Web Technologies - Old Questions

9.  What is HTTP?

HTTP is a TCP/IP based communication protocol, that is used to deliver data (HTML files, image files, query results, etc.) on the World Wide Web. The default port is TCP 80, but other ports can be used as well. It provides a standardized way for computers to communicate with each other. HTTP specification specifies how clients' request data will be constructed and sent to the server, and how the servers respond to these requests.

There are three important features of HTTP:

• HTTP is connectionless: After a request is made, the client disconnects from the server and waits for a response. The server must re-establish the connection after it processes the request.
• HTTP is media independent: Any type of data can be sent by HTTP as long as both the client and server know how to handle the data content. How content is handled is determined by the MIME specification.
• HTTP is stateless: This is a direct result of HTTP's being connectionless. The server and client are aware of each other only during a request. Afterwards, each forgets the other. For this reason neither the client nor the browser can retain information between different requests across the web pages.