(HyperText Transfer Protocol) is the way in which a web browser communicates with remote servers. The communication is unencrypted and typically takes place at port 80.
There is either no security, or just a username and a password (Basic access authentication).
An important advantage of HTTP and of M2M protocols built on top of it is that it is usually allowed even in very restricted corporate networks.
In the context of NETIO products
- NETIO smart sockets communicate over HTTP with the user (web interface) when configuring the device.
- For the configuration, a HTTP port different from the port for M2M protocols can be used; see the product configuration. However, in this case all M2M protocols based on HTTP use this other port.
- Some M2M APIs use HTTP to transfer text files. This concerns in particular XML and JSON.
- HTTP is also used by the M2M URL API, which is a simple protocol to switch socket states by accessing a URL e.g. from a web browser (http get).