Client (computing): Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

In computing, a client is a system that accesses a (remote) service on another computer by some kind of network. The term originated from devices that were not capable of running their own stand-alone programs, but could interact with remote computers via some network. These dumb terminals were clients of the time-sharing mainframe computer. The client-server model is still used today on the Internet, where a user may connect to a service operating on a remote system through the internet protocol suite.

Examples:

• Web browser,
• Email clients that use the email standards of IMAP, POP3 and SMTP (send mail) such as Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Mail,
• Telnet and SSH. SSH is used to do secure telnet and secure file transfers.