[W/K] :: server

  Server \Serv"er\, n.
     1. One who serves.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. A tray for dishes; a salver. --Randolph.
        [1913 Webster]

  server
       n 1: a person whose occupation is to serve at table (as in a
            restaurant) [syn: waiter]
       2: (court games) the player who serves to start a point
       3: (computer science) a computer that provides client stations
          with access to files and printers as shared resources to a
          computer network [syn: host]
       4: utensil used in serving food or drink

  server n. A kind of daemon that performs a service for the requester
     and which often runs on a computer other than the one on which the
     requestor/client runs. A particularly common term on the Internet, which
     is rife with `web servers', `name servers', `domain servers', `news
     servers', `finger servers', and the like.
  
  

  server
       
          1. A program which provides some service to other ({client)
          programs.  The connection between client and server is
          normally by means of message passing, often over a network,
          and uses some protocol to encode the client's requests and
          the server's responses.  The server may run continuously (as a
          daemon), waiting for requests to arrive or it may be invoked
          by some higher level daemon which controls a number of
          specific servers ({inetd on Unix).  There are many servers
          associated with the Internet, such as those for Network File
          System, Network Information Service (NIS), Domain Name
          System (DNS), FTP, news, finger, Network Time
          Protocol.  On Unix, a long list can be found in /etc/services
          or in the NIS database "services".  See client-server.
       
          2. A computer which provides some service for other computers
          connected to it via a network.  The most common example is a
          file server which has a local disk and services requests
          from remote clients to read and write files on that disk,
          often using Sun's Network File System (NFS) protocol or
          Novell Netware on IBM PCs.
       
          [{Jargon File]
       
          (1996-09-08)