Software access on a network

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hi,

i know nothing abt networking stuff and i m having my own silly ideas abt it. but as far as i understand every network has a main pc which is called server, which controls other pcs, right? other pcs connected to the server can access data from the server. the server has a hard drive where softwares are installed and once the network is set up other pcs (with no hard drive on them as i understand at the moment or may be i m misunderstood) can use the same software. for example in a uni library there are 50+ pcs all connected to a server and any one who wants to use a particular application such as microsoft word can do so with a username and a password from any one of the 50 pcs on that network. what i mean here is there is no need to install microsoft word or any other application on any of the 50 pcs in order to use them. am i right in my understanding of the network concept as stated above? if not plz let me know how exactly it works in simple terms i will be gr8ful. i m hoping that a simple explanation will do me a gr8 favour. thanks a lot.

 

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Not always. What you state is just one possible configuration. You can also have a network of 'equals' - a peer-to-peer network.

There is no requirement for any station on a network to have, or not to have a hard drive. These days with over-large OSs nearly all machines on a network need some sort of bulk storage just to be able to boot!

In the case of your Uni they have a mass licence to install Office on the server. But this is not a requirement of a network, just something that can be done to make life easier once you have that network.

The main point of a network is to enable shareing of resources - be they centraly installed programs, just files, or access to the Internet.

Harry.