Datasheet

Book IX
Chapter 1
Those Pesky
Network Things
You Need to Know
Organizing Networks
673
networked printers hang off of the server(s). Usually all Internet access goes
through the server(s). Usually.
In the other kind of network, all the pigs, er, PCs are created equal. No single
PC dominates — perhaps I should say
serves — all the others. Rather, the
PCs maintain an equal footing. This kind of network is called, rather appro-
priately,
peer-to-peer, which sounds veddy British to me. Eh, wot? Microsoft
calls them
workgroups, which isn’t nearly as classy.
Peer-to-peer networking doesn’t get hung up in the kind of security and cen-
tral administration that client/server networks take for granted. For exam-
ple, a typical user on a peer-to-peer network can share a disk drive so that
anybody on the network can see it. On a client/server network, you’d have
to call in the network administrator.
At the risk of oversimplifying, peer-to-peer networking works best in homes
and small offices where security isn’t a major concern. Client/server net-
working works best in larger companies with significant security needs —
and a budget to match. Network administrators don’t come cheap. So much
for the overview. I now take a look at the details.
Introducing client/server networks
Client/server networks have one PC, called a server, that’s figuratively “on
top” of all the others. Figure 1-1 shows a logical diagram of a client/server
network. It’s important that you not take the diagram too seriously: It only
shows the way client PCs are subservient to the server. It doesn’t show you
how to hook up a network.
The server
Client PCs
Figure 1-1:
Logical
view of a
client/server
network.
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