Step 1
Step 1 — How the internet works
20 min
Step 1 — How the internet works
When you type codingstairs.duckdns.org into your browser, four steps happen automatically.
- DNS lookup — domain name → IP address
- HTTP request — your browser asks port 443 of that IP for the page (HTTPS = encrypted HTTP)
- Response — the server returns HTML/CSS/JS plus data
- Render — the browser turns that into pixels on screen
nslookup codingstairs.duckdns.org
# → prints the IP address
Four words you'll use forever
- URL — a single-line address like
https://codingstairs.duckdns.org/edu/... - HTTP/HTTPS — the request/response protocol; HTTPS adds encryption
- DNS — a distributed phonebook of names → IPs
- Port — a numbered "window" into an IP (HTTP=80, HTTPS=443, dev server=3000…)
Try it
Open DevTools (F12) → Network tab → reload the page. Every request and response shows up. Click any one to see headers, body, and timing. Keeping this tab open habitually solves half of all bugs.
Going deeper
Next
Step 2 turns those HTML responses into pages with meaning.