a central administrator that manages the permissions and access to the resources
of the network. This structure is used for the majority of LANs and virtually all
WANs and other network types that connect over a WAN.Any computer that requests services, such as a file, a program, or printing from the
network is a client, and any computer that services the requests made to the network is a
server. Depending on the request, any computer on the network can be a client for one
type of request and a server for another. If Tom’s PC has a nifty new laser printer attached
to it and Sally has been given permission to use it, Tom’s PC becomes a print server for
printing requests from Sally’s PC client. On a larger network, centralized computers process
a variety of services for the computers connected to the network, as shown in Figure 20-2.
Typically, on larger networks clients are clients and servers are servers.(^512) PC Hardware: A Beginner’s Guide
Figure 20-2. A server can provide many services to a network