages one or more printers, and a network server is a computer that manages network traffic. A database server is a computer system that processes database queries.

Servers are often dedicated, meaning that they perform no other tasks besides their server tasks. On multiprocessing operating systems, however, a single computer can execute several programs at once. A server in this case could refer to the program that is managing resources rather than the entire computer."

It helps to understand that there are hardware and software servers. Hardware is pretty self-explanatory; any computer can be used for the hardware, however a system built specifically for server use will always work better. Software servers refer to the program that preforms the work, such as: Windows 2003 Server(the actual server operating system), Microsoft Exchange(their e-mail server software), SendMail(probably the most well known Unix mail server), and Apache( the Linux Web server). The list is endless, but they all have the same commonality, the perform a specific function(s) for users. Hope this helps, e-mail it is not clear. Good Luck

Answer 2

Servers are never used in a standalone environment. There's no need to have a server then. Basically a server acts as a central computer in a network with many functions that help regulate the network it resides on. Indeed it can be used as a regular computer and most times it is just a regular computer. But it also hosts many functions that other network users can use such as database management, profile management, print management, and file management (to name a few).

You can kind of relate it to our highway system. If the roads were the links of the network, cars were the information that travelled the network, and buildings were computers, then servers would be the car dealerships to a degree.

Answer 3

A server computer is on which is connected to many PCs and runs a common application software.Its memory is larger to cater to all the data of the individual PCs.Individual PCs can access the data that is stored in the server depending on the authorisation one has.The server can be used like any other PC but not vice versa as the individual PC cannot function unless u switch on the server.Whether any one can use server to do basic stuff depends upon what is the authorisation one has.Technically the server has all the capabilities of an individual PC.

Answer 4

I am assuming you are talking about Intel based servers, not the Solaris or HPUX type. (Unix)

A server is a computer just like the one sitting in front of you. The only difference is, they are tailored to doing things that are much different from the desktop computers.

For example, most servers do not come with sound cards. Video cards in the servers are very primitive. But, most servers have very fast disks and some are redundant. Power supplies are beefy and often double or triple redundant. It usually have lots of memories. It has large fans to cool it efficiently, yet noisily.

You can run Word on servers. But most of the times, you don't. This is because servers serve more people than just you sitting at the console (keyboard + display). You don't want to do anything that might affect it's stability. You typically do not load miscellaneous softwares on it.

I used to use retired servers for my desktop. The only problem is, it's large, noisy, and consumes far more electrical power than the simple desktops. I didn't much care for sound or video, but if you do, you'll have to add them in.

Answer 5

There are dozens of varieties of servers. A server is a working laptop or computing gadget used for a particular activity. some servers might desire to be sensible for own use. Like for me I easily have a document server and it shops all the archives from all of my computing gadget on the community.

Answer 6

Oh yes of course, servers are just ordinary computers designated to be of some shared function, usually to the exclusive use of that function.

But I did play Quake 2 on a NT 4 Server back then; and GTA 1 was also installed on it and love it. Good thing it wasn't reported to our supervisor teacher.

Answer 7

A server can be used like any other machine. But usually they are reserved to handle the requests from the other machines on the network.
For example, My home computer is the server for the printer and a folder where we share pictrures. But is still use it just like anormal one.
At work I have servers that only perform one job, like printers (12 of them) or web pages , or email etc.
So use them as you want, until they run out of steam

Answer 8

NO, If you use the Server as simple workstation that will effect the network performance and if something wrong happen on server by the user then whole of the network will get bad affect and whole of the user attached to the network will have to suffer

so it is advisable not to use the server as workstation.

Answer 9

It can be used....depending on the load of the user and the server. If the user uses a lot of resources...your server will have bad performance. But it is very much possible.

Answer 10

most likely you can use a server computer like a regular one its just stupid to do cause its more of a hassle