Server software makes it possible for users working on other machines to share the server's data and peripherals including shared directories, printers, plotters and disks.
Resource Sharing
The server software not only allows sharing of resources, but also determines the degree of sharing. The degree of sharing includes:
- Allowing different users different levels of access to the resources. For example, a file server could give read or write or read and write permissions to different users.
- Coordinating access to the resources to make sure that two users do not use the same resource at the same time.
Managing Users
Network operating systems make it possible for a network administrator to determine who will be able to use the network. The server software can be used to:
- Create user privileges, which indicates who gets to use the various resources on the network.
- Validate user names and passwords at the time of logging on.
- Grant or revoke user privileges on the network.
- Remove users from the list of users having access to the server.