Client/Server Basics

Web Programming, depends heavily on the Client/Server Model of computing.

This document that you are reading was "delivered" to you by a client and a server working together. Your browser, most likely Netscape or Internet Explorer, is the client. This client (e.g., IE) requested this document from a WWW server - the one where this page is stored - if you look in the Location: field at the top of the page, you will see the server - it is the address after http://. When you click on any of the links within a page, the server where these linked pages are stored will "serve" them to your client, IE, which will then display them.





In this picture, by Michael Grobe, at the University of Kansas, the computer you are using is Computer A. The computer at the server site where this page is stored, is Computer B, and Computer C would be the computer that contains any document that you transfer to by clicking on a link.

HTTP - Hypertext Transfer Protocol - is the name of the language that clients and servers use to communicate with each other.


Read as much of the following as you need to:

Marc Abrams


Send questions and comments to: Karen Lemone