A computer that resides in some distant location from which data are retrieved. It typically refers to a server in a private network or the public Internet. However, it can also refer to a user's PC in another location that is accessed over the Internet for file transfer or remote control operation. Up until the 1990s, a remote host was almost always a single, centralized computer system that was accessed using terminals directly connected or over private lines or via a dial-up modem. See host, remote control software and centralized processing.