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When you enter bbc.com and press Enter, the browser may need to find an IP address, establish a connection, secure it for HTTPS, and then request the page. The familiar TCP setup uses three messages—SYN, SYN-ACK, and ACK—but not every visit repeats every step. Cached DNS data, an existing connection, TLS resumption, or HTTP/3 can change the path.
What happens when you type a website address into your browser?
The browser turns the address into a request the network can deliver. In a common first-visit case using HTTPS over TCP, the broad order is name resolution, TCP connection setup, TLS security negotiation, and an HTTP request. This is a general explanation, not a trace of BBC.com’s live infrastructure.
- Resolve the hostname. The browser needs an IP address associated with
bbc.com. It may find usable DNS information in a cache or obtain it through resolver infrastructure. - Establish a TCP connection if needed. For a new TCP connection, the browser’s device and server exchange SYN, SYN-ACK, and ACK. Once this three-message handshake completes, the TCP connection is established. MDN describes this handshake as occurring after DNS lookup and before TLS when creating a secure connection.
- Negotiate HTTPS security if needed. TLS negotiates protocol and security parameters, authenticates the server, and establishes session keys. The exact handshake depends on TLS version and whether a session can be resumed. Cloudflare explains the TLS handshake.
- Request the page. Once the connection is ready, the browser sends an HTTP request, commonly a GET for the document. The server responds, and the browser processes the returned page and its resources. MDN’s browser-loading guide describes this request after a connection is established.
The three messages count only the TCP handshake. They are not a count of all packets used to load a page, and they do not include DNS, TLS, the page response, or requests for other resources.
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Why might some of those exchanges not happen again?
The sequence describes work that may be needed, not a fixed checklist for every navigation. DNS answers can be cached, an already-open connection can be reused, and TLS can resume a prior session. In those cases, some setup is skipped or shortened. A browser may also fetch page resources over connections it has already established.
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HTTP/3 uses a different transport path from HTTPS over TCP, so the TCP three-message handshake is not a universal description of modern web traffic. The precise route for a particular visit depends on the browser, network, protocol negotiation, caches, and existing connections.
How can setup affect loading time?
On a visit that needs fresh setup, DNS resolution, connection establishment, and secure negotiation can all contribute time before page data arrives. Network conditions and which steps can be reused determine the impact; there is no single delay or round-trip count that applies to every BBC.com visitor.
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A later request on an established connection may avoid some of that setup. That is why the time to first response can differ from the time for subsequent requests, even within one browsing session.
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How to inspect the timing in your browser
Browser navigation timing exposes milestones that can help distinguish DNS, connection, secure-connection, and request timing for a particular navigation. These values describe the measured browser session; they are not a universal timing profile for a site.
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- DNS lookup: compare the lookup start and lookup end milestones.
- Connection setup: compare connection start and connection end.
- TLS-related timing: inspect the secure-connection start in relation to the connection milestones.
- Request and response: compare request start with response start to see when the request began and when the first response data arrived.
MDN documents navigation timing milestones and the formulas used to derive DNS, TCP, and TLS-related durations. A zero or very short interval can be consistent with reuse or caching, rather than proof that the phase never exists.
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