How does websites work

This is like the transport mechanisms that let you place an order, go to the shop, and buy your goods. In our example, this is like a car or a bike or however else you might get around. When you type a web address in your browser, the browser looks at the DNS to find the website's real address before it can retrieve the website.

The browser needs to find out which server the website lives on, so it can send HTTP messages to the right place see below. This is like looking up the address of the shop so you can access it. HTTP : Hypertext Transfer Protocol is an application protocol that defines a language for clients and servers to speak to each other.

This is like the language you use to order your goods. Component files : A website is made up of many different files, which are like the different parts of the goods you buy from the shop. Assets : This is a collective name for all the other stuff that makes up a website, such as images, music, video, Word documents, and PDFs. When you type a web address into your browser for our analogy that's like walking to the shop : The browser goes to the DNS server, and finds the real address of the server that the website lives on you find the address of the shop.

The browser sends an HTTP request message to the server, asking it to send a copy of the website to the client you go to the shop and order your goods. If the server approves the client's request, the server sends the client a " OK" message, which means "Of course you can look at that website! Here it is", and then starts sending the website's files to the browser as a series of small chunks called data packets the shop gives you your goods, and you bring them back to your house.

The browser assembles the small chunks into a complete web page and displays it to you the goods arrive at your door — new shiny stuff, awesome! As the browser builds the DOM tree and applies the styles from the CSSOM tree and executes the JavaScript, a visual representation of the page is painted to the screen, and the user sees the page content and can begin to interact with it. Previous Overview: Getting started with the web. Technically, "www" is a subdomain but most websites simply redirect traffic to "www" to the main page.

An IP address typically looks like this: You can learn more about IP addresses on Wikipedia. There's a special type of server out there in the internet - not just one but many servers of that type. When you enter "academind. In case you're wondering: The browser knows the addresses of these domain servers by heart, they're programmed into the browser so to say.

With the IP address resolved, the browser goes ahead and makes a request to the server with that IP address. It really is a technical thing that happens behind the scenes. The browser bundles up a bunch of information What's the exact URL? Which kind of request should be made? Should metadata be attached and sends that data package to the IP address.

The data is sent via the "HyperText Transfer Protocol" known as "HTTP" - a standardized protocol which defines what a request and response has to look like, which data may be included and in which form and how the request will be submitted. You can learn more about HTTP here.

The browser auto-completes it for you. Most modern pages including academind. Since the whole process and format is standardized, there is no guessing about how that request has to be read by the server.

The server then handles the request appropriately and returns a so called "response". Again, a "response" is a technical thing and kind of similar to a "request". You could say it's basically a "request" in the opposite direction. Like a request, a response can contain data, metadata etc. When requesting a page like academind. That's defined by web developers. In the end, a response has to be sent. That response doesn't have to contain "a website".

It can contain any data - including files or images. Some servers are programmed to generate websites dynamically based on the request e. Or both is done - for different parts of a webpage.

There also is a third alternative: Websites that are pre-generated but that change their appearance and data in the browser. The different kinds of websites are not really the focus of this article. For our simple case we have a server that returns the code to display a website. So let's continue with step 3. The browser receives the response sent by the server. This alone, doesn't display anything on the screen though.

Instead, the next step is that the browser parses the response. Just as the server did it with the request. As a user, you just need a computer, a smartphone, or any device having a web browser, and an internet connection to access a website.

You need to enter a web address on the address bar of the web browser of your device. After that, it takes you to a page called the home page of that site. A home page contains the basic overall information regarding what the website is about and what services the site offers. There are links on the home page that direct you to pages with more detailed information. Every website on the internet is built with a specific purpose or goal.

The organizations and businesses through their websites, aim to provide information and services to their members and customers. Websites also have become a medium of entertainment like playing games online, watching movies, and listening to music, and so on. Similarly, e-commerce websites let us sell and buy things online. Alibaba and Amazon are the top e-commerce companies that are doing billion-dollar business via their websites.

If you want to learn more, you can see our article on types of websites with examples. The number of websites releasing per day is massive.

It is hard to say how many websites exist there in total. According to Internet Live Stats , an unbelievable number of over million websites are known to be online. To understand how a website works, you need to understand mainly 2 basic concepts first. They are:. The domain name and web hosting are the 2 most essential things you need to create a website. A website works when these two things work together. In simple terms, the domain name is the name of your website.

You need to register your domain name with a domain registration company in order to get a unique web address. Some of the popular domain provider companies are NameCheap, GoDaddy, etc. If you want to know more, then you can read our article about the domain name. So, every website on the internet has a web address that locates the position of the website. When you enter the web address of a website on your web browser, the browser navigates through the web, finds the location of the requested page, and brings out the information for you.

This is where web hosting comes in. The storage location where your website files and content are stored is called Web hosting. Hosting services are also called web hosts and servers. Precisely, they are special computers situated in remote locations.

They consist of huge memory and very powerful processors. Behind the scenes, when you type in a web address on the web browser, it starts to search for the particular website on the server where it is located. And then, the web browser fetches website files and HTML code from that server and formats them to a pleasing web page, and displays it on the browser window.