Journey To Networking [Part:3]
Tags: Network Security, Series, Journey To Networking, Networking, Computer Networking

Journey To Networking [Part:3]

OVERVIEW

Did anyone think about how the internet handles every sort of request and response? Let us consider Facebook which handles 13M requests per second. It’s been too difficult for us to imagine because more than 7.5 billion people around the world are accessing the internet, how are these requests being carried out from the one end and receiving the result from the other end? In this journey, you may get the overall idea of how the internet handles the request and response without any sort of failure.

Table of content

How servers handle every request

How Servers Handles Every request

I think this question has been raised majorly when we start learning networking, it’s been difficult for everyone to imagine the entire process even i too initially struggles a lot for understanding how the website handles requests and responses?

Before answering the question we need to understand some common technical terms and its relevant meaning for understanding the entire process,

Client-Server Get — Post

Let us discuss one-by-one.

Client-Server

These two terms are opposite to each other, when we start learning networking we sure came across this word like Client — Server. but what it means.

What is the Client?

Generally, people thought that the clients are the end humans or the people who access the computer it’s a false statement,

Clients are the piece of computer hardware or software that gone access the server. In Networking terminology, the client gone run some sort of programs and access data that are stored on the server

For example: lets us consider the web site when we type google.com for our local PC, the PC will automatically be made a request to the Google web server and return with the result page, in this above scenario the requested generated by the PC is considered as a Client, it’s been an initial point where all sorts of requests are been generated

What is Server?

A server is a computer which has some special power than a normal computer hence it can perform various task like Hosting web services, Maintaining the mail services and act as a centralized medium for file transferring,

web services, [where the web content is stored] mail services, [where the Mail content is stored and transferred] file services [where the content of the files is stored and transferred]

Each service has its unique functions and working, servers act as a centralized management medium which used to handle all sorts of requests and replies back with the result to the requested Clients.

How Normal Desktop differ from Server?

We all have the question how server differ from normal PC, its been to easy to differentiate

Home PC: A computer Minimal configuration with normal windows OS [Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 10]

Server: A computer with high configuration + the server OS[ Windows server 2016, Windows server 2018 etc]

The major different is on Operating system in-case of server it requires high end configuration like Huge storage medium, high amount of RAM with high speed internet connection.

Get and Post

Is anyone imagine how the request and response are been transferred across the client-server, as we already discuss the client which gone make some sort of request and the server which gone replay back the client with the relevant result, in this process, the network needs some help from the protocols to take palace the request and response action. In this scenario, the protocol is gone help the client-server to transfer the request and response,

Lets us consider some scenario:

In day-to-day life when we access the internet we usually notice some sort of words like HTTP/HTTPS. What does it mean? These two are communication protocols which are been responsible for handling request and response from the client to the server vice versa,

HTTP Methods:

HTTP methods are the function which has some unique roles while transferring request and response. We can see how these methods are been used while transferring the request in some sort of illustration

GET : Is used to request data from a specified resource

: Is used to request data from a specified resource POST : Is used to send data to a server to create/update a resource

: Is used to send data to a server to create/update a resource PUT : is used to send data to a server to create/update a resource.

: is used to send data to a server to create/update a resource. HEAD : is almost identical to GET but without the response body.

: is almost identical to GET but without the response body. DELETE : is used to delete the specified resource.

: is used to delete the specified resource. PATCH : is used to provides an entity containing a list of changes to be applied to the resource

: is used to provides an entity containing a list of changes to be applied to the resource OPTIONS: is used to describe the communication options for the target resource.

We can look at every sort of method on the upcoming journey, but most commonly GET and POST are used for every sort of communication.

Working

We are more familiar with some sort of programming languages like HTML, Python, PHP and much more, let us consider the Login page which has been developed using PHP

Every login page validates the users with some sort of personal identifications like password pins etc, in this scenario we illustrate how the login page transfers the credentials to the server and how it validates a

and replies to the request.

Request Using the GET method

Request Using the GET method

The illustrated image will help you to understand how the request are been made via the GET method

STEP: 1

Initially the client enter some sort of login credential [username and the password] on the form.php when they submit the request are been generated as mentioned below

GET/test/form.php/name1=value1&name2=value2

The main disadvantages of the GET method are the parameter which we enter in the login are been visible in a clear text its seem to be more vulnerable and the attacker can easily sniff or spoofing you request

STEP: 2

After the request generated from the client the server receives and validate the request with the existing MYSQL database [it a database which used to store some sort of data], it will compare every sort of record in the database to check whether the value exists or not in the database

STEP: 3

If the user request exists on the server it will respond to the request with the status code 200 which means OK and with the webpage where the user needs to redirect.

Request Using the POST method

Request Using the POST method

The illustrated image will help you to understand how the request are been made via the POST method

STEP: 1

Initially the client enter some sort of login credential [username and the password] on the form.php when they submit the request are been generated as mentioned below

POST/test/form.php/

In this scenario the value you which you entered are been stored in the request body, As a result, the entered details are not visible at the URL tab and it’s been safer to use POST method rather than the GET,

STEP: 2

As same as GET method after the request generated from the client, the server receives and validate the request with the existing MYSQL database [it a database which used to store some sort of data], it will compare every sort of record in the database to check whether the value exists or not in the database

STEP: 3

If the user request exists on the Database it will automatically generate the response to the client with the status code 200 which means OK and with the webpage where the user needs to redirect.

Summary

We just successfully started our Journey To Networking, on the upcoming journey you can found some sort of continuation,

if you miss the previous journey the below link will be more useful to you

1. Journey To Networking [Part:1]

2. Journey To Networking [Part:2]

Your feedback and reviews are always welcome

Thanks you all catch you on the next blog.