Hi, the following is the gist of a dispute I had on a chat channel, and I'm absolutely unsure about this; only people who claim to be much longer in chats than I am, asserted something described as follows.

From my understanding of the English language, a 'host' is not the same in real life and computer world:
- host means 'Gastgeber' in german, but in real life ONLY, that is, it would never be used for a *person* who provides server hardware or whatever
- host in IT world stands for the MACHINE where services run on, that's why "Unable to connect to host" means that the machine could not be reached.

*Allegedly* - as people tried to make me believe - , the definition of a chat host in "chat world" (where I am rather scarcely) is different to the definition of a host in "regular IT world", that is:
- a "chat host" IS (!) indeed the PERSON who runs a chat server where people can chat on. The guy, a foreigner, also made me believe that in English-speaking chats where he is/was, this definition would apply as well.

This does NOT go in line with my (IT) definition of "host" (= the technical device, the machine), as I said. I'm an IT professional and this subject is rather, say, of marginal importance for me. Yet I'd like to know who is right. :)

-NATIVE SPEAKERS PREFERRED TO ANSWER HERE.-