First steps on the web / 01
How the web works
Follow a request from URL to pixels: DNS, HTTP, servers, and the three languages of the web.
By Mark Lee · last verified 2026-08-14 · about this field guide
Before you begin
By the end, you can…
- Describe what happens between pressing Enter and seeing a page
- Name URL, DNS, HTTP, and the roles of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
- Read a network request and its status code
01 / Understand
A page is a journey, not a file
When you type a URL and press Enter, your browser asks a directory system (DNS) where the site's server lives, opens a connection, sends an HTTP request, and receives a response. The browser then turns that response into pixels.
The response you requested is normally an HTML document — the structure. That document may then reference stylesheets, scripts, images, and data that the browser fetches as separate requests, caches, and combines into the rendered experience. Knowing which piece does which job is the foundation of building for the web.
02 / Apply
Follow one request with your own eyes
Open the Network panel, reload a page, and find the document request—usually the first row, the same URL you typed. Its status code tells you what happened: 200 means success, 301 a redirect, 404 a missing page.
Click the row to see the response body: the HTML is right there, plain text your browser interpreted into a page. That is the whole trick of the web—it is open and inspectable by design.
curl -IL https://learnweb.cc
# your output is evidence, not a guarantee:
# protocol, headers, and redirects vary by client and deployment03 / Make
Your studio task
Make — Map one page-load journey in plain language, from URL to pixels.
- Type a URL and open DevTools before reloading.
- Find the document request in the Network panel.
- Note its status code, size, and load time.
- Explain to someone what each step did.
Your notes name DNS, a request and response, HTML parsing, and one real network resource with its status code.
04 / Check