RFC 2616

RFC 2616 is the update to the specifications of Hypertext Transfer Protocol, or HTTP, to version 1.1. This document was published in June 1999. This formalized standard is the basis on how the current internet browsers read data transferred over the World Wide Web. The basis behind this protocol is to create a generic language for communication. This RFC provides the specifications in which Hypertext Transfer Protocol operates across all medium.

One of the main points of this RFC is the Universal Resource Identifier, or URI. The URI is a simple way of identifying a resource. Most people will recognize these as web addresses. On the onset of a person typing in a web address, the DNS server uses the URI to determine the location of the site. One of the more interesting things that can be done with the URI is using a secondary port. The standard port of HTTP is 80. If a colon and a number are added to the end of the URI, the system changes the access port to the corresponding number. There is one other standard port and that is 443. This is the Secure Socket port used in HTTP. Any data that is sent and received while this port is in use will be encrypted.

The actual operation of HTTP is based on methods. Methods are simple commands that query the server for the data needed in retrieving the requested site. For example, one of the methods is GET. GET is a retrieval method that finds and returns whatever information has been requested by the URI. The other methods that are used are OPTIONS, HEAD, POST, PUT, DELETE, TRACE, and CONNECT. These commands can actually be used in the command prompt to test a site if a user has noticed a problem.

Retrieval errors in HTTP are also very common. I know I have seen many over the years. The three main ones I see though are 403, 404, and 500. 403 is the Forbidden error. Usually this is caused by incorrect permissions being set on the requested page or the typed URI is in the root directory. 404 is the Not Found error. This one is caused by a page being deleted or a URI that is incorrectly typed. The 500 error is the worst one if you are the webmaster. This is the Internal Service Error. Basically, the user was able to connect and the server responded, but the database or other background service failed. This is a problem on the side of the company and is not fixable on the user side.

The simplicity of HTTP makes it very favorable to be used across networks. The server only needs to respond when a request has been made. The request themselves are extremely simple, allowing for only a small amount of overhead on the system. This means that a server handling HTTP requests does not need to be as powerful as a Domain Controller. In hardware terms though the more RAM the better.

Berners-Lee, T, et al. (June 1999). "Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1." Retrieved August 19, 2009, from http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2616.txt?number=2616