I think of a server as having several large hard drives and the related hardware so that it can act as a large database. The subject is too complicated for a brief description. How servers work is described in "howstuffworks", "How Domain Servers Work". It seems that each server is a large database and that they all can communicate with one another and that several servers communicate with each other to reach the desired information. The same information may be stored on more than one server so that if one server fails the information will not be lost. Why do you want to get a server? Is your present server not working right, likely to fail, or not large enough? Do you want to replace it? Do you want to store a copy of the information on your present server on another server? Will you have backup power supplies on your servers? Merritt L. Perkins