HTTP Essentials: Protocols for Secure, Scaleable Web Sites [Paperback]

Stephen A. Thomas (Author), Stephen Thomas (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0471398233 | ISBN-13: 978-0471398233 | Publication Date: March 8, 2001 | Edition: First Printing

The first complete reference guide to the essential Web protocol
As applications and services converge and Web technologies not only assume HTTP but require developers to manipulate it, it is becoming increasingly crucial for network managers, Web masters, and anyone working with HTTP to understand the nuts and bolts of this most prevalent Web protocol. This book provides complete documentation and explanation of the protocol, including advanced and experimental extensions. Readers will get core guidance on implementing HTTP 1.1 in their products, including how to accelerate HTTP in large scale Web sites, how to secure it, and how to handle compatibility issues with versions 0.9 and 1.0. HTTP switching and invisible HTTP operations such as option negotiations, status checks, and path tracing are also examined.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Get inside HTTP and learn to build bulletproof Web sites

"This book is about what makes the Web tick. It explains the protocol that defines how Web browsers communicate with Web servers, the mechanisms that keep that communication secure from counterfeits and eavesdroppers, and the technologies that accelerate our Web experience."
–from the Introduction

Expert Stephen Thomas brings you up to speed on all aspects of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol––its operation, message formats, security mechanisms, and acceleration techniques. He explains how HTTP has evolved and how new implementations maintain backward compatibility with old systems. Best of all, he shows you how to apply what you’ve learned to building scaleable, reliable, and secure Web site architectures.

As you go through this book, you’ll be able to put into practice Thomas’s lessons on:

• How Web browsers, servers, proxies, and caches use HTTP
• The structure and format of HTTP messages, including all headers and status codes
• HTTP authentication and other security technologies, including SSL, TLS, and SHTTP
• Techniques for accelerating HTTP–load balancing, layer 4 and layer 7 switching, caching, and multiplexing
• Related technologies–from Proxy Auto Configuration (PAC) and Web Proxy Auto Discovery (WPAD) to important caching protocols including Web Cache Coordination Protocol (WCCP), Internet Cache Protocol (ICP), and HyperText Caching Protocol (HTCP)
• The evolution of HTTP and how to handle compatibility between HTTP versions

The CD-ROM includes a searchable electronic edition of the text.

About the Author

STEPHEN THOMAS is cofounder and Chief Technical Officer for TransNexus, a leading provider of Internet e-commerce solutions. A frequent speaker at conferences and trade shows, Thomas has been actively involved in TCP/IP standard development and has coauthored and contributed to numerous Internet RFCs. He has written extensively for technical, trade, and popular audiences and is the author of several books, including, most recently, SSL and TLS Essentials: Securing the Web (Wiley).

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; First Printing edition (March 8, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471398233
• ISBN-13: 978-0471398233
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,313,965 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Clear and Readable from Start to Finish, February 13, 2004

By 

Michael Levin (North Andover, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: HTTP Essentials: Protocols for Secure, Scaleable Web Sites (Paperback)

An excellent book for learning HTTP and much more about how web servers work at the protocol level. What you can learn in a few hours from this book is amazing because it is organized so well, the author is a gifted teacher with an excellent roadmap of what he wants to present, and the hierarchy of overview and detail is so well designed. The book covers the context in which the HTTP protocol resides, the details of HTTP itself, and then branches into important usages of HTTP for creating secure, reliable and scalable web sites.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you really want to understand web traffic...., September 25, 2003

By 

Bruce Cote (Marshfield, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: HTTP Essentials: Protocols for Secure, Scaleable Web Sites (Paperback)

Get this book. It reads a whole lot better than the spec. The language is so straightforward that your grandmother might enjoy reading it too. It comes with a dictionary of exception codes too, so you'll never be left scratching your head if a few important message packets begin to burp on their way to Paris via Kuala Lumpur.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars good introduction to HTTP and webserver tech, October 20, 2002

By 

Q. Li "shijialee" (China) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: HTTP Essentials: Protocols for Secure, Scaleable Web Sites (Paperback)

I,as a university student with great interest to HTTP,borrow this book from school library. This book gives me basic and clear concept about http operations between client and server and stuff behind the scene. a list of explanation of http message and header is heleful too. later, the author writes very detail about proxy server,caching server and how the webserver are build for serious commercial use.
I am able to finish 2/3 of this book in 3 days. it's so interesting and keeps me reading on.

This is definitely a book to get you start with all kind of term for HTTP and a grasp for HTTP/Webserver concept.

for ppl with solid backgroud on HTTP, i would recommend the "HTTP: The Definitive Guide".