A World Wide Web Transaction

Web page displaying is the most common operation performed on the World Wide Web. The task of downloading a web page from a server to a client is accomplished by the standard protocol from the TCP/IP model. The client side follows the steps below to download a web page:
  1. (Client browser) The process starts with the client’s browser. The user requests a desired page, such as by clicking on a hyperlink.
  1. (Application) The request is passed to the TCP/IP Application layer, where the HTTP protocol prepares a request for the selected page, calls on the domain name system (DNS) to convert the domain specified in the URL to an equivalent IP address, adds a header, and passes the request down to the Transport layer.
  1. (Transport) It establishes a connection with the destination host, breaks the request into packets, and passes the first packet to the Internet layer.

  2. (Internet) The Internet layer then adds its header, routes the packet to the next node, and passes the packet down to the Network Access layer.

  3. (Network Access) The bottom layer adds a final header and drops the packet on the communication line.