5 Advantages and Disadvantages of HTTP | Drawbacks & Benefits of HTTP

What is HTTP ?

Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is a type of stateless protocol that transfers information between the clients and the web server. For this purpose it uses a set of rules and standards. Under normal circumstances it uses TCP/IP or UDP protocol. 

 

Who use HTTP ?

However HTTP takes no any measure to secure the data of the user. Hence, HTTP is most often preferred by websites that do not have any confidential information. Despite of decreased security, there are potential benefits that HTTP brings. All the pros and cons needs to be considered before switching onto HTTP. 

In this article I will be illustrating about 5 Advantages and Disadvantages of HTTP | Drawbacks & Benefits of HTTP. From this post you will know the pros and cons of using HTTP.

 

Let's get started,

 

Advantages of HTTP

 

1. Addressing

HTTP uses advanced scheme of addressing. It assigns IP address with recognizable names so that it can be identified easily in the World Wide Web. Compared to the standard procedure of IP address with a series of numbers, using this the public can easily engage with the internet.

 

2. Flexibility

Whenever there are additional capabilities needed by an application, HTTP has the capability to download extensions or plugins and display the relevant data. These can include Flash players and Acrobat reader.

 

3. Security

In HTTP each files is downloaded from an independent connection and then gets closed. Due to this no more than one single element of a webpage gets transferred. Therefore, the chance of interception during transmission is minimized here. 

 

 

4. Latency

Only when the connection is established, the handshaking process will take place in HTTP. Hence, there will be no handshaking procedure following a request. This significantly reduces latency in the connection. 

 

5. Accessibility

When the page is loaded for the first time, all of the HTTP pages gets stored inside the internet caches known as the page cache. Therefore, once the page is visited again, the content is loaded quickly.

 

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Disadvantages of HTTP

 

1. Data Integrity

Since there are no any encryption methods used in HTTP, there are chances of someone altering the content. That is the reason why HTTP is considered to be an insecure method prone to data integrity.

 

2. Data Privacy

Privacy is another problem faced in a HTTP connection. If any hacker manages to intercept the request they can view all the content present in the web page. Besides that they can also gather confidential informations such as the username and the password. 

 

3. Server Availability

Even if HTTP receives all the data that it needs, clients does not take measures to close the connection. Therefore, during this time period, server will not be present. 

 

4. Administrative Overhead

For transmitting a web page, a HTTP needs to create multiple connections. This causes administrative overhead in the connection. 

 

5. IoT Device Support

HTTP uses more number of system resources which leads to more power consumption. Since IoT device today contain wireless sensor networks, it is not suitable to use HTTP.