How the Web Works

What actually happens when you type a website into your browser and hit Enter? Let's breakdown the web’s moving parts — the clients, servers, DNS, HTTP, packets, and URLs — so the “internet magic” makes a bit more sense. ✨


The Big Picture: Clients & Servers
  • 🧑‍💻 Client = your device (Cell Phone, Laptop, Tablet) + browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari). You ask for web pages when you type in a website url.
  • 🗄️ Server = a powerful computer available to the internet that stores websites.

Think of the internet like a road: your house (client) 🏠 ↔ your favorite store (server) 🏪. You send a request, the shop sends back what you asked for. An IP address (short for Internet Protocol address) is like a home address for your device on the internet — it tells other computers where to send information.

  • 🏠 Your home address tells the postal service where to deliver your mail.
  • 💻 Similarly your IP address tells the internet where to deliver data — like a website, a video, or a message.

💡 Fun fact: Every phone, laptop, and smart fridge that connects to Wi-Fi has an IP address while it’s online!

Internet toolbox illustration
🧰 The web’s toolbox

Lets continue with the house (client) 🏠 ↔ store (server) 🏪 analogy!

  • 🌐 Internet connection: the road between your house (the client) and the store (the server). It’s how your request travels to the store and how the store sends things (whatever you ordered) back to you.
  • 🚚 TCP/IP: the traffic rules of the road. They make sure data “cars” (packets) drive safely, arrive in the right order, and don’t crash along the way.
  • 📒 DNS: the GPS or address book that tells you where the store is. You type “amazon.com,” but DNS translates that into a real address (IP address) the computer can use.
  • 💬 HTTP/HTTPS: the conversation between you and the store clerk when you're making an order. You ask, “Can I get this web page?” and the server replies, “Sure! Here it is.” HTTPS just adds a secure lock so no one eavesdrops.
  • 📦 Files: the items the store sends to your home. These are the actual pieces that make up a website — the “products” your browser unpacks and displays beautifully.

Together, these pieces make it possible to request a page and get it back.

So what happens when you visit a site?
  1. 🔎 Your browser asks DNS for the server’s IP address of the site you typed.
  2. 📨 The browser sends an HTTP request to that server over your internet connection (using TCP/IP).
  3. ✅ The server replies with a status (like 200 OK) and starts sending the website’s files in small packets.
  4. 🧩 Your browser reassembles the packets and displays the page for you.
DNS lookup illustration
📒 DNS in plain English

Computers find each other using number addresses like 192.0.2.172 (IP addresses). That’s hard to remember!

  • 🗺️ DNS maps names (like mozilla.org) → IP addresses (like a phonebook).
  • 🚦 Your browser checks DNS first so it knows which server to contact.

No DNS = your browser doesn’t know where to send the request.

📦 Packets: why the web ships data in tiny pieces
  • 🧱 Big files are split into many small chunks (packets) before sending.
  • 🔁 If a packet gets lost or corrupted, it’s re-sent quickly (faster than resending a giant file).
  • 🛣️ Packets can travel on different routes, letting many people download at once.
💬 HTTP basics

A URL is a web address + the protocol. Example:

HTTP (or secure HTTPS) is the request–response language of the web.

  • ➡️ Clients send a request (often a GET) for a page or file.
  • ⬅️ Servers send a response with a status code plus the content.
Common status codes

What you will see on the your screen will depend on what response code is returned:

  • ✅ 200 OK – all good; here’s your page.
  • ↪️ 301 – moved; you should use a different address.
  • ⛔ 403 – you’re not allowed to see this due to permissions.
  • ❓ 404 – not found due to broken link or wrong URL.
  • 💥 503 – server problem, often temporary, sometimes because of bad code, sometimes because of not enough available servers.
HTTP request response illustration
🔗 Parts of a URL

A URL is a web address + the protocol. Example:

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/
  • 🛡️ https – the protocol (secure HTTP).
  • 🏷️ developer.mozilla.org – the domain (with developer as a subdomain).
  • 📁 /en-US/ – the path to a specific resource/folder.

Other pieces can appear too (like ?query=... or #section), but these are the big ones.

🚀 TL;DR

Your browser (client) asks DNS where a server lives, sends an HTTP request, gets files back in packets, and then shows the page. That’s the web—organized, fast, and surprisingly elegant. 🙌

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