🌍 The internet: what actually happens when you open a website?

Every day, dozens of websites are visited without really wondering what is happening in the background. Yet behind a simple click on a link or typing a web address into a browser, many steps take place in just a few fractions of a second.

⌨️ Step 1: entering a web address

It all starts when an address such as:

www.eitt.webnode.fr

is entered into a browser (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari, etc.).

At that moment, the computer knows what needs to be accessed, but it still does not know where this site is physically located on the Internet.

💡 Key point: the site address is only an easy-to-remember name for humans.

📖 Step 2: DNS comes into play

To find the requested site, the device queries a DNS server (Domain Name System).

DNS works like the phone book of the Internet.

For example:

➡️ www.eitt.webnode.fr
becomes an IP address such as:

➡️ 192.168.xxx.xxx (simplified example)

This IP address makes it possible to precisely locate the server that hosts the site.

💡 Key point: DNS translates domain names into IP addresses that machines can understand.

🌐 Step 3: the request travels across the Internet

Once the IP address has been obtained, the device sends a request to the server hosting the site.

This request travels through: