DEV Community

Mariam Adedeji
Mariam Adedeji

Posted on

Summary of what Happens When You Type a URL Into Your Browser

Have you ever wondered what happens behind the screen when you enter a URL into your browser? Well, I was just as curious a few days ago and decided to look it up. Here’s a quick summary of what I found.

Step 1 — When a URL is typed into a browser, the browser searches locally for the domain name IP address in the Domain Name System (DNS). The search is done as follows:

  • First, the browser cache is searched.
  • Then the Operating System (OS) cache is checked.
  • Then the router cache is checked.
  • Lastly, the Internet Service Provider(ISP) cache is searched.

Step 2 — After the browser has received the domain name IP address, it connects to the server using TCP protocol.

Step 3 — Then, the browser sends an HTTP request to the server.

Step 4 — The server sends an HTTP response back to the browser.

Step 5 — The browser renders the response eg HTML.

Step 6 — The browser then sends subsequent requests as needed to the server to get the embedded links, javascript, images in the HTML and then repeats steps 3 to 5.

This is all there is to it.

If you found this article helpful, please leave a heart or a comment. If you have any questions, please let me know in the comment section.

Also, don’t forget to follow me for more articles. Thank you.

Top comments (2)

Collapse
 
santhosjery profile image
Santhosh N

Thank you!

Collapse
 
mariehposa profile image
Mariam Adedeji

Thank you.