Understanding HTTP Redirects

Introduction

If you want to program an HTTP request module (to make HTTP requests, to download web pages, or other data) there are a number of relevant concepts relating to HTTP that you must understand.

One of these concepts is HTTP redirects. What are they, why do they exist, and what a "reasonable" number of redirects looks like when sending an HTTP request to a server.

What is a redirect - technically speaking?

First the technical part. HTTP redirects occur when a server responds to a client request with the reply 3XX (status code). This is coupled with a location header of the URL it wants the client to load instead.

The browser or other HTTP client (which could be a Python program, for example) then follows the redirect, issuing a new request to the URL in the location header.

Why are they needed?

Examples:

301 Permanent redirect - e.g. for site reorganization, domain migration, SEO link preservation

Also temporary redirects - e.g. for load balancing

HTTP to HTTPS redirect

Redirects can be configure in Apache .htaccess and in nginx.

Pythons requests module allows by default 30 redirects.

Revisiting Port 443

Port 443 is primarily known for handling HTTPS traffic over TCP, enabling secure communication between browsers and servers.  

It can be used with UDP in specific scenarios like QUIC (for lower latency secure communications) and HTTP/3.

When diagnosing why an HTTPS connection is failing, an in depth knowledge of port 443 is needed.