CHAPTER 8 How to Fix The Web: Obscure Back-End Techniques and Terminal Secrets
Above is an example of the distance and time taken between a Web
server in Los Angeles and the BBC website in London.Connecting to Your Server
So, civilization and its Internet are both up and running. What’s gone
wrong? Your website lives on a computer somewhere out there, probably in
a big air-conditioned room full of other computers, with multiple fire doors
and an awful lot of colorful cabling. This computer is colloquially known as
a Web server.
Imagine for a moment that your Web server is the nation of France. If
you want to send a large item of furniture to somewhere in France, it will
be wrapped up tight on a container ship and sent off across the sea. It will
arrive in one of France’s major ports, maybe Marseille or Bordeaux or Le
Havre. It doesn’t really matter to you which port it goes through, but it does
matter to the shipping company. Computers are similar, except they are a
bit smaller and have 65,535 ports.
On computers, some ports are assigned specific functions. On a Web
server, port 80 receives and replies to Web browsing requests. Ports 25 and
110 deal with email. A typical Web request would involve a high-numbered
(usually random) port on your computer sending a request to port 80 at
80.72.139.101, something like: “Hey you, send me the Web page /index.html.”Visual traceroute from Los Angeles to London covering 7,904 miles in 4.8 seconds.