servers?

[dar1again]

can someone explain what does a server do?

if i had one, what will it benifit me?

[Mntsnow]

Well....It Serves.. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/biggrin.gif

For most people at home a "true server" is not really needed unless they are like maybe working on personal training for certifications or they run websites, email hosting, DNS ect out of their homes or they are doing it for additional security for their home networks

[Mntsnow]

Well I figured I could go get you an authentic answer from www.whatis.com (http://www.whatis.com)

server

1) In general, a server is a computer program that provides services to other computer programs in the same or other computers.
2) The computer that a server program runs in is also frequently referred to as a server (though it may contain a number of server and client programs).

3) In the client/server programming model, a server is a program that awaits and fulfills requests from client programs in the same or other computers. A given application in a computer may function as a client with requests for services from other programs and also as a server of requests from other programs.

Specific to the Web, a Web server is the computer program (housed in a computer) that serves requested HTML pages or files. A Web client is the requesting program associated with the user. The Web browser in your computer is a client that requests HTML files from Web servers.

[Nick CPU]

A server is a computer on a network that performs a certain funtion that serves many users.

There are many types of servers. Here are just a few example.

-A web server (i.e. Sysopt.com)
-A file server (Provides data and information to users)
-A terminal server (provides proccessing power to terminals on a network)

You may have heard of such software platforms as Windows NT Server, or Novell NetWare.

the answer to you second question depends on what type of server you want. If you want to host and maintain a web server from your house then it might help you. However this is not cheap.