What really happens when you open a website? Watch the request, break the connection, then rebuild the journey yourself.
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Experiment one · Observe
Follow one website request
Choose a fictional address, then use Next step to watch the browser find and load a webpage. You control the pace.
Ready to browse?
Start the journey to see what happens behind the screen.
LIBRARY / BOOKS
💻Browser
🔎DNS
🗄️Web server
🌐Internet
● Standby. Follow the journey using the controls.
What's happening behind the scenes?
The browser is ready
A browser displays the resources it receives. It uses the internet's networking infrastructure to reach services such as DNS and web servers.
Key idea: the internet is the global network of networks. The World Wide Web is one service that uses it.
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Experiment two · Predict → test → explain
Why won't the webpage load?
Choose a failure, then run three simple checks. Compare what still works before deciding where the problem is.
Diagnostic tests
Network connected? Not tested
Domain name resolved? Not tested
Web server responds? Not tested
Engineer notebook
Predict: if every stage works, what should the browser show?
Run the checks from top to bottom. Record where the journey stops and what that suggests.
What caused the failure?
Important: a failed DNS lookup does not automatically mean the internet connection is disconnected. Equally, one web server being down does not mean the entire internet is down.
Experiment three · Apply
Rebuild the website journey
The steps have been mixed up! Click each step in the correct order to place it into the sequence. Then test your model.
Independent evidence: In your own Google Doc, draw the journey and explain one DNS fault and one web-server fault. Your diagram must include the browser, URL, DNS and web server.