How Does The Web Work
HTTP explained with Python Flask
“The internet is just a passing fad.” — Bill Gates (1995)
This is what Bill Gates said or should have said about the internet in 1995 and it became one of the most famous false predictions about technology in the world. Four years later he changed his mind and recognized the importance of the internet in a globalized world.
“The internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow.” — Bill Gates (1999)
Today everything and everyone is on the internet — people, dating, businesses, music, videos, gaming, shopping, transportation, … you name it. In 2018 there were 22 billion devices connected to the internet whereas the world population count was “only” 7.6 billion.
The internet connects the world. But how does it work?
The internet is not one technology — it is a cooperation of different concepts, technologies, and protocols in hardware and software working together like DNS, TCP/IP, HTML, … you name it. In this story, we focus on the details of one core component — Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). What is it and how does it work?
Basics: HTTP is a resource-based application layer protocol. It defines the rules for communication between web clients (browsers) and web servers and…
