URIs and URLs
As shown in Figure 16.3, the Internet is a gigantic mass of client systems requesting resources and server systems providing resources. If you look closer at the process, though, you’ll realize that the protocol addressing rules discussed earlier in this book are not enough to support the rich array of services available on the Internet. The IP address or domain name can locate a host. The port number can point to a service running on the host. But what is the client requesting? What is the server supposed to do? Is there input for which the client is requesting output?
Experts have long understood the importance of providing a standard format for requesting Internet resources. Some have argued, in fact, that the presence of a ...
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