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What happens when I enter a URL in my browser? PDF Print E-mail
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Technical - Technical
Written by Karthikeyan NG   
Sunday, 27 September 2009 19:44

This is the question asked for me in one of my interviews. It is quite simple to answer. But involves quite a big process.

First URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator. It will be very difficult to remember an IP address. Instead of remembering the IP addresses URL came like www.intrepidkarthi.com. Url normally contains three parts. For example http://intrepidkarthi.com/index.php.Here "http" refers to the protocol it uses. Then the server name and then the requested file name.

Here I have enlisted the flow of working mechanism behind your browser
The flow of work

* Your browser communicates with a name server to translate the server name "www.intrepidkarthi.com" into an IP Address, which it uses to connect to the server machine. * So your browser will see if it already has the appropriate IP address cached away from previous visits to the site. If not, it will make a DNS query to your DNS server (might be your router or your ISP's DNS server). DNS stands for Domain Name Server - For exapmle if you want to get karthik's phone number then you will look into your telephone directory. Likewise your computer doesn't know intrepidkarthi.com's IP address . So it looks into DNS.
* The browser then formed a connection to the server at that IP address on port 80. HTTP protocol uses port number 80
* The browser sends a GET request to the server, asking for the file "http://www.google.com/karthikeyan.htm". The webserver then returns the requested page and your browser renders it to the screen.
* The firewall will control connections to & from your computer. For the most part it will just be controlling who can connect to your computer and on what ports. For web browsing your firewall generally won't be doing a whole lot.
* Your router (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Router ) essentially guides your request through the network, helping the packets get from computer to computer and potentially doing some NAT (Network Address Tranlator) to translate IP addresses along the way (so your internat LAN request can be transitioned onto the wider internet and back).

This is what happening when you type a website address in the address bar. It involves with various protocols also. It involves with HTTP, RARP, TCP/IP, ARP and some more. Ask me if you have any doubts in it.


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I am Karthikeyan NG, working as a software programmer in Hyderabad,India. Exploring new technologies, Bike riding, PC Gaming, Reading Novels, Blogging, Writing thamizh poems are my hobbies.


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