What role does a client play in a network?

In a network, a client plays the role of receiving services from a server. Clients are typically devices or applications that request resources or services, such as file storage, web pages, or database access, from a server. This client-server model is foundational to networking architecture, where the server provides resources or responses to the requests made by the client. The client initiates the communication and relies on the server to perform certain tasks or deliver specific information, emphasizing the dependent nature of the client-server relationship.

Other roles mentioned in the choices, such as protecting data, providing backend processing, or storing data, generally refer to functions of servers or specialized systems rather than the role of a client in the interacting framework of a network. The primary focus of a client in this context is to engage with servers and utilize the resources they provide, making the first option the most accurate within the context of networking.