Welcome to the digital age: every day the average American spends hours looking at smartphone screens and PC monitors. But most still lack even a basic understanding on how the programs affecting their everyday life work. If you think you may fit into this demographic, don’t worry: thanks to online courses, videos tutorials, and supportive internet communities, it’s never been easier to learn…
HTTPS, the network protocol for TLS-encrypted data transfer online can be circumvented in some cases. The danger is that encrypted websites can be accessed via unencrypted HTTP. But the HTTPS extension HSTS (HTTP Strict Transport Security) forces website access via TLS encryption, closing the security gaps that hackers like to use to intercept the HTTPS connection during transport using…
Roland IJdemaShutterstock You’re surfing around on the internet, but instead of getting the desired content you only receive an error message: annoying or even downright frustrating. Especially if you don’t exactly know what the status is supposed to mean. How are you expected to solve the problem, if you don’t know what’s causing it? This also goes for the error 401. Here we explain what the error means and what you can…
alice-photoShutterstock HTTP/2 has been released and is the official successor of the internet protocol HTTP/1.1. It is already compatible with many current web browsers and servers. Up to this point, many of the bigger website operators have switched to using the new transfer protocol. But what lies behind the Hyper Transfer Protocol and what are the advantages of the new version?
windwheelShutterstock If the error message ‘HTTP 504 Gateway Timeout’ appears when you attempt to open a website, it means that the allowed time for responding to browser queries has been exceeded. A lot of the time the culprit is not the web server itself, but instead some other component of the server, i.e. a gateway, which is integral to the path of communication. What does 504 gateway timeout mean? How can you fix…
When it comes to cookies, the small text files for internet browsers, a distinction must be made between first-party cookies and third-party cookies. First-party cookies improve a website’s user-friendliness by storing user preferences as well as information that has already been entered so that it can be used later on. These cookies can only be analyzed by the respective website operator, meaning…
Anyone who encounters personalized advertising on the internet might at first find it odd. How does the internet know that I am interested in going on vacation? Most users leave clear footprints on the net that can be used to create virtual “user profiles”. Third party cookies placed by advertisers are responsible for this. But how do they work, can you have a say in the use of cookies, and what…
Error messages when surfing the net are a nuisance for everyone involved, but especially for those who have to find out what the problem is. The search for a solution can be particularly tedious if the status code message barely provides any information on the source of the error. The HTTP error 500 (“Internal Server Error”) is a collective status code. We give you tips on where errors could have…
Combining different application systems has become increasingly important over the past few years. This trend is especially due to the increasing number of web applications being developed. In order to react to this trend, many different web services were developed that make data transfer across multiple systems possible. The Representational State Transfer (REST) is an architectural style that…
Apache vs. NGINX – while one is said to be bulky and unwieldy, the other is considered slim and high-performance. But can we be this general? In fact, both web servers are based on fundamentally different concepts when it comes to connection management, interpretation of client requests, or configuration options. The range of functions also display clear differences in software alignment. While…
