Web Protocols

The Internet relies on a number of protocols in order to function properly. A protocol is simply a standard for enabling the connection, communication, and data transfer between two places on a network. Here are some of the key protocols that are used for transferring data across the Internet.

HTTP
HTTP stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol. It is the standard protocol for transferring web pages (and their content across the Internet. !ou may ha"e noticed that when you browse a web page, the #$% is preceded by &HTTP'((&. This is telling the web browser to use HTTP to transfer the data. )ost browsers will default to HTTP if you don*t specify it. !ou can test this by typing in say... www.+uackit.com (instead of http'((www.+uackit.com& .

HTTPS
HTTP, stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol o"er ,ecure ,ocket %ayer. Think of it as a secure "ersion of HTTP. HTTP, is used primarily on web pages that ask you to pro"ide personal or sensiti"e information (such as a password or your credit card details . -hen you browse a web page using HTTP,, you are using ,,% (,ecure ,ockets %ayer . .or a website to use HTTP, it needs to ha"e an ,,% certificate installed on the ser"er. These are usually issued by a trusted /rd party, referred to as a 0ertificate Authority (0A . -hen you browse a web page using HTTP,, you can check the details of the ,,% certificate. .or example, you could check the "alidity of it. !ou could also check that the website does actually belong to the organi1ation you think it does. !ou can usually do this by double clicking on the browser*s padlock icon. The padlock icon only appears when you "iew a secure site. Here*s an example of .irefox*s padlock icon from .irefox*s address bar' .irefox also displays a padlock at the bottom right of the browser window, along with the common name of the organi1ation that the certificate was issued to'

FTP

.TP stands for .ile Transfer Protocol. It is used to transfer files across the Internet. .TP is commonly used by web de"elopers to publish updates to a website (i.e. to upload a new "ersion of the website . -here HTTP is used for displaying the file in your browser, .TP is used simply to transfer the file from one computer to a specified location on another computer. !ou can use .TP to transfer the files from your computer to a remote computer (such as a web ser"er , or to transfer from the remote computer to your local computer