Barely Human
09-06-2004, 04:11 PM
In todays society, the web forms a very important part of how a lot of business, pleasure, self promotion, socialising, and a lot of other things are done. Millions of us use the internet, but not many actually understand how it works. In this, i shall start from the very basics, so people can get a better idea of how, and why things on the net work.
The Server
The server is the most important link in how the net works. The server is a computer specifically designed to serve webpages and files to other web enabled users. A server doesnt have to be a fast machine, but they are usually on very fast conections so that they can serve a lot of different people at once, with no slowdown. There are many different types of servers, all for very different purposes, but i shall tell you about the two main ones -
The Standard Webserver
This server sends out files when it is requested for them by another computer. All websites are stored on this type of server. They work in the same way as your home pc. They have a harddrive, and you can access files on the harddrive by typing the right URL to the file. But this canot be done with this server alone, this is where DNS, or Domain Name Servers come in.
Domain Name Server
Most websites have a Domian name, this one for instance is www.blackoutaudio.co.uk. This is so people can remember website easilly, and dont have to faff about with numbers all the time. If we didnt have domain names, then to access a website, you would have to type the IP address of each server you wanted to view. Obviously, this wouldnt be a practical way of working. This is where the domain name server comes in. All the domains in the world have a designated server they link to, deppending on the prefix at the end(.com .co.uk .net etc...) The people who runs these servers sell the domain names to you for your website. No one can have the same domain. This means that you can actually buy domain names for very cheap, and then sell them to people who actually want them. A domain such as www.thisisacrapdomain.com would be very cheap,(about £5 a year), but something like www.tesco.com would cost ££££££. Now lets look at how a domain actually works.
I want to vist this website, so i type in www.blackoutaudio.co.uk. and low and behold, it apears. But how does this happen? When you type the domain name into your browser, it send a message to the DNS with .co.uk domains on, asking where blackoutaudio is hosted. The DNS then sends back the IP address of the webserver which this site is hosted on. Your pc then sends a message to the webserver asking for a specific file. The webserver then sends this file to you, and the page is displayed.
How does a Webpage work??
This all depends on the type of webpage you are looking at, but in all webpages, there is something called HTML (Hypertext Markup Language). This is a coding system that your computers web browers understands, interprets, and displays as a webpage. HTML is basically a text file, so most webpages you see can acutally be written in notepad. For a simple demontration, i shall show you how this works with a picture.
http://blackoutaudio.co.uk/phpBB2/templates/subRed/images/logo_phpBB.gif
As you can see, the blackout logo is displayed. But how?? Running behind this page that you see, is the html script. If you right click on this page, and then select "View Source", it will display the html. This is what the webserver sent to your computer. You browser then interpretted this code and displayed what you see now. As you can see, in this file there is actually no picture. So how is this picture displayed. In that code, there is a piece of code telling the browser to download a specific picture, and display it in a certian place. That picture is stored here - http://blackoutaudio.co.uk/phpBB2/templates/subRed/images/logo_phpBB.gif And the code to display that is <img src="http://blackoutaudio.co.uk/phpBB2/templates/subRed/images/logo_phpBB.gif" border="0" />
<img tells the browser to display and image
src= tells the browser where the source file is (the actual picture)
border="0" tells the browser that there is no border
and the /> tells the browser that this is the end of that comand.
Hopefully you should now have a better idea how the web actullay works.
I shall be doing a html basics post for you to read through, and then you should be able to start building your own site
The Server
The server is the most important link in how the net works. The server is a computer specifically designed to serve webpages and files to other web enabled users. A server doesnt have to be a fast machine, but they are usually on very fast conections so that they can serve a lot of different people at once, with no slowdown. There are many different types of servers, all for very different purposes, but i shall tell you about the two main ones -
The Standard Webserver
This server sends out files when it is requested for them by another computer. All websites are stored on this type of server. They work in the same way as your home pc. They have a harddrive, and you can access files on the harddrive by typing the right URL to the file. But this canot be done with this server alone, this is where DNS, or Domain Name Servers come in.
Domain Name Server
Most websites have a Domian name, this one for instance is www.blackoutaudio.co.uk. This is so people can remember website easilly, and dont have to faff about with numbers all the time. If we didnt have domain names, then to access a website, you would have to type the IP address of each server you wanted to view. Obviously, this wouldnt be a practical way of working. This is where the domain name server comes in. All the domains in the world have a designated server they link to, deppending on the prefix at the end(.com .co.uk .net etc...) The people who runs these servers sell the domain names to you for your website. No one can have the same domain. This means that you can actually buy domain names for very cheap, and then sell them to people who actually want them. A domain such as www.thisisacrapdomain.com would be very cheap,(about £5 a year), but something like www.tesco.com would cost ££££££. Now lets look at how a domain actually works.
I want to vist this website, so i type in www.blackoutaudio.co.uk. and low and behold, it apears. But how does this happen? When you type the domain name into your browser, it send a message to the DNS with .co.uk domains on, asking where blackoutaudio is hosted. The DNS then sends back the IP address of the webserver which this site is hosted on. Your pc then sends a message to the webserver asking for a specific file. The webserver then sends this file to you, and the page is displayed.
How does a Webpage work??
This all depends on the type of webpage you are looking at, but in all webpages, there is something called HTML (Hypertext Markup Language). This is a coding system that your computers web browers understands, interprets, and displays as a webpage. HTML is basically a text file, so most webpages you see can acutally be written in notepad. For a simple demontration, i shall show you how this works with a picture.
http://blackoutaudio.co.uk/phpBB2/templates/subRed/images/logo_phpBB.gif
As you can see, the blackout logo is displayed. But how?? Running behind this page that you see, is the html script. If you right click on this page, and then select "View Source", it will display the html. This is what the webserver sent to your computer. You browser then interpretted this code and displayed what you see now. As you can see, in this file there is actually no picture. So how is this picture displayed. In that code, there is a piece of code telling the browser to download a specific picture, and display it in a certian place. That picture is stored here - http://blackoutaudio.co.uk/phpBB2/templates/subRed/images/logo_phpBB.gif And the code to display that is <img src="http://blackoutaudio.co.uk/phpBB2/templates/subRed/images/logo_phpBB.gif" border="0" />
<img tells the browser to display and image
src= tells the browser where the source file is (the actual picture)
border="0" tells the browser that there is no border
and the /> tells the browser that this is the end of that comand.
Hopefully you should now have a better idea how the web actullay works.
I shall be doing a html basics post for you to read through, and then you should be able to start building your own site