Hey there! As mentioned in the previous post, there is an immense amount of information on the Web. Your device doesn’t have enough memory to store every one of the millions of documents that make up the Web.
Web servers are computers that are continuously connected to the Internet and are specifically designed to store and share information.
Servers provide the information you find on the Web. Much like a waiter serving your order in a restaurant, servers handle requests from other devices that connect to the Internet to retrieve information.
Clients are devices that place requests for information on the Web, such as asking: "What’s the weather like today?"
Smartphones, tablets, and laptops (among other devices) act as clients that request information through the web.
Example: Steps to access your favourite weather forecast website from your smartphone
The client, your smartphone, sends a request for information to the server where the weather data is stored.
The server, which is always listening for requests, responds with the requested information.
The client, your smartphone, receives and displays the weather forecast website.
Clients and servers on the Web need to communicate with each other using a specific language.
HTTP, or Hypertext Transfer Protocol, allows requests from clients and responses from servers to be understood.
The most common HTTP request is GET. This request is sent by the client to ask for a page or document from the server through the URL. Servers respond with various HTTP status messages, using 3-digit codes to keep the messages short and standardised. For instance, a 404 status code indicates an error where the client was able to communicate with the server, but the server couldn’t find the requested information.
Information on the Web flows from servers to clients in the form of encoded messages transmitted through the network. The web browser acts as our translator, allowing us to navigate the web without needing to understand any special computer language.
A web browser is a software application that provides a graphical interface for accessing the Web.
To summarise:
Client: Sends requests for information.
Server: Always listening and responding to requests.
HTTP: The protocol that facilitates communication between servers and clients.
I hope this was helpful!
Cheers, Irina 😊