Personal Area Networks

PANs (Personal Area Networks) allow devices to communicate over the range of a
person. A common example is a wireless network that connects a computer with its
peripherals. Bluetooth is a short-range wireless network that connects components
without wires. In their simplest form, Bluetooth networks use the master-slave paradigm,
in which the system unit (the PC) is usually the master, talking to slaves (e.g. a mouse
or keyboard). The master tells the slaves what addresses to use, when they can
broadcast, how long they can transmit, what frequencies to use, and so on. PANs can
also be built with other technologies that transmit over short ranges, such as RFID on
smart cards and library books.

Local Area Networks

LANs (Local Area Networks) are privately-owned networks that operate within and
nearby a single building like a home or office. LANs are widely used to connect personal
computers and consumer electronics and let them share resources like printers and
exchange information. When LANs are used by companies they are called enterprise
networks.
Wireless LANs are very popular, especially in homes, older office buildings, cafeterias,
and other areas where it is too much trouble to install cables. In these systems, every
computer has a radio modem and an antenna that it uses to communicate with other
computers. In most cases, each computer talks to a device called an AP (Access Point),
wireless router, or base station. The AP relays packets between the wireless computers,
and also between each computer and the Internet.
There is a standard for wireless LANs called IEEE 802.11, popularly known as WiFi,
which has become widespread.
The topology of many wired LANs is built from point-to-point links. IEEE 802.3, popularly
called Ethernet, is by far the most common type of wired LAN. Each computer speaks
the Ethernet protocol, and connects to a box called a switch with a point-to-point link.
Each switch has multiple ports, each of which can connect to one computer. The job of

the switch is to relay packets between computers that are attached to it, using the
address in each packet to determine which computer to send it to.

Metropolitan Area Networks

MANs (Metropolitan Area Networks) cover a city. The best-known examples of MANs
are the cable television networks available in many cities. These systems grew from
earlier community antenna systems used in areas with poor over-the-air television
reception.
When the Internet began attracting a mass audience, the cable TV network operators
began to realize that with some changes to the system, they could provide two-way
Internet service to unused parts of the spectrum. At that point, the cable TV system
began to morph from simply a way to distribute television to a metropolitan area
network.

Wide Area Networks

WANs (Wide Area Networks) span large geographical areas, like countries and
continents. A WAN could be a network connecting offices in Perth, Melbourne, and
Brisbane. Each of these offices could contain computers intended for running
applications; following traditional usage, we could call these machines hosts. The rest of
the network connecting these hosts is then called the communication subnet, or
just subnet for short. The job of the subnet is to carry messages from host to host, just
as the telephone system carries words from speaker to listener.
In most WANs, the subnet consists of two distinct components: transmission lines and
switching elements. Transmission lines move bits between machines. They can be
made of copper wire, optical fiber, or even radio links. Most companies don't have
transmission lines lying about, so they lease the lines from a telecommunications
company. Switching elements, or just switches, are specialized computers that connect
two or more transmission lines. When data arrive on an incoming line, the switching
element must choose an outgoing line on which to forward them. The name router is
most commonly used for switches.

Here the term subnet means a collection of routes and communication lines, though the
term has an alternate meaning discussed later.
Routers can connect different kinds of networking technology, like switched Ethernet
and SONET links. This means that many WANs will in fact be internetworks, or
composite networks made up of more than one network.
Subnets can connect individual machines, as in the case of LANs, or they can connect
entire LANs. This is how larger networks are built from smaller ones. As far as the
subnet is concerned, it does the same job.
Some WANs may, instead of leasing dedicated transmission lines, decide to use the
Internet. This allows connections to be made between offices as virtual links, using the
underlying capacity of the Internet. This arrangement is called a VPN (virtual private
network). Compared to the dedicated arrangement, a VPN has the usual advantage of
virtualization, in that it provides flexible reuse of a resource (Internet connectivity). VPNs
also have the usual disadvantage of virtualization, a lack of control over the underlying
resources. With a dedicated line, the capacity is clear. With a VPN, your mileage may
vary with your internet service.
Another variation is that the subnet may be run by a different company, known as a
network service provider. The subnet operator will also connect to other networks that
are a part of the Internet, making the subnet operator an ISP (Internet Service Provider).

Internetworks
A collection of interconnected networks is called an internetwork or internet. These
terms refer to interconnected networks in a generic sense, in contrast to the worldwide
Internet (one specific internet).
Subnets, networks, and internetworks are often confused. The term "subnet" makes the
most sense in the context of a wide area network, where it refers to the collection of
routers and communication lines.
A network is formed by the combination of a subnet and its hosts.

An internetwork connects distinct networks. Connecting a LAN and a WAN or two Lans
is the usual way to form an internetwork.
To go deeper, we need to talk about how two different networks can be connected. The
general name for a machine that makes a connection between two or more networks
and provides the necessary translation, both in terms of hardware and software, is
a gateway. Gateways are distinguished by the layer at which they operate in the protocol
hierarchy. Imagine that higher layers are more tied to applications, such as the Web,
and lower layers are more tied to transmission links, such as ethernet.
Since the benefit of forming an internet is to connect computers across networks, we
don't want to use too low-level a gateway, or we will be unable to make connections
between different kinds of networks. We do not want to use too high-level a gateway
either ,or the connection will only work for particular applications. The level in the middle
that is "just right" is often called the network layer, and a router is a gateway that
switches packets at the network layer. We can now spot an internet by finding a network
that has routers.

ECHIPAMENTE PENTRU REALIZAREA RETELELOR DE CALCULATOARE

NIC ( NETWORK INTERFACE CARD)

A network interface controller (NIC, also known as a network interface card, network
adapter, LAN adapter or physical network interface,[1] and by similar terms) is a computer
hardware component that connects a computer to a computer network.[2]
Early network interface controllers were commonly implemented on expansion cards that plugged
into a computer bus. The low cost and ubiquity of the Ethernet standard means that most newer
computers have a network interface built into the motherboard.
Modern network interface controllers offer advanced features such as interrupt and DMA interfaces
to the host processors, support for multiple receive and transmit queues, partitioning into multiple
logical interfaces, and on-controller network traffic processing such as the TCP offload engine.

Un controler de interfa pentru reea (plac de re ea) este o component a calculatorului care
conecteaz calculatorul la o reea de calculatoare.
Plcile de reea mai vechi erau des implementate pe plci de extensie care se bgau n calculator.
Costul redus i ubicuitatea standardelor Ethernet fac ca cele mai noi calculatoare au o plac de re ea
incorporat pe placa de baz.
Plcile de reea pentru modemuri ofer caracteristici avansate cum ar fi ntreruperea sau interfa a
DMA pentru procesoarele gazdei, suport multiplu pentru primire i transmitere de ntrebri, parti ionat n
multiple interfee logice, i un controler de procesare a traficului cum este motorul de ncrcare TCP.

REPEATER
n sistemul de comunicaie digital, un repeater este un dispozitiv ce prime te un semnal digital pe
un mediu electromagnetic sau optic de transmisie i regenereaz semnalul de-a lungul mediului. n mediul
electromagnetic, repeaterii depesc atenuare cauzat de spa iul liber, cmp eletromagnetic sau pierdere
de cablu. O serie de repeateri fac posibil extensia unui semnal pe o distan . Repeaterii nltur zgomotul
nedorit atunci cnd se apropie un semnal. Spre deosebire de un semnal analog, semnalul digital original,
chiar dac e slab sau mprtiat poate fi clar perceput i refolosit. Cu transmisie analog, semnalele se
rentresc cu amplificatori care din pcate amplific i zgomotul odat cu informa ia.
Datorit faptului c semnalul digital depinde de prezena sau absen a voltajului, tind s se
mprtie mai repede dect semnalul analog i are nevoie de repetri dese.
ntr-un sistem de comunicaie wireless, un repeater consist dintr-un receptor radio, un
amplificator, un transmitor, un izolator i dou antene. Transmi torul produce semnal pe o frecven
care difer de semnal recepionat. Izolatorul ofer protec ie n plus.
In digital communication systems, a repeater is a device that receives a digital signalon an
electromagnetic or optical transmission medium and regenerates the signal along the next leg of the
medium. In electromagnetic media, repeaters overcome theattenuation caused by free-space
electromagnetic-field divergence or cable loss. A series of repeaters make possible the extension of a
signal over a distance. Repeaters remove the unwanted noise in an incoming signal. Unlike
an analog signal, the original digital signal, even if weak or distorted, can be clearly perceived and
restored. With analog transmission, signals are restrengthened with amplifiers which unfortunately also
amplify noise as well as information.
Because digital signals depend on the presence or absence of voltage, they tend to dissipate more quickly
than analog signals and need more frequent repeating. Whereas analog signal amplifiers are spaced at
18,000 meter intervals, digital signal repeaters are typically placed at 2,000 to 6,000 meter intervals.
In a wireless communications system, a repeater consists of a radio receiver, an amplifier, a transmitter,
an isolator, and two antennas. The transmitter produces a signal on a frequency that differs from the
received signal. This so-called frequency offset is necessary to prevent the strong transmitted signal from
disabling the receiver. The isolator provides additional protection in this respect. A repeater, when

strategically located on top of a high building or a mountain, can greatly enhance the performance of a
wireless network by allowing communications over distances much greater than would be possible
without it.

ETHERNET HUB
Un hub de internet este un dispozitiv pentru conectarea multipl la Ethernet a dispozitivelor i le
face s acioneze ca un singur segment de re ea. Are mai multe porturi input/output n care un semnal este
introdus la intrarea oricrui port apare la ie irea fiecrui port mai pu in celui original. Un hub
funcioneaz la stratul fizic din modelul OSI. Hub-urile repeater particip n detectarea coliziunilor,
transmind un semnal de bruiaj ctre toate porturile daca detecteaz coliziune. n plus la porturile
standard 8P8C (RJ45), unele hub-uri pot veni i cu un conector BNC i/sau AUI (Attachment Unit
Interface) pentru a permite conexiuni mo tenirea segmentelor de re ea 10BASE2 sau 10BASE5.
Hub-urile sunt n mare parte nvechite, fiind nlocuite de switch-uri de re ea cu excep ia
instalaiilor foarte vechi sau aplicaiilor specializate.
An Ethernet hub, active hub, network hub, repeater hub, multiport
repeater or hub is a device for connecting multiple Ethernet devices together and
making them act as a single network segment. It has multiple input/output (I/O)
ports, in which a signal introduced at the input of any port appears at the output of
every port except the original incoming.[1] A hub works at the physical layer (layer 1)
of the OSI model.[2] Repeater hubs also participate in collision detection, forwarding
a jam signal to all ports if it detects a collision. In addition to standard 8P8C ("RJ45")
ports, some hubs may also come with a BNC and/or Attachment Unit Interface(AUI)
connector to allow connection to legacy 10BASE2 or 10BASE5 network segments.
Hubs are now largely obsolete, having been replaced by network switches except in
very old installations or specialized applications.

SWITCH

In a telecommunications network, a switch is a device that channels incoming

data from any of multiple input ports to the specific output port that will take
the data toward its intended destination. In the traditional circuitswitched telephone network, one or more switches are used to set up a
dedicated though temporary connection or circuit for an exchange between

two or more parties. On an Ethernet local area network (LAN), a switch

determines from the physical device (Media Access Control or MAC) address
in each incoming message frame which output port to forward it to and out of.
In a wide area packet-switched network such as the Internet, a switch
determines from the IP address in each packet which output port to use for the
next part of its trip to the intended destination.
In the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) communications model, a switch
performs the Layer 2 or Data-link layer function. That is, it simply looks at each
packet or data unit and determines from a physical address (the "MAC
address") which device a data unit is intended for and switches it out toward
that device. However, in wide area networks such as the Internet, the
destination address requires a look-up in a routing table by a device known as
a router. Some newer switches also perform routing functions (Layer 3or
the Network layer functions in OSI) and are sometimes called IP switches.

ROUTER
A router[a] is a networking device that forwards data packets between computer networks. Routers
perform the "traffic directing" functions on the Internet. A data packet is typically forwarded from one
router to another through the networks that constitute the internetwork until it reaches its destination
node.[1]
A router is connected to two or more data lines from different networks (as opposed to a network
switch, which connects data lines from one single network). When a data packet comes in on one of
the lines, the router reads the address information in the packet to determine its ultimate destination.
Then, using information in its routing table orrouting policy, it directs the packet to the next network
on its journey. This creates an overlay internetwork.
The most familiar type of routers are home and small office routers that simply pass data, such as
web pages, email, IM, and videos between the home computers and the Internet. An example of a
router would be the owner's cable or DSL router, which connects to the Internet through an ISP.
More sophisticated routers, such as enterprise routers, connect large business or ISP networks up to
the powerful core routers that forward data at high speed along the optical fiber lines of the Internet

backbone. Though routers are typically dedicated hardware devices, use of software-based routers
has grown increasingly common.

RESURSELE HARDWARE ALE CALCULATOARELOR

RAM
Random-access memory (RAM /rm/) is a form of computer data storage. A random-access
memory device allows data items to be accessed (read or written) in almost the same amount of
time irrespective of the physical location of data inside the memory. In contrast, with other directaccess data storage media such as hard disks, CD-RWs,DVD-RWs and the older drum memory, the
time required to read and write data items varies significantly depending on their physical locations
on the recording medium, due to mechanical limitations such as media rotation speeds and arm
movement delays.
Today, random-access memory takes the form of integrated circuits. RAM is normally associated
with volatile types of memory (such as DRAM memory modules), where stored information is lost if
power is removed, although many efforts have been made to develop non-volatile RAM chips.
[1]

Other types of non-volatile memory exist that allow random access for read operations, but either

do not allow write operations or have limitations on them. These include most types of ROM and a
type of flash memory calledNOR-Flash.
Integrated-circuit RAM chips came into the market in the late 1960s, with the first commercially
available DRAM chip, the Intel 1103, introduced in October 1970.[2]

TYPES OF RAM
The two main forms of modern RAM are static RAM (SRAM) and dynamic RAM (DRAM). In SRAM,
a bit of data is stored using the state of a six transistor memory cell. This form of RAM is more
expensive to produce, but is generally faster and requires less power than DRAM and, in modern
computers, is often used as cache memory for the CPU. DRAM stores a bit of data using a transistor
and capacitor pair, which together comprise a DRAM memory cell. The capacitor holds a high or low
charge (1 or 0, respectively), and the transistor acts as a switch that lets the control circuitry on the

chip read the capacitor's state of charge or change it. As this form of memory is less expensive to
produce than static RAM, it is the predominant form of computer memory used in modern
computers.
Both static and dynamic RAM are considered volatile, as their state is lost or reset when power is
removed from the system. By contrast, read-only memory (ROM) stores data by permanently
enabling or disabling selected transistors, such that the memory cannot be altered. Writeable
variants of ROM (such as EEPROM and flash memory) share properties of both ROM and RAM,
enabling data to persist without power and to be updated without requiring special equipment. These
persistent forms of semiconductor ROM include USB flash drives, memory cards for cameras and
portable devices, etc. ECC memory(which can be either SRAM or DRAM) includes special circuitry
to detect and/or correct random faults (memory errors) in the stored data, using parity bits or error
correction code.
In general, the term RAM refers solely to solid-state memory devices (either DRAM or SRAM), and
more specifically the main memory in most computers. In optical storage, the term DVD-RAM is
somewhat of a misnomer since, unlike CD-RW or DVD-RW it does not need to be erased before
reuse. Nevertheless, a DVD-RAM behaves much like a hard disc drive if somewhat slower.

HISTORY
Early computers used relays, mechanical counters[3] or delay lines for main memory functions.
Ultrasonic delay lines could only reproduce data in the order it was written.Drum memory could be
expanded at relatively low cost but efficient retrieval of memory items required knowledge of the
physical layout of the drum to optimize speed. Latches built out of vacuum tube triodes, and later,
out of discrete transistors, were used for smaller and faster memories such as registers. Such
registers were relatively large and too costly to use for large amounts of data; generally only a few
dozen or few hundred bits of such memory could be provided.
The first practical form of random-access memory was the Williams tube starting in 1947. It stored
data as electrically charged spots on the face of a cathode ray tube. Since the electron beam of the
CRT could read and write the spots on the tube in any order, memory was random access. The
capacity of the Williams tube was a few hundred to around a thousand bits, but it was much smaller,
faster, and more power-efficient than using individual vacuum tube latches. Developed at
the University of Manchester in England, the Williams tube provided the medium on which the first
electronically stored-memory program was implemented in the Manchester Small-Scale
Experimental Machine (SSEM) computer, which first successfully ran a program on 21 June 1948.

[4]

In fact, rather than the Williams tube memory being designed for the SSEM, the SSEM was

a testbed to demonstrate the reliability of the memory.[5][6]

Magnetic-core memory was invented in 1947 and developed up until the mid-1970s. It became a
widespread form of random-access memory, relying on an array of magnetized rings. By changing
the sense of each ring's magnetization, data could be stored with one bit stored per ring. Since every
ring had a combination of address wires to select and read or write it, access to any memory location
in any sequence was possible.
Magnetic core memory was the standard form of memory system until displaced by solid-state
memory in integrated circuits, starting in the early 1970s. Robert H. Dennard invented dynamic
random-access memory (DRAM) in 1968; this allowed replacement of a 4 or 6-transistor latch circuit
by a single transistor for each memory bit, greatly increasing memory density at the cost of volatility.
Data was stored in the tiny capacitance of each transistor, and had to be periodically refreshed every
few milliseconds before the charge could leak away.
Prior to the development of integrated read-only memory (ROM) circuits, permanent (or read-only)
random-access memory was often constructed using diode matrices driven by address decoders, or
specially wound core rope memory planes.

HARDISK

A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive or fixed disk[b] is a data storage device used for
storing and retrieving digital information using one or more rigid ("hard") rapidly rotating disks
(platters) coated with magnetic material. The platters are paired with magnetic heads arranged on a
moving actuator arm, which read and write data to the platter surfaces.[2] Data is accessed in
a random-access manner, meaning that individual blocks of data can be stored or retrieved in any
order rather than sequentially. HDDs retain stored data even when powered off.
Introduced by IBM in 1956,[3] HDDs became the dominant secondary storage device for generalpurpose computers by the early 1960s. Continuously improved, HDDs have maintained this position
into the modern era of servers and personal computers. More than 200 companies have produced
HDD units, though most current units are manufactured by Seagate, Toshiba and Western Digital.
Worldwide disk storage revenues were US $32 billion in 2013, down 3% from 2012. [4]

The primary characteristics of an HDD are its capacity and performance. Capacity is specified in unit
prefixes corresponding to powers of 1000: a 1-terabyte (TB) drive has a capacity of
1,000 gigabytes (GB; where 1 gigabyte = 1 billion bytes). Typically, some of an HDD's capacity is
unavailable to the user because it is used by the file system and the computer operating system, and
possibly inbuilt redundancy for error correction and recovery. Performance is specified by the time
required to move the heads to a track or cylinder (average access time) plus the time it takes for the
desired sector to move under the head (average latency, which is a function of the
physical rotational speed in revolutions per minute), and finally the speed at which the data is
transmitted (data rate).
The two most common form factors for modern HDDs are 3.5-inch, for desktop computers, and 2.5inch, primarily for laptops. HDDs are connected to systems by standardinterface cables such
as SATA (Serial ATA), USB or SAS (Serial attached SCSI) cables.
As of 2015, the primary competing technology for secondary storage is flash memory in the form
of solid-state drives (SSDs), which have higher data transfer rates and significantly lower latency
and access times, but HDDs remain the dominant medium for secondary storage due to advantages
in price per unit of storage, per-device recording capacity, and lack of the write amplification effect.[5]
[6]

However, SSDs are replacing HDDs where speed, power consumption and durability are more

important

HISTORY

Hard disk drives were introduced in 1956 as data storage for an IBM real-time transaction
processing computer and were developed for use with generalpurpose mainframeand minicomputers. The first IBM drive, the 350 RAMAC, was approximately the
size of two refrigerators and stored five million six-bit characters (3.75 megabytes)[9] on a stack of 50
disks.[15]
The IBM 350 RAMAC disk storage unit was superseded by the IBM 1301 disk storage unit,[16] which
consisted of 50 platters, each about 1/8-inch thick and 24 inches in diameter.[17] Whereas the
IBM 350 used two read/write heads, pneumatically actuated [15] and moving through two dimensions,
the 1301 was one of the first disk storage units to use an array of heads, one per platter, moving as
a single unit. Cylinder-mode read/write operations were supported, while the heads flew about 250
micro-inches above the platter surface. Motion of the head array depended upon a binary adder
system of hydraulic actuators which assured repeatable positioning. The 1301 cabinet was about the

size of three home refrigerators placed side by side, storing the equivalent of about 21 million eightbit bytes. Access time was about 200 milliseconds.
In 1962, IBM introduced the model 1311 disk drive, which was about the size of a washing machine
and stored two million characters on a removable disk pack. Users could buy additional packs and
interchange them as needed, much like reels of magnetic tape. Later models of removable pack
drives, from IBM and others, became the norm in most computer installations and reached
capacities of 300 megabytes by the early 1980s. Non-removable HDDs were called "fixed disk"
drives.
Some high-performance HDDs were manufactured with one head per track (e.g. IBM 2305) so that
no time was lost physically moving the heads to a track. [18] Known as fixed-head or head-per-track
disk drives they were very expensive and are no longer in production. [19]
In 1973, IBM introduced a new type of HDD codenamed "Winchester". Its primary distinguishing
feature was that the disk heads were not withdrawn completely from the stack of disk platters when
the drive was powered down. Instead, the heads were allowed to "land" on a special area of the disk
surface upon spin-down, "taking off" again when the disk was later powered on. This greatly reduced
the cost of the head actuator mechanism, but precluded removing just the disks from the drive as
was done with the disk packs of the day. Instead, the first models of "Winchester technology" drives
featured a removable disk module, which included both the disk pack and the head assembly,
leaving the actuator motor in the drive upon removal. Later "Winchester" drives abandoned the
removable media concept and returned to non-removable platters.
Like the first removable pack drive, the first "Winchester" drives used platters 14 inches (360 mm) in
diameter. A few years later, designers were exploring the possibility that physically smaller platters
might offer advantages. Drives with non-removable eight-inch platters appeared, and then drives
that used a 5 14 in (130 mm) form factor (a mounting width equivalent to that used by
contemporaryfloppy disk drives). The latter were primarily intended for the then-fledgling personal
computer (PC) market.
As the 1980s began, HDDs were a rare and very expensive additional feature in PCs, but by the late
1980s their cost had been reduced to the point where they were standard on all but the cheapest
computers.
Most HDDs in the early 1980s were sold to PC end users as an external, add-on subsystem. The
subsystem was not sold under the drive manufacturer's name but under the subsystem
manufacturer's name such as Corvus Systems and Tallgrass Technologies, or under the PC system

manufacturer's name such as the Apple ProFile. The IBM PC/XT in 1983 included an internal 10 MB
HDD, and soon thereafter internal HDDs proliferated on personal computers.
External HDDs remained popular for much longer on the Apple Macintosh. Every Macintosh made
between 1986 and 1998 had a SCSI port on the back, making external expansion simple; also, older
compact Macintosh computers did not have easily accessible hard drive bays (or in the case of
the Macintosh 128K, Macintosh 512K, and Macintosh Plus, any hard drive bay at all), so on those
models external SCSI disks were the only reasonable option.
The 2011 Thailand floods damaged the manufacturing plants and impacted hard disk drive cost
adversely between 2011 and 2013.[20]
Driven by ever increasing areal density since their invention, HDDs have continuously improved their
characteristics; a few highlights are listed in the table above. At the same time, market application
expanded frommainframe computers of the late 1950s to most mass storage applications including
computers and consumer applications such as storage of entertainment content.

SERVER
A server is both a running instance of some software that is capable of accepting requests
from clients, and the computer that executes such software.
Servers operate within a client-server architecture, in which "servers" are computer programs
running to serve the requests of other programs, the "clients". [a] This may be to share data,
information or hardware and software resources. Typical computing servers are database server, file
server, mail server, print server, web server, gaming server, and application server.[1]
The clients may run on the same computer, but typically connect to the server through a network. [2]
In the hardware sense, a computer primarily designed as a server is generally specialised in some
way for its task. Sometimes more powerful and reliable than standard desktop computers, they may
conversely be simpler and more disposable if clustered in large numbers.

USAGE

The term server is used quite broadly in information technology. In theory, any computerised process
that shares a resource to one or more client processes is a server. So, while the existence of files on
a machine does not classify it as a server, if it uses some mechanism to share these files then it can
be a file server. Similarly, web server software can be run on any capable computer, and so
a laptop or personal computer can fulfil the role of a web server.
In the hardware sense, the word server typically designates computer models specialised for their
role as servers to do it better than a generic personal computer.

Hardware requirement

Hardware requirement for servers vary widely, depending on the server application.
Since servers of all these classes are usually accessed over a network, many run in "headless"
mode (without a monitor or input device), and audio and USB interfaces may be omitted. Processes
that are not needed for the server's function are not used and many servers do not have a graphical
user interface (GUI), being accessed remotely via SSHor with a web browser.

LARGE SERVERS

Large traditional single servers would need to be run for long periods without
interruption. Availability would have to be very high, making hardware reliability and durability
extremely important. Mission-critical enterprise servers would be very fault tolerant and use
specialized hardware with low failure rates in order to maximize uptime.Uninterruptible power
supplies might be incorporated to ensure against power failure AND Hardware redundancy such as
dual power supplies and RAID disk system ECC memory,[3] along with extensive pre-boot memory
testing and verification. Critical components might be hot swappable, allowing technicians to replace
them on the running server without shutting it down, and to guard against overheating, servers might
have more powerful fans or use water cooling. They will often be able to be configured, powered up
and down or rebooted remotely, using out-of-band management, typically based on IPMI. Server
casings are usually flat and wide, and designed to be rack-mounted.

These types of servers are often house in dedicated server centers. These will normally have very
stable power and Internet and increased security. Noise is also less of a concern, but power
consumption and heat output can be a serious issue. Server rooms are equipped with air
conditioning devices.

SISTEME DE OPERARE
On the Internet the dominant operating systems among servers are UNIX-like open
source distributions, such as those based on Linux and FreeBSD,[5] with Windows Serveralso having
a very significant share. Proprietary operating systems such as z/OS and Mac OS X are also
deployed, but in much smaller numbers.
Specialist server-oriented operating systems have traditionally had features such as:

GUI not available or optional

Ability to reconfigure and update both hardware and software to some extent without restart

Advanced backup facilities to permit regular and frequent online backups of critical data,

Transparent data transfer between different volumes or devices

Flexible and advanced networking capabilities

Automation capabilities such as daemons in UNIX and services in Windows

Tight system security, with advanced user, resource, data, and memory protection.

Advanced detection and alerting on conditions such as overheating, processor and disk
failure.[6]

In practice, today many desktop and server operating systems share similar code bases, differing
mostly in configuration.

TYPES

In a general network environment the following types of servers may be found.

Application server, a server dedicated to running certain software applications

Catalog server, a central search point for information across a distributed network

Communications server, carrier-grade computing platform for communications networks

Compute server, a server intended for intensive (esp. scientific) computations

Database server, provides database services to other computer programs or computers

Fax server, provides fax services for clients

File server, provides remote access to files

Game server, a server that video game clients connect to in order to play online together

Home server, a server for the home

Mail server, handles transport of and access to email

Media server, a specialized application server, usually enterprise class machine, providing
video on demand

Name server, provides DNS services

Print server, provides printer services

Proxy server, acts as an intermediary for requests from clients seeking resources from other
servers

Sound server, provides multimedia broadcasting, streaming.

Stand-alone server, a server on a Windows network that does not belong to or govern a
Windows domain

Web server, a server that HTTP clients connect to in order to send commands and receive
responses along with data contents