Networking for Web Developers

Lesson 1: From Ping to HTTP

In this lesson you'll begin using command-line tools to explore the network: `ping` to check hosts, and `nc` (netcat) to manually communicate with web servers and to emulate a web server. You'll also learn about port numbers and the layering of HTTP on top of TCP.

Lesson 2: Names and Addresses

In this lesson you'll learn about the Domain Name System (DNS). Optionally, you'll register your own domain name for your web server. You'll also learn more about the binary representation of IP addresses.

Lesson 3: Addressing and Networks

In this lesson you'll learn more details about Internet addressing: network blocks, interfaces, network address translation (NAT), and IPv6.

Lesson 4: Protocol Layers

In this lesson you'll use `tcpdump` to examine the packets that make up the requests and responses for three protocols: ping, DNS, and HTTP. You'll learn more about how TCP sessions work.

Lesson 5: Big Networks

In this lesson you'll learn more about bandwidth, latency, filtering, and other properties that matter when users are accessing your application over the Internet.