Trying out HTTP (client side) for yourself

1. Telnet to your favorite Web server:

telnet ic.payap.ac.th 80 Opens TCP connection to port 80
(default HTTP server port) at ic.payap.ac.th
Anything typed in sent
to port 80 at ic.payap.ac.th

2. Type in a GET HTTP request:

GET /university/about.php HTTP/1.1 By typing this in (hit carriage
Host: ic.payap.ac.th return twice), you send
this minimal (but complete)
GET request to HTTP server

3. Look at response message sent by HTTP server!

32 ©Vaide Narvaez
User-server interaction: cookies
Many major Web sites
use cookies
Four components:
  1) cookie header line of
HTTP response message
  2) cookie header line in
HTTP request message
  3) cookie file kept on user’s
host, managed by user’s
browser
  4) back-end database at
Web site
33
Example:
  Susan always access
Internet from home PC
  visits specific e-commerce
site for first time
  when initial HTTP
requests arrives at site,
site creates:
  unique ID
  entry in backend database
for ID
©Vaide Narvaez
 Cookies: keeping “state” (cont.)
client server
ebay 8734
usual http request msg
Amazon server
cookie file usual http response creates ID
Set-cookie: 1678 1678 for user create
ebay 8734 entry
amazon 1678
usual http request msg
cookie: 1678 cookie- access
specific
one week later: usual http response msg action backend
database
access
ebay 8734
usual http request msg
amazon 1678
cookie: 1678 cookie-
spectific
usual http response msg action
34 ©Vaide Narvaez
Cookies (continued)
What cookies can bring: Cookies and privacy:
  authorization   cookies permit sites to
  shopping carts learn a lot about you
  recommendations   you may supply name and e-
mail to sites
  user session state (Web e-
mail)
How to keep “state”:
  protocol endpoints:
maintain state at sender/
receiver over multiple
transactions
  cookies: http messages
carry state

35 ©Vaide Narvaez
 Web caches (proxy server)
Goal: satisfy client request without involving origin server

  user sets browser: Web origin

server
accesses via cache
  browser sends all HTTP Proxy
requests to cache server
client
  object in cache: cache
returns object
  else cache requests object
from origin server, then
returns object to client
client

36 ©Vaide Narvaez
More about Web caching
  cache acts as both client and
server
  typically cache is installed by
ISP (university, company,
residential ISP)
37
Why Web caching?
  reduce response time for
client request
  reduce traffic on an
institution’s access link.
  Internet dense with caches:
enables “poor” content
providers to effectively
deliver content (but so does
P2P file sharing)
©Vaide Narvaez
Conditional GET
Goal: don’t send object
server
if cache has up-to-date cache
cached version HTTP request msg
If-modified-since:
  cache: specify date of <date>
object
not
cached copy in HTTP
HTTP response modified
request HTTP/1.0
  If-modified-since: <date> 304 Not Modified

  server: response contains

no object if cached copy HTTP request msg
If-modified-since:
is up-to-date: <date> object
  HTTP/1.0 304 Not modified
Modified HTTP response
HTTP/1.0 200 OK
<data>
38 ©Vaide Narvaez
File Transfer: FTP
FTP: the file transfer protocol

FTP file transfer

FTP FTP
user client server
interface
user
at host remote file
local file system
system

  transfer file to/from remote host

  client/server model
  client: side that initiates transfer (either to/from remote)
  server: remote host

40 ©Vaide Narvaez
FTP: separate control and data connections
TCP control connection
  FTP client contacts FTP server at port 21
port 21, TCP is transport protocol
  client authorized over control TCP data connection
connection FTP port 20 FTP
client server
  client browses remote directory by
sending commands over control ❒  server opens another TCP data
connection. connection to transfer another
  when server receives file transfer file.
command, server opens 2nd TCP ❒  control connection: “out of band”
connection (for file) to client
❒  FTP server maintains “state”:
  after transferring one file, server current directory, earlier
closes data connection. authentication

41 ©Vaide Narvaez
 E-mail

SMTP, POP3, IMAP

Electronic Mail outgoing
message queue
user mailbox
user
Three major components: agent
  user agents mail
user
  mail servers server
agent
  simple mail transfer protocol: SMTP
SMTP mail
server user
User Agent SMTP agent

  a.k.a. “mail reader/client”

SMTP
  composing, editing, reading mail mail user
messages server agent
  e.g., MS Outlook, Mozilla
Thunderbird user
agent
  outgoing, incoming messages
user
stored on server agent

43 ©Vaide Narvaez
Electronic Mail: mail servers
user
Mail Servers agent
  mailbox contains incoming mail
user
messages for user server
agent
  message queue of outgoing (to be SMTP
sent) mail messages mail
server user
  SMTP protocol between mail
SMTP agent
servers to send email messages
  client: sending mail server SMTP
mail user
  “server”: receiving mail server agent
server

user
agent
user
agent
44 ©Vaide Narvaez
Electronic Mail: SMTP
  uses TCP to reliably transfer email message from client to server,
port 25
  direct transfer: sending server to receiving server
  three phases of transfer
  handshaking (greeting)
  transfer of messages
  closure
  command/response interaction
  commands: ASCII text
  response: status code and phrase

  messages must be in 7-bit ASCII

45 ©Vaide Narvaez
Scenario: Alice sends message to Bob
1) Alice uses UA to compose
message to
bob@someschool.edu
2) Alice’s UA sends message to her
mail server; message placed in
message queue
3) Client side of SMTP opens TCP
connection with Bob’s mail
server
4) SMTP client sends Alice’s
message over the TCP
connection
5) Bob’s mail server places the
message in Bob’s mailbox
6) Bob invokes his user agent to
read message

1 mail
mail
server user
user server
2 agent
agent 3 6
4 5

46 ©Vaide Narvaez
Sample SMTP interaction
S: 220 hamburger.edu
C: HELO crepes.fr
S: 250 Hello crepes.fr, pleased to meet you
C: MAIL FROM: <alice@crepes.fr>
S: 250 alice@crepes.fr... Sender ok
C: RCPT TO: <bob@hamburger.edu>
S: 250 bob@hamburger.edu ... Recipient ok
C: DATA
S: 354 Enter mail, end with "." on a line by itself
C: Do you like ketchup?
C: How about pickles?
C: .
S: 250 Message accepted for delivery
C: QUIT
S: 221 hamburger.edu closing connection

47 ©Vaide Narvaez
Try SMTP interaction for yourself:
  telnetmail.payap.ac.th 25
  see 220 reply from server
  enter HELO, MAIL FROM, RCPT TO, DATA, QUIT
commands
  above lets you send email without using email client
(reader)

48 ©Vaide Narvaez
SMTP: final words
  SMTP uses persistent connections Comparison with HTTP:
  SMTP requires message (header &
  HTTP: pull
body) to be in 7-bit ASCII
  SMTP: push
  SMTP server uses CRLF.CRLF to
determine end of message   both have ASCII command/
response interaction, status codes

  HTTP: each object encapsulated in

its own response msg
  SMTP: multiple objects sent in
multipart msg

49 ©Vaide Narvaez
Mail access protocols
SMTP SMTP access user
user
agent protocol agent

sender’s mail receiver’s mail

server server
  SMTP: delivery/storage to receiver’s server
  Mail access protocol: retrieval from server
  POP: Post Office Protocol [RFC 1939]
  authorization (agent <-->server) and download
  IMAP: Internet Mail Access Protocol [RFC 1730]
  more features (more complex)
  manipulation of stored msgs on server
  HTTP: gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail, etc.

50 ©Vaide Narvaez
 telnet mail.payap.ac.th 110
POP3 protocol S: +OK POP3 server ready
C: user bob
S: +OK
authorization phase C: pass hungry
  client commands: S: +OK user successfully logged on
  user: declare username
C: list
  pass: password
S: 1 498
  server responses S: 2 912
  +OK S: .
  -ERR C: retr 1
S: <message 1 contents>
transaction phase, client: S: .
  list: list message numbers C: dele 1
  retr: retrieve message by C: retr 2
number S: <message 1 contents>
  dele: delete S: .
C: dele 2
  quit C: quit
S: +OK POP3 server signing off
51 ©Vaide Narvaez
POP3 (more) and IMAP
More about POP3
  Previous example uses
“download and delete”
mode.
  Bob cannot re-read e-mail
if he changes client
  “Download-and-keep”:
copies of messages on
different clients
  POP3 is stateless across
sessions
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IMAP
  Keep all messages in one
place: the server
  Allows user to organize
messages in folders
  IMAP keeps user state
across sessions:
  names of folders and
mappings between message
IDs and folder name
©Vaide Narvaez