What happens when you type https://www.google.com in your browser and press Enter?

There are several operations that take place in the background when you put https://www.google.com into your browser and press Enter. We'll examine each of these procedures in more detail in this blog and see how they combine to provide the Google homepage on your screen.

1. DNS Request

The first thing that happens is that your browser sends a DNS request to a DNS server and a DNS lookup is carried out in order to convert the domain name (www.google.com) into an IP address (216.58.210.142) when a user inputs (https://www.google.com) in their preferred browser and pushes the (Enter) key. Your browser receives the IP address found by the DNS server once it has searched for it. Internet users obtain the IP address of the domain name they were seeking through a process called DNS resolution.

2. TCP/IP

Your browser establishes a TCP/IP connection to the server hosting the website as soon as it knows the IP address for www.google.com. TCP/IP is the protocol used to establish connections between computers on the internet. It makes sure that no data is lost during the process and that data packets are delivered and received in the proper order.

3. Firewall

The connection must first travel through a firewall before it can be formed. A firewall is a type of security system that keeps track of and manages incoming and outgoing network traffic in accordance with a set of security rules, think of it as a barrier between private and public internet. It aids in preventing unwanted network access and defends against harmful assaults.

4. HTTPS/SSL

If the connection is successful in getting past the firewall, a handshake between the browser and server creates a secure HTTPS connection. Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure, or HTTPS, encrypts data sent between a browser and a server to guard against hacking and interception.

HTTPS connections are made using the SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) protocol. Data sent between the browser and the server is encrypted and decrypted using a combination of public and private keys.

5. Load-balancer

A load balancer may be used to divide the website's traffic across numerous servers if it is very heavy since Google doesn’t have a single server. In order to prevent any one server from becoming overloaded, a load balancer divides network traffic across several servers. It aids in enhancing the website's functionality and accessibility.

6. Web Server

Following the establishment of the connection, the web server gets the HTTP or HTTPS request from the browser and replies to it with the HTML code for the homepage. Using the HTTP or HTTPS protocols, it offers static content such as straightforward HTML pages, photos, or plain text files. A web server is a piece of software that provide web pages to browsers when users request them on the internet. Google Web Server (GWS), Amazon Web Server (AWS), Nginx, Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS), and Apache HTTP Server are among the examples.

7. Application Server

To provide dynamic content for the website, the web server may occasionally need to interface with an application server. A server that hosts apps that may be accessed online is known as an application server. To create dynamic content for the website, it runs code and processes data.

8. Database

If a website needs information from a database, the application server contacts the database to get the information it needs. A database is an organized collection of information or data that has been arranged and is often stored electronically in a computer system that can be accessed, managed, and updated by an organization. It offers tools to access and alter the structured data it holds as well as tools to store it.

A database management system (DBMS) often has control over a database. Relational and NoSQL or Non-relational databases both employ database management systems (DBMS) to generate, modify, remove, and preserve data. The information you look for in this instance will be kept in a database.

In conclusion, a lot happens behind the scenes when you input https://www.google.com in your browser and press Enter. Each stage, from DNS resolution to database connectivity, is crucial to ensuring that you can swiftly and safely visit the Google homepage. Anyone who wants to create or manage web applications has to understand how these processes interact.