Host

There are a number of different meanings for this term. Even when narrowed down to computers and technology there are still a few different meanings that are subtly different depending upon the context. Generally it refers to a device or program that provides services to other devices or programs. In some computing environments a host is a (presumably large and powerful) mainframe computer or server that has clients or terminals attached to it, and provides for their computing needs accordingly. A computer configured to serve web pages or other information to users (clients) is known as a host. Services that provide web serving capabilities are known as hosting services. A computer connected to a network with full two-way access to the Internet can be known as a host. Such a computer is given a “host” number that, together with the network number, forms its unique IP address.