Computer and Software Support


Difference between a server and a workstation

A workstation and a server is actually the same thing. The only difference between the two is the purpose of the computer. In a network you have two types of networks.

Peer to peer network

In a peer to peer network, the following exists

  • There is no server
  • Hardware (such as printers) are installed on the individual system.
  • Data (such as letters, word documents etc.) is kept on the local system.
  • With a peer to peer, a computer can physically disconnect from the network and still have access to the files and hardware that is setup on that computer.

The general use of a peer to peer network is as follows

  • Share internet with multiple computers
  • Share hardware resources (such as a printer)
  • Share data (such as word documents)

Disadvantages of a peer to peer network

  • You can only network up to 10 computers
  • If you are accessing files or hardware from other computers, the maintenance is more involved due to having to go to different computers to update the hardware on it.
  • The computer that is sharing either data or hardware, has to be on at all times
  • The amount of memory, CPU, or hard drive requirements will increase on the systems that is sharing resources. This is due to other computers will be accessing their data or hardware and this uses additional resources on that computer.

 

Server - Workstation

A server and a workstation is the same as far as hardware. The difference between the two is what they are used for. The difference between server and workstation is as follows

  • Server - The purpose of a server is to centralize the location of files and hardware. The server also shares the the files and hardware to the workstation.
  • Workstation - is computers setup for users to access the internet, work on documents, play games or other uses that computers are used for. The workstation will access hardware and/or files from the server (Depending on how the administrator setup the computer

In a peer to peer, you can only have 10 systems in the network. In a server environment, you can have hundreds of systems in the network. You are only restricted by the limit of resources such as hubs, and other networking equipment.

Advantages of a server - workstation

  • The only computer that is required to be on in order to access hardware or data is the server.
  • The resource requirement for workstations is less and therefore the workstation is able to function with lesser hardware requirements.
  • Maintaining the hardware or software is easier to perform due to the hardware is on one system instead of various systems.
  • The server is only used for sharing of files and hardware

Disadvantages of a server - workstation

  • If the server goes down, all workstations will not be able to access the items the server was sharing

You can have a peer to peer network and a server workstation setup in one network. For example,

A workstation in a peer to peer can share files or a printer. Therefore that workstation can also be a server.