HTTP Request/Response

PHP
1

Hi All,

When a client/browser sends request to web server , then how server identifies to which client to send the response.I am aware of the request/response headers used by the web server to identify the request.But i am not able to clearly plot the information.

Can any one help me explore this topic in more details from request to response process.Like when client sends an request what are the parameters sent by the client to the server and what server sends back to the client.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Gaurav

2

Fiddler Web Debugger - A free web debugging tool

3

There are a few layers beneath HTTP protocol. To understand how server, knows whom to send back content, check out this diagram on how TCP/IP three way handshake works:

And how typical lower level packets look like:

So as you see address of where server has to send it’s response comes from IP layer and port number from TCP layer. HTTP sits on top of TCP protocol, so there is no need for these addressing things to be defined in HTTP.

4

Thanks for your quick response but i am working on PHP application and your suggested application support .NET.

5

Umm…no. The application is standalone it runs on your machine and acts as a proxy capturing all forms of HTTP(s) traffic.

6

In the supported Environment it is showing Winxp , .NET but i am working on Linux ubuntu.

7

Oh well looks like you are left to manually go though a packet sniffer then and parse the information yourself.

8

There are plenty of packet sniffers for Linux (like Wireshark, for instance), but I do not think that you really need one :slight_smile:
Fiddler HTTP Debugger - Ubuntu Forums