Have you ever wondered how you access sites from your computer or mobile device? The answer is that servers feed your computer with the necessary files you need to interact with the site.
But how do servers interact with your personal computer or mobile devices? In this article, we’re answering these questions and more to determine how your computer interacts with various websites.
What Are Computer Servers?
Servers are essentially large, powerful computers. However, servers aren’t normal computers. They don’t have screens or keyboards. They store large amounts of data including the data associated with the websites it hosts. It also shares that info with the computers and mobile devices that access your website. While personal computers make the digital world human-friendly, servers communicate with other computers.
How Do Servers Work?
When you visit a website, a server serves your computer the data necessary to access that website. Your computer essentially hosts a conversation with the server so it can access the data necessary to display the site and have you interact with it.
How Do Servers Connect to the Internet?
Your server connects to the internet by breaking down the website’s URL into three distinct pieces. First, the protocol, which is called the hypertext transfer protocol or HTTP is the language browsers and web servers use to communicate with each other.
The server name is the domain name or DNS, and it translates the domain name into a numerical internet protocol (IP) address. Lastly, the file name relates to all the files on a website, such as images and computer language stylesheets. The browser translates the server name into an IP address and the IP address shows the browser how to connect the web server.
Most IP addresses change each time you log onto the internet. However, servers always have the same IP address. Your browser uses a web server’s IP address to access a website’s specific HTML code so you can pull the site up.
After your personal computer or device and the web server connect the browser requests the server for particular files. For example, if you want to visit a specific website page, your computer will communicate with the server and it will return the necessary files.
After your browser connects to the server at the correct IP address, the server sends the HTML text for the web page you request. After this, the browser converts the data into the web page you see on your screen. Astonishingly, this occurs in seconds. Computers are fast.
Bottom Line- How Do Servers Work?
Servers aren’t designed for human users to interact with. They are designed to communicate with other computers. Without servers, websites wouldn’t have their information stored and ready to distribute to various users. In short, they are what makes websites possible. Without them, the world wouldn’t be able to communicate via the internet. There are many different types of servers, including public, private, virtual, and dedicated servers. The type you use will depend on your website needs.
