2. Our server receives the link

In our first article, we saw how the browser bundled up the website address you wanted to change and put together a full address. So what happens next? Well, read on...

• Well, first up, your browser will do a bit more work. It will separate out the website domain name - in this case, thevoicesofmany.com - and consult what is called a root server to work out which computer or network in the world holds the information requested. It's actually quite involved, but basically by the miracle that is DNS and root servers, your computer and ISP will find out which computer in the world that holds thevoicesofmany.com. It goes through several steps, most of which I don't actually know (I just know that it works!)
• Once the right computer is found, the server starts to do some work. Basically, the server is now given a request to handle. The domain name has been removed, all it really has to worry about is the latter part - in our example, this was /url.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fkissmyfaerie.org%2F&voice=fudd. They all start with a / sign, to denote that we are working from the very top of the tree. For example, this page you're reading now is /about/howitworks/url2.php, denoting that it starts off at the top, goes down into the about directory, then into howitworks and there it should find url2.php, which it did if you're reading this!
• The server knows that ? means the end of the page itself, so it knows that it is looking for url.php in the top level directory, and that it needs to work with this page. The server also knows that anything ending in .php needs to be passed across to the PHP system before sending it anywhere.
• Before it passes control over to the PHP system to sort out what it has to do with url.php, the server sets up two pigeonholes (remember, these are really called variables), one called url and one called voice, and puts the appropriate information into them, ready for url.php to do its magic.
• Once that's all done, control is passed from the server to the PHP system, to run the instructions contained in url.php, which will instruct the PHP system in what content to produce (and what to do with voice and text as we have been given)

At this point, our server has received a request to download and modify a page, then pass it on to you. There is quite a bit to go before we do that, though. There are a couple of checks we have to make long before we can even get the page from the server ready to modify. Please have a look at part 3 to see what happens next.