HTTP Essentials: Protocols for Secure, Scaleable Web Sites [With CDROM]

You should not try reading this book from start to finish - that may be a little too much. As a reference, it is the best HTTP book I was able to find. Clear and concise information compiled from multiple sources.

An excellent book for learning HTTP and much more about how web servers work at the protocol level. What you can learn in a few hours from this book is amazing because it is organized so well, the author is a gifted teacher with an excellent roadmap of what he wants to present, and the hierarchy of overview and detail is so well designed. The book covers the context in which the HTTP protocol resides, the details of HTTP itself, and then branches into important usages of HTTP for creating secure, reliable and scalable web sites.

Get this book. It reads a whole lot better than the spec. The language is so straightforward that your grandmother might enjoy reading it too. It comes with a dictionary of exception codes too, so you'll never be left scratching your head if a few important message packets begin to burp on their way to Paris via Kuala Lumpur.

I,as a university student with great interest to HTTP,borrow this book from school library. This book gives me basic and clear concept about http operations between client and server and stuff behind the scene. a list of explanation of http message and header is heleful too. later, the author writes very detail about proxy server,caching server and how the webserver are build for serious commercial use.I am able to finish 2/3 of this book in 3 days. it's so interesting and keeps me reading on.This is definitely a book to get you start with all kind of term for HTTP and a grasp for HTTP/Webserver concept.for ppl with solid backgroud on HTTP, i would recommend the "HTTP: The Definitive Guide".

If you work in web development you can't miss this book. Two words: complete and clear. Buy IT!