DNS and HTTP
How a name becomes an IP address, what an HTTP request contains, what TLS adds, and how HTTP/1.1, 2 and 3 differ.
What happens before the first byte
You type shop.example.com. Your browser cannot send anything yet, because networks route by IP address, not by name. Two systems fix that:
- DNS (Domain Name System) turns a name into an IP address.
- HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) is the language the browser and server then speak. HTTPS is HTTP wrapped in encryption.
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