Server Protocols

• Server protocols help clients and servers communicate with one another. rackmount server farm datacenter image by Adryn from Fotolia.com

  A protocol identifies digital message formats and the principles regarding how computer systems should send these messages between different systems. A server is a computing system that holds information that is shared amongst different computers. Basically, a client or requestor will make a request for resources or information from the server, and the server provides this information back to the client. Server protocols dictate how these messages are sent to and from clients.

SMTP

• The Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is the protocol to transfer email communications between a client and a mail server, and this is done via the Internet. A client computer will communicate with the email server via the SMTP protocol, and the main purpose of this protocol is to ensure that email messages make it from the sender to the recipient without any major problems. This is a simple text protocol, and it only uses a handful of commands to carry out its job.

HTTP

• The HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) allows web servers to communicate with Internet browsers and web pages. It is responsible for requesting a web page from a web server and downloading that page so that you can view it. The HTTP protocol allows you to connect with any web page anywhere in the world, and it can download different sections of a web page at different times. This protocol also establishes the rules for how text, graphics, audio and video are sent over the web. The HTTP protocol works in conjunction with HTTP daemons, which are programs that listen for requests from the HTTP and answers those requests when they receive them.

Client/Server

• The Client/Server Protocol sets the rules about how a client communicates with a server. The server will listen for requests from the client, and these requests are generally made via other protocols, including the User Data Protocol (UDP), the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and the TCP/Internet Protocol (IP), which is the most commonly used protocol for these situations. More than one client can make a request of a single server, which holds the resources for all of these clients.

Exchange Server

• The Exchange Server Protocol is for Microsoft Exchange servers, and this server protocol allows the Exchange Server to communicate with clients. The Microsoft Exchange server is part of the Microsoft server line of products, and it is designed for business clients who need to work collaboratively with other team members. This protocol works in conjunction with the SMTP protocol to exchange data between servers and clients.