A sheriff’s deputy will knock on the door of a home to make service. By the time a process server gets involved, it is usually not effective to knock. The defendant won’t answer.
Process servers must physically locate the defendant to serve them. To make service, a process server may:
Wait in a public place outside a home, like a park or sidewalk
Enter a public workplace or wait in the public parking lot of a workplace
Knock on the door of any residential home where the defendant may be present
Front doors to homes that are generally accessible to the public, and the path of ingress, are called the “curtilage” of a home. It is legal for a process server, or anyone, to access the curtilage to knock on the door.