Computer connected to a network
A
network host
is a
computer
or other device connected to a
computer network
. A host may work as a
server
offering information resources, services, and applications to users or other hosts on the network. Hosts are assigned at least one
network address
.
A computer participating in networks that use the
Internet protocol suite
may also be called an
IP host
. Specifically, computers participating in the
Internet
are called
Internet hosts
. Internet hosts and other IP hosts have one or more
IP addresses
assigned to their network interfaces. The addresses are configured either manually by an administrator, automatically at startup by means of the
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
(DHCP), or by
stateless address autoconfiguration
methods.
Network hosts that participate in applications that use the
client?server model
of computing, are classified as
server
or
client
systems. Network hosts may also function as nodes in
peer-to-peer
applications, in which all nodes share and consume resources in an equipotent manner.
Origins
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In
operating systems
, the term
terminal host
denotes a
time-sharing
computer or
multi-user software
providing services to
computer terminals
, or a computer that provides services to smaller or less capable devices,
[1]
such as a
mainframe computer
serving
teletype
terminals or video terminals. Other examples of this architecture include a
telnet
host connected to a telnet server and an
xhost
connected to an
X Window client
.
The term
Internet host
or just
host
is used in a number of
Request for Comments
(RFC) documents that define the Internet and its predecessor, the
ARPANET
. RFC 871 defines a host as a general-purpose computer system connected to a communications network for "... the purpose of achieving resource sharing amongst the participating operating systems..."
[2]
While the ARPANET was being developed, computers connected to the network were typically mainframe computer systems that could be accessed from
dumb terminals
connected via
serial ports
. Since these terminals did not host software or perform computations themselves, they were not considered
hosts
as they were not connected to any
IP network
, and were not assigned IP addresses. User computers connected to the ARPANET at a
packet-switching node
were considered hosts.
[3]
Nodes, hosts, and servers
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A
network node
is any device participating in a network. A host is a node that participates in user applications, either as a server, client, or both. A
server
is a type of host that offers resources to the other hosts. Typically a server accepts connections from
clients
who request a service function.
[4]
Every network host is a node, but not every network node is a host.
Network infrastructure hardware
, such as
modems
,
Ethernet hubs
, and
network switches
are not directly or actively participating in application-level functions, and do not necessarily have a network address, and are not considered to be network hosts.
See also
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References
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External links
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