Difference between Domain and Server

Last Updated : 18 Sep, 2024

Domain and servers are integral components of web networking. A domain name serves as the address for a website, allowing users to access it by typing a specific URL into their browser. Web hosting, on the other hand, is the service that stores a website's files on a server, making them available on the internet. In essence, if a website were a house, the web hosting would be the physical structure, while the domain name would be its street address. Servers store and manage website data, responding to requests from clients or users accessing the site.

What is Domain?

In Computer Networks, a domain is any collections of nodes, workstations, devices, file servers, database servers, etc. which are meant to be sharing the resources and information with each other efficiently. Further we have various different kinds of subdomains. Every domain is equipped with a domain controller of its own that holds the responsibility of governing all the basic functionalities of the domain and managing the security issues in the network.

A domain has the task of managing the access to resources of the network and authentication of users via their unique identification ids and passwords. This way a domain implements levels of accessing the resources of the network associated with various types of users.

What is Server?

Server in Computer Network is a one of the two components of the Client-Server Architecture. A server is any network device such as a computer or even a program which is used to manage the resources of the network and provide the functionalities and privileges to other nodes of the network. Theoretically speaking any computer or device at any instance sharing resources with other client nodes can be called as a server.

Usually in practical usage however servers are made to exclusively serve a particular purpose. Some such types of servers are database servers, file servers, web servers, mail servers, proxy servers, print servers, etc.