1. +What is a Client Device?

 What is a client device?

A ’Client Device’ may refer to any computer with access
to data from another computer. In this sense, a server
may support a network composed of many client devices
in the form of desktop PCs, laptops, smartphones, and
tablets. A purpose built network may comprise different
types of client devices (e.g. thin clients, zero clients), as
detailed by factors such as onboard storage.

Thin Clients & Zero Clients

A business wishing to build a functional onsite computer
network faces several options when choosing between
types of network devices. This choice is usually driven by
considerations such as task relevance and whether the
chosen devices represent a cost-effective solution. The
available options are typically known as thin clients, zero
clients, and thick clients.
Thin clients, zero clients, and thick clients:
 o Thin Client
In a thin client scenario, each workstation is
equipped with a limited amount of RAM storage -
meaning there is no onboard hard drive. Instead,
thin clients depend on server connectivity in order to
access apps and save data. The limited RAM enables
a succession of device users to continue working on
the same project using the same applications.
o Zero Client
A zero client is a workstation that does not feature
onboard memory. All functions are dependent on
access to the network server (including start-up). As
zero clients cannot store data, they are considered
the most secure endpoint solutions to an in-office
virtual desktop infrastructure.
o Thick Client
A thick client is a fully autonomous internet ready
device with a dedicated onboard hard drive. This
means that thick clients are effective in both an off-
line capacity or when not connected to the server, as
well as when connected to a network. An example of
a thick client is a laptop with a dedicated onboard
hard drive.

What are the Benefits of Thin Clients and Zero Clients?

Thin clients and zero clients do not possess onboard
memory. This means that upon start-up, the operating
system and any critical applications do not load until such
time that access to the relevant network files is secured.
Upon connecting to the network, only the applications
required for task completion are accessed at any given
time, meaning a high responsivity and much faster load
speeds. The lack of onboard memory also presents an
attractive safety feature - data cannot be stolen from
thin clients and zero clients as it is not stored onboard
the device.

Reduced Operating Costs - As thin clients and zero

clients contain no ‘moving parts’ (i.e. hard drive, cooling
fan), there is a reduced risk of hardware failure. This
helps to keep costs to a minimum both in terms of
network related financial considerations (i.e. hardware),
and any future potential maintenance costs (i.e. parts
and labour)

What is a server?
A server is a computer or system that provides resources,
data, services, or programs to other computers, known
as clients, over a network. In theory, whenever
computers share resources with client machines they are
considered servers. There are many types of servers,
including web servers, mail servers, and virtual servers.
An individual system can provide resources and use them
from another system at the same time. This means that a
device could be both a server and a client at the same
time.
Some of the first servers were mainframe computers or
minicomputers. Minicomputers were much smaller than
mainframe computers, hence the name. However, as
technology progressed, they ended up becoming much
larger than desktop computers, which made the term
microcomputer somewhat farcical.
Initially, such servers were connected to clients known as
terminals that did not do any actual computing. These
terminals, referred to as dumb terminals, existed simply
to accept input via a keyboard or card reader and to
return the results of any computations to a display
screen or printer. The actual computing was done on the
server.
Later, servers were often single, powerful computers
connected over a network to a set of less-powerful client
computers. This network architecture is often referred to
as the client-server model, in which both the client
computer and the server possess computing power, but
certain tasks are delegated to servers. In previous
computing models, such as the mainframe-terminal
model, the mainframe did act as a server even though it
wasn’t referred to by that name.
These days, a server may be nothing more than software
running on one or more physical computing devices.
Such servers are often referred to as virtual servers.
Originally, virtual servers were used to increase the
number of server functions a single hardware server
could do. Today, virtual servers are often run by a third-
party on hardware across the Internet in an arrangement
called cloud computing.
A server may be designed to do a single task, such as a
mail server, which accepts and stores email and then
provides it to a requesting client. Servers may also
perform several tasks, such as a file and print server,
which both stores files and accepts print jobs from clients
and then sends them on to a network-attached printer.
How a server works

To function as a server, a device must be configured to

listen to requests from clients on a network connection.
This functionality can exist as part of the operating
system as an installed application, role, or a combination
of the two.
For example, Microsoft’s Windows Server operating
system provides the functionality to listen to and
respond to client requests. Additionally installed roles or
services increase which kinds of client requests the
server can respond to. In another example, an Apache
web server responds to Internet browser requests via an
additional application, Apache, installed on top of an
operating system.
When a client requires data or functionality from a
server, it sends a request over the network. The server
receives this request and responds with the appropriate
information. This is the request and response model of
client-server networking, also known as the call and
response model.
A server will often perform numerous additional tasks as
part of a single request and response, including verifying
the identity of the requestor, ensuring that the client has
permission to access the data or resources requested,
and properly formatting or returning the required
response in an expected way.
Types of servers
File servers
File servers store and distribute files. Multiple clients or
users may share files stored on a server. In addition,
centrally storing files offers easier backup or fault
tolerance solutions than attempting to provide security
and integrity for files on every device in an organization.
File server hardware can be designed to maximize read
and write speeds to improve performance.
Print servers
Print servers allow for the management and distribution
of printing functionality. Rather than attaching a printer
to every workstation, a single print server can respond to
printing requests from numerous clients. Today, some
larger and higher-end printers come with their own built-
in print server, which removes the need for an additional
computer-based print server. This internal print server
also functions by responding to print requests from a
client.
Application servers

Application servers run applications in lieu of client computers running applications locally.
Application servers often run resource-intensive applications that are shared by a large number
of users. Doing so removes the need for each client to have sufficient resources to run the
applications. It also removes the need to install and maintain software on many machines as
opposed to only one.

DNS servers
Domain Name System (DNS) servers are application
servers that provide name resolution to client computers
by converting names easily understood by humans into
machine-readable IP addresses. The DNS system is a
widely distributed database of names and other DNS
servers, each of which can be used to request an
otherwise unknown computer name. When a client
needs the address of a system, it sends a DNS request
with the name of the desired resource to a DNS server.
The DNS server responds with the necessary IP address
from its table of names.
Mail servers
Mail servers are a very common type of application
server. Mail servers receive emails sent to a user and
store them until requested by a client on behalf of said
user. Having an email server allows for a single machine
to be properly configured and attached to the network at
all times. It is then ready to send and receive messages
rather than requiring every client machine to have its
own email subsystem continuously running.
Web servers
A web server is a special kind of application server that
hosts programs and data requested by users across the
Internet or an intranet. Web servers respond to requests
from browsers running on client computers for web
pages, or other web-based services. Common web
servers include Apache web servers, Microsoft Internet
Information Services (IIS) servers and Nginx servers

Database servers
The amount of data used by companies, users, and
other services is staggering. Much of that data is stored
in databases. Databases need to be accessible to
multiple clients at any given time and can require
extraordinary amounts of disk space. Both of these
needs lend themselves well to locating such databases
on servers. Database servers run database applications
and respond to numerous requests from clients.
Common database server applications include Oracle,
Microsoft SQL Server, DB2, and Informix.
Virtual servers
Virtual servers are taking the server world by storm.
Unlike traditional servers that are installed as an
operating system on machine hardware, virtual servers
exist only as defined within specialized software called
hypervisor. Each hypervisor can run hundreds, or even
thousands, of virtual servers all at once. The hypervisor
presents virtual hardware to the server as if it were real
physical hardware. The virtual server uses the virtual
hardware as usual, and the hypervisor passes the actual
computation and storage needs onto the real hardware
beneath, which is shared among all the other virtual
servers.
Proxy servers
A proxy server acts as an intermediary between a client
and a server. Often used to isolate either the clients or
servers for security purposes, a proxy server takes the
request from the client. Instead of responding to the
client, it passes the request on to another server or
process. The proxy server receives the response from the
second server and then replies to the original client as if
it were replying on its own. In this way, neither the client
nor the responding server needs to directly connect to
each other.
Monitoring and management servers
Some servers exist to monitor or manage other systems
and clients. There are many types of monitoring servers.
Several of them listen to the network and receive every
client request and server response, but some do not
request or respond to data themselves. In this way, the
monitoring server can keep track of all the traffic on the
network, as well as the requests and replies of clients
and servers, without interfering with those operations. A
monitoring server will respond to requests from
monitoring clients such as those run by network
administrators watching the health of the network.
Server structures

The concept of servers is nearly as old as networking

itself. After all, the point of a network is to allow one
computer to talk to another computer and distribute
either work or resources. Computing has evolved since
then, resulting in several types of server structures and
hardware.
Mainframe or minicomputer (AS/400)
You could say that the original servers, mainframe
computers, and later, minicomputers, handled almost all
computing tasks except the interaction with the user
through a screen and keyboard, which was left to the
client system.
Computer hardware server
The next major wave of servers included computer-based
servers. In many respects, these servers were nothing
more than larger, more powerful desktop computers.
Such servers were generally more expensive and held far
more memory and disk space than most client
computers. Each server was still a self-contained unit
with its own motherboard, processor, memory, disk
drives, and power supply. Servers like this were often
warehoused in air-conditioned rooms called server
rooms, and were later bolted into racks for better
storage and accessibility.
Blade servers
The original computer server hardware was large and
stored in racks that could hold hundreds of pounds. Over
time, however, faster means of connecting hardware
resulted in parts of the server being extracted from a
single self-contained device. By removing hard drives,
eliminating internal cooling, and the ongoing
miniaturization of computing parts, servers were
eventually reduced to a single thin server known as a
blade server. While still stored in racks in server rooms,
blade servers are smaller and can be replaced more
easily.
Combining servers
Even before virtualization, servers were being extracted
from the standard model of a single server operating
system installed on a hardware machine. Technology,
such as network-attached storage, removed the need for
a server to have its own storage. Other technologies,
such as mirroring and clustering, enabled pieces of
hardware to be combined into larger, more powerful
servers. Such a server might consist of several blades,
several attached storage devices, and an external power
supply, and each piece could be swapped out for another
while the server was still running.
Virtual servers
Virtual Servers still require hardware, but that hardware
now runs a different process known as a hypervisor. In
some cases, such as Microsoft’s Hyper-V, a full operating
system continues to run on the hardware itself. In other
cases, so-called bare-metal hypervisors can be installed
directly onto server hardware. In both instances, the
hardware itself is often spread across an array of blade
servers, networked storage, and power supply, resulting
in an environment where it is impossible to tell where
any individual server ends and another begins.
Examples of server operating systems

Microsoft Windows servers

An argument can be made that Windows for Workgroups
was Microsoft’s first server operating system. In that
version, certain computers could be set to share
resources and respond to requests from clients, which
made them servers by definition. Microsoft’s first real
server operating system was Windows NT. Its 3.5 and
3.51 versions ran on many business networks until
Microsoft released its Windows Server line that
continues to exist today. The most current Windows
Server version is Windows Server 2016. This version
supports numerous applications and databases as well as
a hypervisor that allows virtual servers.
Linux / Unix servers
The other major player in server operating systems is the
Linux/Unix realm. There are multiple versions and flavors
of Linux/Unix including Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Debian,
and CentOS. As an open-source operating system, Linux
is very popular as a web server, often with the Apache
web application server installed.
NetWare
Although no longer made, NetWare was a major player in
the server software space as the client-server era was
ramping up. Eventually, NetWare moved its server
operating system to a Linux-based kernel and named it a
Novell Open Enterprise Server (OES).
Cloud servers
Virtual servers hosted on a third-party infrastructure on
an open network, such as the Internet, are called cloud
servers. There are numerous cloud server providers
these days, including Google’s Cloud Platform, Microsoft
Azure, and IBM Cloud.
However, the main pioneer of corporate cloud
computing was Amazon’s AWS platform. It originally
started using spare capacity of Amazon’s own servers
and networks, but AWS now allows customers to create
a virtual server nearly instantly and then adjust the
amount of resources that server may use on the fly.
Today, a server can be nothing more than the data of
physical hardware that consists of multiple processors,
disk drives, memory, and network connections. But, even
now, a server is still just a system that responds to a
request from a client.

Computer Devices

Peripheral
A peripheral is a “device that is used to put information
into or get information out of the computer.”[1]
There are three different types of peripherals:
  Input, used to interact with, or send data to the
computer (mouse, keyboards, etc.)
 Output, which provides output to the user from the
computer (monitors, printers, etc.)
 Storage, which stores data processed by the
computer (hard drives, flash drives, etc.)

Overview
A peripheral device is generally defined as any auxiliary
device such as a computer mouse or keyboard, that
connects to and works with the computer in some way.
Other examples of peripherals are expansion cards,
graphics cards, image scanners, tape drives,
microphones, loudspeakers, webcams, and digital
cameras. RAM—random access memory—straddles the
line between peripheral and primary component; it is
technically a storage peripheral, but is required for every
major function of a modern computer and removing the
RAM will effectively disable any modern machine. Many
new devices such as digital watches, smartphones and
tablet computers have interfaces which allow them to be
used as a peripheral by a full computer, though they are
not host-dependent as other peripheral devices are.
According to the most technical definition, the only
pieces of a computer not considered to be peripherals
are the central processing unit, power supply,
motherboard, and computer case.
Usually, the word peripheral is used to refer to a device
external to the computer case, like a scanner, but
the devices located inside the computer case are also
technically peripherals. Devices that exist outside the
computer case are called external peripherals, or
auxiliary components, Examples are: “Many of the
external peripherals I own, such as my scanner and
printer, connect to the peripheral ports on the back of
my computer.”[2] Devices that are inside the case such as
internal hard drives or CD-ROM drives are also
peripherals in technical terms and are called internal
peripherals, but may not be recognized as peripherals by
laypeople.
In a system on a chip, peripherals are incorporated into
the same integrated circuit as the central processing unit.
They are still referred to as “peripherals” despite being
permanently attached to (and in some sense part of)
their host processor.

Common Peripherals
 Input
o Keyboard
o Computer mouse
 o Graphic tablet
o Touchscreen
o Barcode reader
o Image scanner
o Microphone
o Webcam
o Game controller
o Light pen
o Scanner
o Digital camera
 Output
o Computer display
o Printer
o Projector
o Speaker
 Storage devices
o Floppy disk drive
o Flash drive
o Disk drive
o Smartphone or Tablet computer storage interface
o CD/DVD drive
  Input/Output
o Modem
o Network interface controller (NIC)

Input Devices
In computing, an input device is a peripheral (piece of
computer hardware equipment) used to provide data
and control signals to an information processing system
such as a computer or other information appliance.
Examples of input devices include keyboards, mice,
scanners, digital cameras and joysticks.
Many input devices can be classified according to:
 modality of input (e.g. mechanical motion, audio,
visual, etc.)
 the input is discrete (e.g. key presses) or continuous
(e.g. a mouse’s position, though digitized into a
discrete quantity, is fast enough to be considered
continuous)
Pointing devices, which are input devices used to specify
a position in space, can further be classified according to:
 Whether the input is direct or indirect. With direct
input, the input space coincides with the display
space, i.e. pointing is done in the space where visual
 feedback or the pointer appears. Touchscreens and
light pens involve direct input. Examples involving
indirect input include the mouse and trackball.
 Whether the positional information is absolute (e.g.
on a touch screen) or relative (e.g. with a mouse that
can be lifted and repositioned)
Direct input is almost necessarily absolute, but indirect
input may be either absolute or relative. For example,
digitizing graphics tablets that do not have an embedded
screen involve indirect input and sense absolute
positions and are often run in an absolute input mode,
but they may also be set up to simulate a relative input
mode like that of a touchpad, where the stylus or puck
can be lifted and repositioned.
Input and output devices make up the hardware
interface between a computer and a scanner or 6DOF
controller.

Keyboards
A keyboard is a human interface device which is
represented as a layout of buttons. Each button, or key,
can be used to either input a linguistic character to a
computer, or to call upon a particular function of the
computer. They act as the main text entry interface for
most users. Traditional keyboards use spring-based
buttons, though newer variations employ virtual keys, or
even projected keyboards. It is typewriter like device
composed of a matrix of switches.
Examples of types of keyboards include:
 Keyer
 Keyboard
 Lighted Program Function Keyboard (LPFK)

Pointing Devices

A computer mouse
Pointing devices are the most commonly used input
devices today. A pointing device is any human interface
device that allows a user to input spatial data to a
computer. In the case of mice and touchpads, this is
usually achieved by detecting movement across a
physical surface. Analog devices, such as 3D mice,
joysticks, or pointing sticks, function by reporting their
angle of deflection. Movements of the pointing device
are echoed on the screen by movements of the pointer,
creating a simple, intuitive way to navigate a computer’s
graphical user interface (GUI).
Composite Devices
Wii Remote with attached strap
Input devices, such as buttons and joysticks, can be
combined on a single physical device that could be
thought of as a composite device. Many gaming devices
have controllers like this. Technically mice are composite
devices, as they both track movement and provide
buttons for clicking, but composite devices are generally
considered to have more than two different forms of
input.
 Game controller
 Gamepad (or joypad)
 Paddle (game controller)
 Jog dial/shuttle (or knob)
 Wii Remote

Imaging and Input Devices

Microsoft Kinect sensor

Video input devices are used to digitize images or video
from the outside world into the computer. The
information can be stored in a multitude of formats
depending on the user’s requirement.
 Digital camera
 Digital camcorder
 Portable media player
 Webcam
 Microsoft Kinect Sensor
 Image scanner
 Fingerprint scanner
 Barcode reader
 3D scanner
 Laser rangefinder
 Eye gaze tracker
Medical Imaging
 Computed tomography
 Magnetic resonance imaging
 Positron emission tomography
 Medical ultrasonography
Audio Input Devices
Audio input devices are used to capture sound. In some
cases, an audio output device can be used as an input
device, in order to capture produced sound.
 Microphones
 MIDI keyboard or other digital musical instrument

Output Devices
An output device is any piece of computer hardware
equipment used to communicate the results of data
processing carried out by an information processing
system (such as a computer) which converts the
electronically generated information into human-
readable form.

Display Devices
A display device is an output device that visually conveys
text, graphics, and video information. Information shown
on a display device is called soft copy because the
information exists electronically and is displayed for a
temporary period of time. Display devices include CRT
monitors, LCD monitors and displays, gas plasma
monitors, and televisions.
Input/Output
Inputs are the signals or data received by the system, and
outputs are the signals or data sent from it.
There are many input and output devices such as
multifunction printers and computer-based navigation
systems that are used for specialised or unique
applications. In computing, input/output refers to the
communication between an information processing
system (such as a computer), and the outside world.
Inputs are the signals or data received by the system, and
outputs are the signals or data sent from it.

Examples
These examples of output devices also include
input/output devices. Printers and visual displays are the
most common type of output device for interfacing
people, but voice is becoming increasingly available.
 Speakers

 Headphones
 Screen (Monitor)
 Printer
 Voice output communication aid
 Automotive navigation system
 Braille embosser
  Projector
 Plotter
 Television
 Radio

Computer Memory
In computing, memory refers to the devices used to
store information for use in a computer. The term
primary memory is used for storage systems which
function at high-speed (i.e. RAM), as a distinction from
secondary memory, which provides program and data
storage that is slow to access but offer higher memory
capacity. If needed, primary memory can be stored in
secondary memory, through a memory management
technique called “virtual memory.” An archaic synonym
for memory is store.

Volatile Memory

DDR-SD-RAM, SD-RAM and two older forms of RAM.

Volatile memory is computer memory that requires
power to maintain the stored information. Most modern
semiconductor volatile memory is either Static RAM (see
SRAM) or dynamic RAM (see DRAM). SRAM retains its
contents as long as the power is connected and is easy to
interface to but uses six transistors per bit. Dynamic RAM
is more complicated to interface to and control and
needs regular refresh cycles to prevent its contents being
lost. However, DRAM uses only one transistor and a
capacitor per bit, allowing it to reach much higher
densities and, with more bits on a memory chip, be much
cheaper per bit. SRAM is not worthwhile for desktop
system memory, where DRAM dominates, but is used for
their cache memories. SRAM is commonplace in small
embedded systems, which might only need tens of
kilobytes or less. Forthcoming volatile memory
technologies that hope to replace or compete with SRAM
and DRAM include Z-RAM, TTRAM, A-RAM and ETA RAM.

Non-Volatile Memory

Solid-state drives are one of the latest forms of non-

volatile memory.
Non-volatile memory is computer memory that can
retain the stored information even when not powered.
Examples of non-volatile memory include read-only
memory (see ROM), flash memory, most types of
magnetic computer storage devices (e.g. hard disks,
floppy discs and magnetic tape), optical discs, and early
computer storage methods such as paper tape and
punched cards. Forthcoming non-volatile memory
technologies include FeRAM, CBRAM,PRAM, SONOS,
RRAM, Racetrack memory, NRAM and Millipede.
The basic computer hardware components that are
needed to set up a network are as follows −
Network Cables
Network cables are the transmission media to transfer
data from one device to another. A commonly used
network cable is category 5 cable with RJ – 45 connector,
as shown in the image below:

Routers
A router is a connecting device that transfers data
packets between different computer networks. Typically,
they are used to connect a PC or an organization’s LAN to
a broadband internet connection. They contain RJ-45
ports so that computers and other devices can connect
with them using network cables.

Repeaters, Hubs, and Switches

Repeaters, hubs and switches connect network devices
together so that they can function as a single segment.
A repeater receives a signal and regenerates it before re-
transmitting so that it can travel longer distances.
A hub is a multiport repeater having several input/output
ports, so that input at any port is available at every other
port.
A switch receives data from a port, uses packet switching
to resolve the destination device and then forwards the
data to the particular destination, rather than
broadcasting it as a hub.

Bridges
A bridge connects two separate Ethernet network
segments. It forwards packets from the source network
to the destined network.

Gateways
A gateway connects entirely different networks that
work upon different protocols. It is the entry and the exit
point of a network and controls access to other
networks.

Network Interface Cards

NIC is a component of the computer to connect it to a
network. Network cards are of two types: Internal
network cards and external network cards.