NETWORK ~ Difference between HTTP and HTTPS

 

HTTP (Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol)

    HTTP is a protocol at the application layer. It is defined in RFC 2616 (Request for Comments). In fact, the main feature of HTTP is the negotiation part of the data transfer. Typical examples of HTTP services are web server communication and domain name service (DNS) communication.

    In end-to-end communications at the application level, one end acts as a server and another end acts as a client. In order to communicate to the client the server should know the IP address and port number of the server. The IP address helps to reach the server and the port number only defines the service the client is looking for. (In technical terms it is defined as socket).

    Same here in HTTP; Just take the web server as an example, in this model, the web server is an application software running on a hardware server, while the client is a user's browser. The web server application listens to port number 80 to accept HTTP connections. So, this port 80 is defined as HTTP port.

HTTPS (Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol Secure)

    HTTPS is similar to HTTP, but the "S" stands for Secure. In HTTP, data is transmitted as it is called in plain text. Anyone can read between the server and the client. But in HTTPS, no one can read the information between the server and the client. 

    In addition, the implementation of TLS (Transport Layer Security) or SSL (Secure Socket Layer) establishes an end-to-end encrypted tunnel for data transmission. An encrypted tunnel means that the data communication between the server and the client is closed and that the server and the client can only read the communication.

    In this case, the client, your web browser in our example, communicates with the web server via port number 443. In most banking applications, the exchange of user login information uses the HTTPS protocol. 

Key differences between HTTP and HTTPS:

    >>HTTP transmits data in clear text, while HTTPS transmits encrypted data
    >>HTTP is for normal applications and HTTPS is mainly for banking or secure applications
    >>HTTP uses port 80, while HTTPS uses port 443
    >>HTTP is defined in RFC 2616 and HTTPS is defined in RFC 2817 (Upgrade to TLS in HTTP/1.1)

  

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