server/ network?

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Hi as some of you guys probably know I am trying to learn the 70-680.

I have a question in regards to networks in business. Can somebody outline this to me. where does all the info on network be? i.e the main computer. And what does a network entail. It's server basically a network everybody is connected to?

I hope once I get clarification on this, I will undertand things better. When their talking about servers in the early vids of the learning materials, that is confusing me.

thanks for any info.

 

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Big question. I'll try my best to keep this simple, and I'll trust that if there's anything you don't get you'll ask.

A Network is JUST a bunch of computers connected together somehow so they can swap data. Nothing more.
There might be a server in the network or there might not. If, in your house, you have two computers connected by wires or wifi to a box with loads of flashing lights... you have a network. Specifically, you have a LAN - a Local Area Network - meaning these computers can talk to each other directly through your private network, without the data having to be forwarded through anyone else. The box with the lights is most likely a switch, router and wireless access point all in one, and that is what connects your computers together, gives out addresses (IP addresses) and sets up the LAN so that they can all talk.


A "Server" is just a type of specialised computer on your network. All server means is that the computer serves (gives out) data for other machines on your network. Most computers nowadays ACT as a server from time to time (they give out data of some kind), but when people say "server" they usually mean the specialised, expensive monster computers that JUST serve.

Think about it this way: if you want to share out a bunch of cute kitten pictures, you could set up a "share" on your computer (right-click on the file and click properties, then look on the Sharing tab and set it up). Now your mum, from her laptop, can see those cute pictures of your cat. If the file is on your computer, and she's accessing it from hers, your computer is acting as a server - it's serving up the data your mum asked for.

But now lets scale this up. Say you've got 40 people in an office. Say they all need to share files. They could all do it the same way as above, and set up their own shares. So now when you want to access Frank's shared files, you click on Network, try to remember the name of Frank's computer, click on that, and then try to find the file he's sharing. Fiddly, but fine. Same process when you want to get something on Jane's computer. And Henry's. Oh, but wait, he hasn't turned on file sharing. Better tell him how to do that. And why can't you see Dave's computer at all. Oh, he went home at lunch and turned it off. And locked his office. Guess that will have to wait till morning. Now, to finish your day's work, you just need Peter's huge customer database and one small customer archive file from Jo's PC. What?! Damn, Peter's on XP and he hasn't given your user account access to his computer. And he can't figure out how to do it, so he ends up emailing it to you. But it's too big for email, so he has to split it into 12 parts and you have to put them all back together... somehow... okay. Now Jo's computer. Um... why are all her shares empty. Oh right, her hard drive died last week and she lost all her files... forever... but she might have backed it up on one of the CDs, she hopes... Aaarrggghhh! BIG HEADACHE.

Easy way to avoid all this is to set up one computer as a designated "Server." This means, it does some service for your network. Like, say storing all your files to make sure everyone can access them easily when they need to. It lives to serve, and does nothing else. This means it's never off when you need it, it's easy to find and centrally controlled and secured (by admins rather than users). Plus, by backing up that ONE computer, you back up everyone's stuff. And, you can put some special hardware in it to make it more reliable - say backup hard drives.
Other services you might want are Domain Services, so people can log in at any computer and access their stuff. A Domain Controller server can store their log in info, and serve it up to whatever computer they happen to sit down at.

There are loads of possible services, but the basic idea of a "Server" is that it's a central computer that offers services to all your other computers. Now, because lots of computers rely on these services, servers become VERY important - if someone switches off the file server, NO-ONE can find their files; if someone switches off the Domain Controller, no-one can log in properly.

Does that answer your question?

 

omg wow wow wow!!!

Thank YOU SOOOOO MUCH mate. I really apreciate that. i wish you was my teacher! That was soo easy to learn the way you put it. And thanks for the sharing tip. i didnt know you could do that lol. Atleast theres something I can do at home now too, instead of emailing to other computers

I reallly do apreciate all the time and effort you put into explain the servers/ network to. It's really nice to know people like you actually can put the time into helping people like myself who are struggling.

Again thank you sooo much. God bless !

 

No problem. Glad I can help.

Just a quick warning on the "Sharing" side. There's a little more to it than I said. If you're all on Windows 7, and at least one computer is Home Premium, you'll want to set up a HomeGroup and join all your computers to it. This sets up a trust between them, meaning they can easily share. This is in "Control Panel" in the (Network and Internet,) HomeGroup bit. This, in my opinion was one of the best additions to Windows 7 (along with Aero Snap) - it makes sharing fairly simple for a non-expert user.

If you're on XP, God help you! With business domains, sharing in XP is easy, but for the home user I always found it a pain. Even if you opened sharing to everyone, you'd get a log-in prompt when you try to connect to a share. This means that you need to set up a user account for people to log in with, or fiddle around with permissions and sacrifice some goats to get it all to work properly.

Something for you to try out:-
Press Windows key + R - the run box will pop up.
Type cmd - the command prompt will appear
Type net view - you'll see a list of 'Servers' on your network. Your PC will probably show up, and perhaps a few others on your LAN
Type net view %computername% - you'll see a list of any shares active on your computer. Might be empty if you don't have any. If you create some new shares, they'll show up here next time you run the command.
Type net view %computername% /all - you'll see a list of ALL shares active on your computer. You should see a few more this time, with $ signs after them, like C$ and IPC$ and maybe print$. These are some default shares set up in Windows for administration.

See?! You've already got a Server!

 

I havent seen this message as I havent been on.

Thanks for all the extra info!! it's good to know I'm now running a server from my computer thanks to your advice ...

it makes it soo worth while to come on forums like this when willing people like you are around to help the novice like me

thank you soo much , really apreciate from the bottom of my heart.