Clients, servers, here, there. (Was Re: [CLUE-Tech] MySQL GUI client)

[David Anselmi]

Amazing what you take for granted after doing this for a while, isn't it?
Here are some links:

client/server
http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,289893,sid9_gci211796,00.html

host
http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,289893,sid9_gci212254,00.html

No entries for localhost, but here's some elaboration.  Sense 1) of host
(above) is a node on the Internet.  That means the machine has an IP address,
and (usually) a name that maps to the IP address through DNS.  So a local
host is one that is 'here' and a remote host is one that is 'there'.  I would
say that the distance between 'here' and 'there' depends on context and is
usually fairly irrelevant.

On the other hand, localhost is Unix shorthand for 'this machine that's
processing for me'.  If I type 'nslookup localhost' then localhost will be
the machine that runs the nslookup program (I can telnet from one machine to
another, to another, so that the characters I type go through many machines
(hosts), but only one will run the nslookup program).

Clear as mud, right?

Dave