Network service
In computer networking, a network service is an application running at the network application layer and above, that provides data storage, manipulation, presentation, communication or other capability which is often implemented using a client–server or peer-to-peer architecture based on application layer network protocols.[1]
This article is about services provided by and to networked computers. For information about Internet connections, see Network service provider.
Each service is usually provided by a server component running on one or more computers (often a dedicated server computer offering multiple services) and accessed via a network by client components running on other devices. However, the client and server components can both be run on the same machine.
Clients and servers will often have a user interface, and sometimes other hardware associated with it.
Examples are the Domain Name System (DNS) which translates domain names to Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) to assign networking configuration information to network hosts. Authentication servers identify and authenticate users, provide user account profiles, and may log usage statistics.
E-mail, printing and distributed (network) file system services are common services on local area networks. They require users to have permissions to access the shared resources.
Other network services include: