Client

A "client" simply refers to a piece of software or hardware that accesses a service made available by a server. It is essentially a user program that connects to a server to access a service. A web browser like Firefox is a client program that makes use of web server facilities.

The client operates within a Client-Server Architecture model, a distributed application structure that partitions tasks or workloads between providers of a resource or service (servers) and service requesters (clients).

1. Types of Clients:
2. Software Clients: These include web browsers (like Google Chrome, Firefox), email clients (like Outlook), and online chat clients, which interact with servers to access web pages, send and receive emails, or exchange messages, respectively.
3. Hardware Clients: A device that accesses server resources, for example, a computer or a mobile phone connected to a network.

The primary function of a client is to initiate communication with servers for the purpose of accessing services. Clients send requests to servers, which then process these requests and return the appropriate responses.

In a network, a client is a machine or software accessing shared network resources provided by a server, like shared files or printers. In the web context, a client is typically a user's web browser which makes requests to web servers on the Internet and displays the web pages that are returned.