Do you know what HTTP is and how it works?
Besides it’s full form is Hyper Text Transfer Protocol, a lot of people just know we can see the http on URLs.
but is HTTP just that?
No!
Then what is HTTP on a technical matter?
HTTP is what’s used whenever you view a website, developed by Tim Berners-Lee and his team between 1989–1991. HTTP is the set of rules used for communicating with web servers for the transmitting of webpage data, whether that is HTML, Images, Videos, etc.
While HTTP was hugely popular back then, in today’s world, is HTTP secure enough for you to enter credentials or do sensitive data work? — Nope, but the internet has a solution for you. HTTPs!
HTTPS is the secure version of HTTP. HTTPS data is encrypted so it not only stops people from seeing the data you are receiving and sending, but it also gives you assurances that you’re talking to the correct web server and not something impersonating it.
Though this doesn’t guarantee you against any cyber attack, it’s definitely a good choice to be on the safer side and use only HTTPs sites for important and critical data work where any 3rd person (if has access) can damage you personally or financially.
Now how exactly is HTTPs more secure than HTTP?
HTTPs uses encryption techniques to transfer data back and forth. SSL/TLS encryption is used to achieve the secure connection along with other security measures.
SSL — Secure Socket Layer
TLS — Transport Layer Security
Ports used :
HTTP uses port 80 to establish connections while HTTPS uses port 443 for the same. Both ports are reserved for the protocols as those are widely used in all systems with an internet connection.
HTTP methods :
HTTP methods are a way for the client to show their intended action when making an HTTP request. There are a lot of HTTP methods.
GET Request — This is used for getting information from a web server.
POST Request — This is used for submitting data to the web server and potentially creating new records.
PUT Request — This is used for submitting data to a web server to update information.
DELETE Request — This is used for deleting information/records from a web server.
HTTP status codes :
100–199 — Information Response — These are sent to tell the client the first part of their request has been accepted and they should continue sending the rest of their request. These codes are no longer very common.
200–299 — Success — This range of status codes is used to tell the client their request was successful.
300–399 — Redirection — These are used to redirect the client’s request to another resource. This can be either to a different webpage or a different website altogether.
400–499 — Client Errors — Used to inform the client that there was an error with their request.
500–599 — Server Errors — This is reserved for errors happening on the server-side and usually indicate quite a major problem with the server handling the request.
How APIs are related to HTTP?
APIs use different http methods to call any URL endpoint to send & receive data.
Thanks for reading till the end, have a nice day ahead.
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