Overview
A basic client-server setup generally consists of two hosts, the server and the client. It allows files to be shared as well as resources. This is typically referred to as two-tier.
Details
A client-server relationship is very useful within a computer network. It can connect programs that need to be distributed throughout the network. The majority of internet programs use client-server relationships such as e-mail and database access. A prime example of client-server relationships being used is internet banking. The web browser (being the client) accesses the information from the bank’s web servers by sending a request to it. The bank’s web server will then in turn send another request to its database server to retrieve the bank balance which is then returned to the user using the web browser (client) and ultimately it is displayed to the user.
Client-server relationships are widely used now in networking, most organisational applications are actually based on it as are the main protocols for the internet, those being HTTP, DNS, Telnet etc.
In small the client-server relationship works like this; The client software sends one, or even multiple data requests to a server(s). A result of that is that the server will then allow and process the requests. One the server has processed the information it is then returned to client.