File server
From Free net encyclopedia
In telecommunication, the term file server has the following meanings:
- A high-capacity disk storage device or a computer that hosts files so that they may be accessed or retrieved by other computers on the same network.
- A computer program, that allows different programs, running on other computers, to access the files of that computer.
- Files are usually accessed using particular protocol, such as SMB (Samba), NFS (Network file system), Appletalk, or their mutations.
- In other view, files might be served for downloading (FTP (file transfer protocol) or HTTP (hypertext transfer protocol)).
A server can be used for a wide range of purposes. Some of them are:
- An FTP (File Transfer Protocol) server for transferring files.
- An HTTP (Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol) server to transfer web pages and files.
- An IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) server for receiving email.
- A POP3 (Post Office Protocol version 3) server for receiving email.
- An SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) server for sending email.
- A Telnet server which allows remote control of programs run on the server.
Any given server may be any number of these types of servers simultaneously. In particular, many servers serve Telnet (or the more secure alternative SSH) in addition to their primary role, so that system administrators can handle problems quickly without physical access to the server.
Source: from Federal Standard 1037Cda:Filserver de:Dateiserver it:File server nl:Bestandsserver ja:ファイルサーバ pl:Serwer plików zh:文件服务器