Essential Points
The following summarizes the most important points described in this chapter.
HTTP can run on any port as needed, although port 80 is the default.
HTTP GET requests carry a limited amount of data from client to server, POST requests can carry unlimited amounts.
HTTP is a stateless protocol. State can be added by using cookies, URL rewriting, or using SSL as a transport (which produces HTTPS).
HTTP on port 80 is usually allowed out of firewalls, so HTTP is a common choice for tunnelling.
HTTPS is HTTP over SSL
SSL gives encryption, validation of parties, and an identifiable session for maintaining state.
Encryption and validation in SSL depend on configuration and capabilities of both ends, and might be negotiated to nothing.
SSL, and ...
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