How the Web Works
Every time you open a website or an app, a small journey starts. Your phone asks a computer far away for a page, and the computer sends it back. In this lesson you follow one request and see where the time goes.
New words
- Client
- The device that asks for something, such as your phone or laptop.
- Server
- A computer that waits for requests and sends back answers.
- IP address
- A number that works like a home address for a computer.
- DNS
- A system that turns a site name into an IP address.
- Request and response
- The question the client sends and the answer the server returns.
- Latency
- The waiting time for one trip, measured in milliseconds.
What you will learn
- What happens when you open a site?
- Client and server
- IP address and DNS
- Request and response
- Try it: one request from Pune to Mumbai
- Latency: why milliseconds matter
- What does "the server is down" mean?
- Trade-offs
- In a real system
- Key takeaways
10 quiz questions at the end.
The full lesson, with interactive demos and the quiz, opens after you sign in with Google. It is free.