Task 4
1. What is a Client-Server?
Unlike master slave relationship with one device acting as a master and another device as a slave, or P2P where each device can act as a client or server at the same time, Client-Server is a relationship between two workstations where the server shares a service or resource with a client over a local area network or wide-area network.
2. How does it work?
The data exchange between client and server follows a request and response manner. To ensure the server and client can communicate, they must have a common language as defined in the protocol of the application that uses the server's resource. For example, when a user access the web server of a website to convert from PDF to word format, the client will send a request to the server. The PDF file will be received by the server and the PDF file received by the server will be converted into word format and send back to the client. The client now receives the desired output by using the resource of the server.
3. Why is a Client-Server Network good?
Centralization
The server administor the access rights and the settings are concentrated at the server for a better management
Management
Files and resources are all stored in a server and any faulty are easy to troubleshoot.
Backup and Recovery
The data can be backed up so that a data recovery is possible in some cases, where there is a great chance to lose data with P2P model and the lost data are not recoverable.
Higher Degree of Flexibility and Scalability
If the server is uncapable of processing the data or resources, an upgrade is always possible and new resources can be added.
Accessibility
The server can be accessed in different platforms anytime anywhere.
4. What are the drawbacks to the Client-Server Model?
Network Congestion
In P2P model, multiple devices can act as a server. This is why there are almost no congestion of network in P2P model. The client server model have no other devices to help the server to share its resource. Too many incoming request from clients can cause overloading in server and the congestion of the network bandwidth.
Cost
It cost a huge sum to build a server and a server room to place it. Managing these server also requires a IT professional to keep the server running and monitoring it.
5. What correlation the thin and thick client to this topic?
A thin client is highly dependent on the resource of a server. It process a limited amount of resources by itself or in some cases it is just a device with an input that displays the output of the processed data from the server, and a good example is a web browser. A thick client is highly independent of the server. It will perform most of the process without using resource from servers. In contrast, a fat client will process most of the processes that are possible to be processed by it while a thin client process the possibly least amount of process. In both cases, both the thin and thick client runs an application or a program by their own in order to exchange data with the server.
