HTTP Fundamentals and Web Server Overview

29 Questions

What is the primary function of a WWW server?

Enabling browser requests

What is the main difference between HTTP and FTP protocols?

FTP sessions are long-lived and have two connections, one for control and one for data

What is the purpose of the Common Gateway Interface (CGI) in a WWW server?

Executing server-side scripts

What is the most recent version of HTTP, as of 2014?

HTTP/2.0

What is the primary function of the Application Programmers Interface (API) in a WWW server?

Generating log files and usage statistics

What is the purpose of the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP)?

Enabling communication between web browsers and servers

What is the primary purpose of HTTP/1.1 extensions?

To handle the effects of hierarchical proxies and caching

What is the relation between HTTP/2 and SPDY?

HTTP/2 started as a copy of SPDY

What is the primary reason for the development of HTTP/2?

To reduce latency and improve performance

What is the defining feature of HTTP/1.0 messages?

They contain meta-information about the data transferred

What is the current status of HTTP/1.1?

It is a superseded standard

What is the primary feature of HTTP/2 mentioned in the text?

Header compression

What is the replacement protocol for TCP in HTTP/3?

QUIC

What is the current status of the HTTP/3 protocol as of May 2022?

Awaiting final author review

What percentage of the top 10 million websites support HTTP/3 as of May 2022?

25%

What is the primary difference between HTTP/3 and its earlier revisions?

Different transport layer

What is the relation between HTTP/3 and SPDY?

HTTP/3 is a replacement for SPDY

What percentage of websites use HTTP/3 according to W3Techs?

28.9%

What is the primary function of MIME in HTTP?

To tag data with its type and send it over the internet

What is the purpose of the Content-Type header in HTTP?

To specify the type of data being sent

What percentage of web browser installations support HTTP/3?

97%

What is the estimated percentage of current traffic using HTTP 1.1?

What does MIME do to data that uses all eight bits before sending it over the internet?

It converts it to 7-bit ASCII

What is the primary purpose of the MIME headers in a message?

To define the type of data the message includes

What is the default port number used for HTTP communication?

What is the primary function of an HTTP client?

To open a connection and send HTTP requests to the server

In an HTTP scenario, what happens after the client sends an HTTP request for an HTML document?

The server responds with the document and closes the connection

What is the purpose of intermediaries in an HTTP scenario?

To provide additional functionality in the communication

What is the result of a client parsing the HTML document and opening a new connection?

The client sends a request for an inlined image

Study Notes

HTTP/3 is supported by 28.9% of websites, according to W3Techs.
97% of web browser installations support HTTP/3, including 98% of mobile web browsers, according to Wikipedia.
Current traffic is likely divided into 30% HTTP/3, 65% HTTP/2, and 5% HTTP 1.1.
HTTP tags all data it sends with its MIME type, using the line "Content-Type: mime type" header.
Important MIME types include text/plain, text/html, image/gif, image/jpeg, audio/basic, audio/wav, audio/x-pn-realaudio, model/vrml, and video/mpeg.
MIME is an Internet standard for electronic mail that extends internet e-mail to include unlimited text line and message length, messages with multiple body parts or objects enclosed, and international character sets.
MIME converts data that uses all eight bits into 7bit ASCII, sends it, and reconverts it at the other end.
HTTP/2 has a major feature of header compression, and Google has dropped SPDY from Chrome and adopted HTTP/2.
Dozens of implementations of HTTP/2 are already available, including Apache, Apache-Tomcat, and Nginx.
HTTP/3 is already being worked on and is supported by 73% of running web browsers and 25% of the top 10 million websites.
HTTP/3 always runs over QUIC, not TCP/IP, and maintains session state differently.
The HTTP protocol enables browser requests, provides support for retrieving hypertext documents, manages access to the Web site, and provides mechanisms for executing server-side scripts.
HTTP is a lightweight protocol that is different from the FTP protocol.
The first version of HTTP, HTTP/0.9, was a simple protocol for raw data transfer across the Internet.
HTTP/1.0 allows messages to be in the format of MIME-like messages, containing meta-information about the data transferred and modifiers on the request/response semantics.
HTTP/1.1 extends the protocol to handle hierarchical proxies, caching, and persistent connections.
HTTP/2 is designed to speed up websites using hundreds of requests/connections.

Learn about the basics of HTTP protocol and how a web server works, including its role in enabling browser requests, providing access to websites, and executing server-side scripts.

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