What happens when I type www … in a browser
There are many professionals who work around web pages, but they do not really know what happens behind or the process that a web page entails, and today I want it to be very clear, both for a designer and for a developer or person in general.
Well, the first thing is that we are going to need a browser, and within it we are going to write the web address that we want to consult.
By pressing Enter, the computer we are using becomes the client (in a process), thus generating a request; That first request goes through a computer or server called DNS.
What is a DNS server
The hosting or the server that is hosting our website, is identified by a number, as well as most people we have an identification number, as for example in the case of Colombia, the citizenship card is an identification number for the citizens.
Exactly the same works with the servers, which are identified with a number that can tell us where they are located.
The problem is that they look for us by name, and not by identification number, as in the case of the example with a citizen (identification number), it would not be easy to identify or remember.
That is why the web works like this, where it is easier to remember the name of a website than a number; I cannot tell you “visit my website 35.227.122.234”, which you will hardly remember, to tell you “visit my website www.ronaldaguirre.tech".
What does the DNS server do
It is similar to what a telephone directory used to do, where the name of the person was found and then on the right side his telephone number, a very complete database.
Something very similar has the DNS servers:
The first thing the DNS server will do is take the domain name and identify the address that corresponds to this domain and route that request to the corresponding IP.
the IP finds or identifies another server and this web server (it is web because it has specialized software); We must remember that the servers are the same, they are computers or commonly called super computers, which have a hard disk, RAM memory etc, the difference is in the installed software.
In the case of the web server, there are applications that can offer that web service, in this case we can have the nginx web software service,
a free software for web service like nginx can have a complete package, which would make it possible for our website or the website to be visible on the internet, such as:
- Python (language)
- MySQL (database)
ready! The request has already arrived at the web server but wait, we are missing something very important and it is the process of the data journey!
Knowing that we have an internet connection we are surrounded by many more data that travel through routers or nodes connected to the internet, which start from our place of request of the web page, that is why when the request is made all this travels through means of a protocol called TCP / IP
What is TCP / IP
It is nothing more than a communication protocol, this communication protocol achieves that we can intercommunicate two devices in a network, such as the internet, so it is important to understand what a NETWORK is.
NETWORK: it is a set of equipment or computers that are connected to each other, by cables, electromagnetic waves etc, and its main objective of interconnecting the computers is to be able to share resources such as files, printer etc; Facilitating and optimizing the tasks or processes that people carry out.
because communication protocols were born, because intercommunication networks of equipment grew very rapidly, where equipment of a type like IBM could not communicate with DELL equipment, because they only care about selling their products only, but when companies identified the need From communicating with other companies or brands, a general model was established there called OSI.
OSI
It is a model created by the ISO (International Organization for Standardization), the ISO created this model where all companies must take this model for teams to communicate with each other, thus achieving that anyone can download a file that is hosted at Other side of the world.
Model OSI
It represents a set of steps with which communication between computing devices will be possible, it consists of 7 layers, and is read from the upper layer to the lower one when the message is going to leave and from the lower layer to the upper one when a message arrives.
- APPLICATION: it is the layer that everyone sees, for example it can be WhatsApp — YouTube, which is the program that interacts with the user and the other layers of the model.
- PRESENTATION: it is the layer that is responsible for translating the format to which the client is requesting or the one that they want to see, an example is when they want to download a file or watch a video, it is who is responsible for translating this file and showing it to the client in the application layer.
- SESSION: it is the layer that handles the conversation between the local device and the remote device, that is, when a file is requested with another remote device, it is the one who makes the request and identifies with the remote device.
- TRANSPORTATION: it is the layer that segments the data, and is responsible for segmenting — dividing a file into small files or segments to which a TCP / IP label is assigned and this is how we can retrieve a segment from any file since it has a TCP / IP identification.
- RED: It is one of the most important layers, such as routers that are called layer 3 devices, because it is the layer that is responsible for determining which is the best route for the message to reach the remote device, better known as the addressing layer. .
- DATA LINK: it is the layer that takes all the information recovered from the previous layers and translates it into binary information, so that in turn it can be sent by the physical layer.
- PHYSICAL: it is the layer in charge of transporting the binary data.
Now we have the way to send the data from our local computer to the server (Client — Server), now we are going to send and receive the information, but knowing that there may be many routes to travel and receive information, we must guarantee that The information received from the network is not malicious or virus that affects our local equipment, so we will use Firewall.
What is Firewall:
Its main objective of this system is to protect a computer or a computer network from the intrusions of a third network,
The firewall is the first line of defense against any attack on our network from the internet, and it must be able to repel the attack long before it can enter our network or computer, and at the same time allow intercommunication with authorized devices.
it is basically protecting networked equipment, servers or individual computers and the only way to enter or exit information is with the authorized ports.
We are almost done with our process! But now we must guarantee users who visit the web that they are sure that the information that they send or receive is reliable information! and for this we will use a security protocol!
What is HTTPS:
It is nothing more than a protocol that helps us to have a secure communication with the TLS cryptographic protocol, when a server implements an HTTPS protocol it means that the communication that occurs between the client and the server is protected.
This information is not protected from being intercepted, if not from being interpreted, that is why it is encrypted to be able to be sent
Ready!! almost! But there is something that needs to be mentioned and it is Load-balancer who is the one who helps us balance the loads of the traffic that our website receives or the website we visit!
What is it Load-balancer:
Sometimes it is difficult to anticipate the number of connections a server may have, a marketing campaign, a sales promotion or unexpected news can cause the server’s capacity to be exceeded, causing a service drop.
The load balancer provides the best way so that the service never falls and is always available, thanks to the balancer we can replicate the service and then distribute the load evenly, helping to have a quick and satisfactory response to users.
Now we are ready !!!
We have finished the whole process! from entering www … to viewing the web page on the client computer.
Conclusion:
It’s crazy to be able to talk about full stack! when we talk about a developer, because there are many technologies that interact from Frontd-Backend to Devops! it is impressive but fascinating! That is why with this brief explanation of how a web page works, I seek to open your horizons so that you can decide why technology to lean or otherwise become a DEVELOPER FULLSTACK.
