The HTTP protocol

HTTP means HyperText Transfer Protocol. This protocol is basically used on the Internet to send web pages. For instance, Internet Explorer and Netscape use HTTP to get web pages.

This protocol was designed a long time ago (in 1991, at the very beginning of the web) by the father of the web: Tim Berners-Lee. It was first designed to distribute web pages on a TCP/IP network, like Internet. The latest version of this protocol is 1.1. It is completely defined in RFCs.

It is a layer 5 protocol (on the ISO model), just like FTP or telnet. What is interesting is that this protocol is human readable (it uses human words, like GET or Range).

• how does HTTP work
• HTTP/0.9
• HTTP/1.0
• HTTP/1.0 status
• HTTP/1.1
• HTTP/1.1 status
• HTTP/1.1 directives

References

RFCs:

• RFC1123: Requirements for Internet Hosts -- Application and Support
• RFC1945: HTTP/1.0
• RFC2616: HTTP/1.1
• RFC2617: HTTP Authentication: Basic and Digest Access

This section was developed using the work of Mr. Muller, professor at the Ecole Centrale de Lyon. I thank him a lot.

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