A report on Hypertext Transfer Protocol

URL beginning with the HTTP scheme and the WWW domain name label
Tim Berners-Lee
An HTTP/1.1 request made using telnet. The request message, response header section, and response body are highlighted.

Application layer protocol in the Internet protocol suite model for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems.

- Hypertext Transfer Protocol

59 related topics with Alpha

Overall
PC clients communicating via network with a web server serving static content only.

Web server

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PC clients communicating via network with a web server serving static content only.
The inside and front of a Dell PowerEdge server, a computer designed to be mounted in a rack mount environment. It is often used as a web server.
Multiple web servers may be used for a high traffic website.
Web server farm with thousands of web servers used for super-high traffic websites.
ADSL modem running an embedded web server serving dynamic web pages used for modem configuration.
First web proposal (1989) evaluated as "vague but exciting..."
The world's first web server, a NeXT Computer workstation with Ethernet, 1990. The case label reads: "This machine is a server. DO NOT POWER IT DOWN!!"
Sun's Cobalt Qube 3 – a computer server appliance (2002, discontinued)
PC clients connected to a web server via Internet
PC clients communicating via network with a web server serving static and dynamic content.
Directory listing dynamically generated by a web server.
Chart: Market share of all sites for most popular web servers 2005–2021
Chart: Market share of all sites for most popular web servers 1995–2005

A web server is computer software and underlying hardware that accepts requests via HTTP (the network protocol created to distribute web content) or its secure variant HTTPS.

The historic World Wide Web logo, designed by Robert Cailliau.

World Wide Web

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Information system enabling documents and other web resources to be accessed over the Internet.

Information system enabling documents and other web resources to be accessed over the Internet.

The historic World Wide Web logo, designed by Robert Cailliau.
A web page displayed in a web browser
A global map of the Web Index for countries in 2014
This NeXT Computer was used by Sir Tim Berners-Lee at CERN and became the world's first Web server.
The World Wide Web functions as an application layer protocol that is run "on top of" (figuratively) the Internet, helping to make it more functional. The advent of the Mosaic web browser helped to make the web much more usable, to include the display of images and moving images (GIFs).
Graphic representation of a minute fraction of the WWW, demonstrating hyperlinks
A screenshot of a web page on Wikimedia Commons
Dynamic web page: example of server-side scripting (PHP and MySQL)
The usap.gov website
The inside and front of a Dell PowerEdge web server, a computer designed for rack mounting
Multiple web servers may be used for a high traffic website; here, Dell servers are installed together to be used for the Wikimedia Foundation.
The results of a search for the term "lunar eclipse" in a web-based image search engine

The information in the Web is transferred across the Internet using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).

HTTP/2

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HTTP/2 (originally named HTTP/2.0) is a major revision of the HTTP network protocol used by the World Wide Web.

Traditional browser arrangement: UI features above page content

Web browser

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Application software for accessing the World Wide Web or a local website.

Application software for accessing the World Wide Web or a local website.

Traditional browser arrangement: UI features above page content
Nicola Pellow and Tim Berners-Lee in 1992
Marc Andreessen, lead developer of Mosaic and Navigator, in 2007

In Hypertext Transfer Protocol technical texts, web browsers (and other clients) are commonly referred to as user agents.

URL beginning with the HTTPS scheme and the WWW domain name label

HTTPS

8 links

URL beginning with the HTTPS scheme and the WWW domain name label

Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is an extension of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).

Example of a website with digital certificate

Transport Layer Security

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Cryptographic protocol designed to provide communications security over a computer network.

Cryptographic protocol designed to provide communications security over a computer network.

Example of a website with digital certificate
Simplified illustration of the full TLS 1.2 handshake with timing information.

For example, port 80 is typically used for unencrypted HTTP traffic while port 443 is the common port used for encrypted HTTPS traffic.

Berners-Lee in 2014

Tim Berners-Lee

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English computer scientist best known as the inventor of the World Wide Web.

English computer scientist best known as the inventor of the World Wide Web.

Berners-Lee in 2014
Berners-Lee, 2005
This NeXT Computer was used by Berners-Lee at CERN and became the world's first web server
Tim Berners-Lee at the Home Office, London, on 11 March 2010
Berners-Lee speaking at the launch of the World Wide Web Foundation
Berners-Lee's tweet, "This is for everyone", at the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London
Tim Berners-Lee at the Science Museum for the Web@30 event, March 2019

Berners-Lee proposed an information management system on 12 March 1989, then implemented the first successful communication between a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) client and server via the Internet in mid-November.

HTTP cookies share their name with a popular baked treat.

HTTP cookie

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Browsing a website and placed on the user's computer or other device by the user's web browser.

Browsing a website and placed on the user's computer or other device by the user's web browser.

HTTP cookies share their name with a popular baked treat.
A possible interaction between a web browser and a web server holding a web page in which the server sends a cookie to the browser and the browser sends it back when requesting another page.
In this fictional example, an advertising company has placed banners in two websites. By hosting the banner images on its servers and using third-party cookies, the advertising company is able to track the browsing of users across these two sites.
A cookie can be stolen by another computer that is allowed reading from the network
Cross-site scripting: a cookie that should be only exchanged between a server and a client is sent to another party.

They cannot be transmitted over unencrypted connections (i.e. HTTP).

Protocol Stack of HTTP/3 compared to HTTP/1.1 and HTTP/2

HTTP/3

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Protocol Stack of HTTP/3 compared to HTTP/1.1 and HTTP/2

HTTP/3 is the third major version of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol used to exchange information on the World Wide Web, complementing the widely-deployed HTTP/1.1 and HTTP/2.

The usap.gov website

Website

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Collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server.

Collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server.

The usap.gov website
The nasa.gov home page in 2015
Server-side programming language usage in 2016.

Before the introduction of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), other protocols such as File Transfer Protocol and the gopher protocol were used to retrieve individual files from a server.