Wirebook › Glossary › HTTP / HTTPS
What are HTTP and HTTPS?
In one sentence: The way browsers and servers talk. HTTPS is the encrypted version.
A little more
HTTP is the simple language browsers and servers use: the browser sends a request like "GET /about" and the server replies with a status code, some headers and the page. Every picture, style sheet and script on a page is fetched with its own HTTP request.
HTTPS is the same conversation inside a TLS connection, so nobody along the way can read or change it. Today almost every site uses HTTPS.
It's a bit like… Ordering at a counter: you ask for something specific, and you get it back with a short note saying whether it worked.
See it in action
- 1What happens when you open a web page?Follow one click from your keyboard to a server and back: DNS, the padlock handshake, HTTP, tunnels and painting the page.6 min · interactive
- 5What do 404 and friends mean?The three-digit codes behind every web page, explained: 200, 301, 404, 429, 500 and the 418 teapot.5 min · interactive
- 2Anatomy of a web addressPaste any web address and see it taken apart, colour by colour: scheme, host, port, path, query and the fragment that never reaches the server.5 min · interactive
- BonusWhy can a download pick up where it left off?Break a pretend file into numbered pieces, interrupt the download, and compare restart-from-zero with resume-using-byte-ranges.6 min · interactive