Web Engineering
Lecture 2
PROTOCOLS
(TCP/IP, HTTP)
Zulfiqar Ahmad
Lecturer
Department of Information Technology
Hazara University Mansehra
[email protected]
1
Sockets
Sockets, or ports, are a very low level
software construct that allows computers to
talk to one another
When you send information from one
computer to another, you send it to a port
on the receiving computer
If the computer is “listening” on that port, it
receives the information
In order for the computer to “make sense” of
the information, it must know what protocol
is being used
Common port numbers are 80 (for web
pages), 23 (for telnet) and 25 and 110 (for
mail)
2 Port numbers above 1024 are available for
Protocols
In order, for computers, to communicate
with one another, they must agree on a set
of rules for who says what, when they
say it, and what format they say it in
The set of rules used by computers for
communication is called a protocol.
Some common protocols are HTTP (for web
pages), FTP (for file transfer), and SMTP
(Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)
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What is a protocol?
A protocol is the set of rules governing a
conversation between people
We have seen that the client and server
carry on a machine-to-machine
conversation
A network protocol is the set of rules
governing a conversation between a client
and a server
There are many protocols, e.g. TCP/IP,
HTTP etc.
TCP/IP
The Internet (and most other computer
networks) are connected through TCP/IP
networks
TCP/IP is actually a combination of two
protocols:
IP, Internet Protocol, is used to move packets
(chunks) of data from one place to another
Places are specified by IP addresses: four single-byte
(0..255) numbers separated by periods
Example: 192.168.1.1
TCP, Transmission Control Protocol, ensures
that all necessary packets are present, and
puts them together in the correct order
TCP/IP forms a “wrapper” around data of
any kind
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The data uses its own protocol, for
Hostnames and DNS servers
The “real” name of a computer on the internet is
its four-byte IP address
People, however, don’t like to remember
numbers, so we use hostnames instead
For example, the hostname www.cis.upenn.edu
is 158.130.12.9
A DNS (Domain Name Server) is a computer
that translates hostnames into IP addresses
A domain name server (DNS) is a machine that keeps a table of
names and corresponding IP addresses
Think of it as like a phone book--names to useful
numbers
Of course, you have to know the IP address of the
6 DNS in order to use it!
DHCP
If you have a web site, it must be hosted on a
computer that is “permanently” on the Web
This computer must have a permanent IP address
There aren’t enough IP addresses for the number of
computers there are these days
If you have no permanent web site, you can be
given a temporary (dynamically allocated) IP
address each time you connect to the Web
Similarly, if you have a home or office network,
only one computer needs a permanent IP
address
The rest of the computers can be assigned internal,
permanent IP addresses (not known to the rest of the
world)
They can also be assigned internal IP addresses
dynamically
7 DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) is
URLs
A URL, Uniform Resource Locater, defines a
location on the Web
A URL has up to five parts:
http://www.xyz.com:80/ad/index.html#specials
Anchor -- a
location within
the page
Path to a given page
Port -- 80 is default for http requests
Hostname
Protocol -- http is used for Web pages
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World Wide Web
the Web is the world’s largest client/server system
communication occurs via message passing
• within browser, select URL of desired page
• browser requests page from server
• server responds with message containing
type of page (HTML, gif, pdf, zip, …)
page contents
• browser uses type info to correctly display page
• if page contains other items (images, applets, …),
browser must request each separately
9
HTTP vs HTML
HTML: hypertext markup language
Definitions of tags that are added to Web documents to
control their appearance
HTTP: hypertext transfer protocol
The rules governing the conversation between a Web client
and a Web server
Both were invented at the same time by the same
person
The HTTP protocol used for Web applications was
invented by Tim Berners Lee
HTTP
Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP):
application-level protocol for distributed, collaborative,
hypermedia information systems
generic, stateless, object-oriented
can be used for many tasks, such as name servers & distributed
object management systems
underlying language of the Web
HTTP/1.0 allowed only connectionless message passing
each request/response required a new connection
to download a page with images required multiple connections
can overload the server, require lots of overhead
HTTP/1.1 provides persistent connection by default
once client & server connect, remains open until told to close it (or timeout)
reduces number of connections, saves overhead
client can send multiple requests without waiting for responses
e.g., can request all images in a page at once
1
1
An HTTP conversation
Client Server
I would like to open
a connection OK
GET <file location>
Send page or error message
Display response
Close connection
OK
HTTP is the set of rules governing the format and
content of the conversation between a Web client
and server
An HTTP example
The message requesting a Web page must begin
with the work “GET” and be followed by a space and
the location of a file on the server, like this:
GET /fac/lpress/shortbio.htm
The protocol spells out the exact message
format, so any Web client can retrieve pages
from any Web server.
Network protocols
The details are only important to
developers.
The rules are defined by the inventor of
the protocol – may be a group or a single
person.
The rules must be precise and complete so
programmers can write programs that
work with other programs.
The rules are often published as an RFC
along with running client and server
programs.
The HTTP protocol used for Web
RFC = request for comments
applications was invented by
Tim Berners-Lee
Tim Berners-Lee was knighted by Queen Elizabeth for his
invention of the World Wide Web. He is shown here, along with the
first picture posted on the Web and a screen shot from an early
version of his Web browser.
HTTP is an application layer
protocol
The Web client and the Web server are application programs
Application layer programs do useful work like retrieving Web
pages, sending and receiving email or transferring files
Lower layers take care of the communication details
The client and server send messages and data without
knowing anything about the communication network
Many application layer protocols are
used on the Internet, HTTP is only one
Protocol Application
HTTP: Hypertext Transfer Retrieve and view Web pages
Copy files from client to server
FTP: File Transfer
or from server to client
SMTP: Simple Mail
Send email
Transfer Protocol
POP: Post Office Protocol Read email
The TCP/IP protocol layers
The application program is king – it gets work done using
the lower level layers for communication between the client
and server.
Get useful work done – retrieve Web pages,
Application copy files, send and receive email, etc.
Make client-server connections and
Transport optionally control transmission speed,
check for errors, etc.
Route packets between networks
Internet
Route data packets within the local area
Data link network
Specify what medium connects two nodes,
Physical how binary ones and zeros are
differentiated, etc,
Caching
browsers temporarily store pages or content of pages for
future use
maintain temporary storage (cache) for recent pages
when a page is requested, check to see if already in cache
if not in the cache, issue GET request
• when response message arrives,
display page and store in cache (along with header info)
if already stored in the cache, send GET request with If-
Modified-Since header set to the data of the cached page
• when response message arrives,
if status code 200, then display and store in cache
if status code 304, then display cached version instead
1
9
Cookies
HTTP message passing may be transaction-based,
many e-commerce apps require persistent memory of customer interactions
e.g., amazon.com
remembers your name, credit card, past purchases, interests
Netscape’s solution: cookies
a cookie is a collection of information about
the user
server can download a cookie to the client’s machine using the
“Set-cookie” header in a response
Set-cookie: CUSTOMER=Dave_Reed; PATH=/; EXPIRES=Thursday, 29-Jan-04 12:00:00
when user returns to URL on the specified path, the browser
returns the cookie data as part of its request
Cookie: CUSTOMER=Dave_Reed
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2 Introduction to the Web Applications
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2 Introduction to the Web Applications
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