How the Web Works

A Quick Guide

The World Wide Web is a huge network of hyperlinked documents (contain links in the text of a
Web site you can click on) that are accessible over the Internet. These documents contain links to
related supporting graphics, images, videos, and to other documents, and are usually grouped
together as a Web site and stored on a computer connected to the Internet (Web Host) and are
viewed with a Web browser on a computer or other smart device.

Understanding how browsers find Web sites and retrieve their files is the goal of this little quick
guide. Note: it’s a whole bunch more complicated that we let on here, but you don’t really need to
know much more for it to make sense and make you the family Web guru.

The Web is not the Internet

Let’s clear up one misconception right off the bat. The Internet and the World Wide Web are not
the same thing. Think of them this way: the Internet is like telephone lines and the Web is like the
individual phones connected by these lines. The telephone line carries the signal between the
phones, but lacks the intelligence to do anything with them. On the other hand, the phones are
equipped to convert those signals into sounds we understand, or sounds we make back into signals
that can then be sent over the telephone lines to other phones.
So, you really don’t surf the Internet, you surf the Web.

And, BTW, they are both capitalized.

A little history
The Internet has been around in various forms since the 1960s, first connecting research facilities
and major universities, but with a patch work of methods. Things were standardized in the early
80’s and the Internet took off. Those of you old enough, may remember being able to send email
and view plain text and some images, but without any graphical interface.

The Web has only been around since 1991 when Timothy Berners-Lee, then a researcher at the
accelerator lab at CERN Switzerland, invented it to use the Internet as a conduit for scientists to
share and update information and research using hypertext documents (documents containing
hyperlinks mentioned above).
And no, Al Gore didn’t invent either one.

Web Sites
Web sites are a collection of related files grouped on a special uniquely identified Web server
somewhere (“somewhere” is the operative word for the goal of this guide) on the Internet. Some of
the files contain special coding (HTML) that link and organize the content and look of the site,
usually in the form of text, typefaces, images, video, audio, etc.
Web Servers
Web site files reside on special hard drives connected to the Internet called Web servers. What
makes these special? Well, a server is smart enough to know where all the Web site files are
located on its hard drive and then how to “serve” them up, or make them available to those looking
for them. They can also provide SSL, or secure certificate, authentication and credit card
verification for e-commerce.

Web Hosts
Web hosts are usually commercial entities that sell and maintain Web servers. They usually
provide a way for their customers to update their Web sites through special access, e.g., FTPs
which allow users to view and update the directory tree of Web files through editors and uploads.
They also provide email services, file storage, and often, domain name registration (usually as
proxies for larger DNRs like GoDaddy).
So, in summary, Web sites are just a bunch of files that reside in a designated place on a Web
server. A Web site may be under the auspices of a Web host, but not necessary (you could
maintain your own Web servers, but not for the faint of heart).

Domain Names
We find lots of things by using some unique number or code. Finding a Web site is no different.
Back to our telephone analogy. Let’s say you have your grandmother’s number recorded in your
phone’s address book. You know which number it is because you probably have it recorded under
some recognizable name like “Grandma.” It’s much easier to remember her name than her
number. So, when you want to call Grandma, you tap her name and your phone looks up her
number, dials it, and sends out your request to talk to her in the form of a ring.
Domain names serve a similar purpose. All computers, even the one in front of you, have unique
addresses called IP (Internet Protocol) addresses. They usually look something like this:
17.172.224.47 (apple.com). If you wanted to visit the Apple site, remembering their IP address is
harder than simply remembering their domain name.

So, the domain name acts as an alias, or short cut, for a site’s IP address.

Domain names vs. URLs vs. URIs

URLs and domain names are related, but not interchangeable. URLs can contain a domain name,
but include a bit more technical information for the browser, usually “http://” and “www”. URIs
can include page or file names and their exact location on the Web server. Note: every server,
computer, or file on the Internet has an exact location and address.

Domain names: URLs: URIs:

apple.com http://www.apple.com http://www.apple.com/help/manual.pdf
apple.com http://17.172.224.47 http://store.apple.com/product/H9262

Where do domain names come from?

Domain Name Registrars, also called domain name hosts, are organizations officially sanctioned
to distribute or sell domain names. Some DNRs are household names, like GoDaddy or Network
Solutions.
Besides selling domain names, they serve two other important roles:

1. they know how to find where the actual Web site for that domain name is by maintaining a list
of domains they “host” and where their locations can be looked up on the Internet;

2. they are responsible for updating or propagating that address information across the Internet
by updating Domain Name Servers (DNS), strategically placed services around the Web that
maintain lists of domain names and their IP addresses. Back again to our telephone analogy:
think of a DNS as a phone book. When you want to find a friend’s phone number, you look it up
by first finding their name, and then noting the number associated with it. The telephone
network can’t find your friend by name, you need a number associated with them. The DNS
looks up the domain name to find the associated IP address. More on this in a minute.

Secure Certificates
SSL certificates, issued by Certificate Authorities (e.g., Verisign, Comodo, GoDaddy, Thawte) can
be applied for, approved, and installed on a site’s Web server to authenticate the identity of the site
for encrypted communications, as needed in e-commerce transactions when credit cards are being
sent across the Internet. The authentication process is trigged by a URL with the https:// prefix. A
properly secured site will usually show a closed padlock icon in the browser.

Web browsers
You really can’t view anything on the Web without a Web browser. A browser (Firefox, Safari,
Internet Explorer, Chrome) is a program on your computer or smart device that does the heavy
lifting of displaying Web sites on your device. Again, our phone analogy: what happens when you
tap “Grandma”? Your browser acts like your phone’s software that looks up the number and dials
it for you. And when Grandma answers, it makes the connection and facilitates your conversation.
Browsers look up the location of the Web site you want and then makes the connection, pulling
down the necessary files from the Web host.

So, how does my browser find a Web site?

We finally get to put together all the pieces and see how they work. See accompanying diagram.

Example: you are sitting at your computer and want to visit the online Apple store. So...
1. You enter “apple.com” into your browser’s address field (most modern browsers don’t require
the full URL, i.e., “http://www.”)

2. Your browser, connected to the Internet by your Internet Service Provider (or ISP, e.g.,
Comcast, AT&T), sends a request to your ISP that maintains its own mini Domain Name Server
(DNS) with a list of sites on its network.
3. a) If the domain is found in it’s own DNS, it sends the IP address of the site back to your
browser.

b) If it doesn’t find it there, the DNS forwards you on to the next DNS up the chain, and so on,
until it finds it and sends back the IP address for the site. Note: a single DNS doesn’t store all
the domain names on the Web, they are spread out among all the DNSs. This is why some Web
sites appear to take longer to load in your browser—it may have to check several DNSs to find
the domain you are looking for.
4. Once your browser knows the IP address of the Web host or Web server where the Web site is
hosted, it requests the site.
5. Optional: if you are trying to connect to a secure site (you’ll see https:// in the address field of
your browser), e.g., if making a credit card payment, your browser will “ask” the Web server to
authenticate the site as possessing a valid SSL certificate. Check to make sure the padlock icon
you see in the browser is “locked.” Secondarily, if you submit a credit card, the Web server will
use the site’s payment gateway to verify the card number with the site’s merchant account or
bank.

6. The Web host locates the site’s files on the Web server and returns them to your browser to
display the site on your screen, showing text, colors, pictures, movies, etc.
It’s pretty simple once you know the lingo. See the attached diagram.