Operating System
In a classic sense, a network operating system (NOS) communicates with the
PC hardware and makes the connections among multiple machines on a network.
The NOS enables one or more PCs to act as a server machine and share
data and services over a network—to share resources, in other words. You then
need to run software on client computers to enable those computers to access
the shared resources on the server machine.
EveryWindows OS is an NOS and enables the PC to share resources and access
shared resources. But it doesn’t come out of the box ready to work on all
networks. You need to configure Windows to handle all three tasks to make all
this work: install a network protocol to communicate with hardware, enable
server software to share resources, and install client software to enable the PC to
All NOSs are not alike, even among Windows versions. Before you can share
resources across a network, you must answer a number of questions. How do
you make that happen? Can everyone share his or her hard drives with everyone
else? Should you place limits on sharing? If everyone needs access to a particular
file, where will it be stored? What about security? Can anyone access the file?
What if someone erases it accidentally? How are backups to be handled? Different
NOSs answer these questions differently.