An Overview of Internet Services Internet services are provided with servers, which, in turn, provide services. In this chapter, we discuss what a server is, what kinds of services you might offer, and the kind of hardware you'll need to offer your service. For example, a Web client usually called a browser will request information from a Web server, and then display the data it receives for a user.
Servers provide, or serve, information to clients.
A Web server, for example, will listen for requests from clients, and, when it receives one, will send the requested data to the client that asked for it. They always need to be available to answer clients' requests. Clients, on the other hand, need be connected to the Internet only when in use by a user or a user-agent, computer software acting on behalf of a user. Servers are sometimes also known as daemons, the name for any UNIX program that runs as a background process at all times. In order for clients to communicate with servers, a protocol must be defined.