http://packet.city/ summary: A demo scene page that is smaller than a single IP ...

s_gourichon · on Sept 19, 2017

Wiresharked the thing. Here's the packet sequence it reported:

    -> DNS query A
    -> DNS query AAAA
    <- DNS reply A
    <- DNS reply AAAA
    -> TCP SYN
    <- TCP SYN,ACK
    -> TCP ACK
    -> HTTP GET
    <- HTTP reply <= That's the content!
    -> TCP ACK
    <- TCP FIN,ACK
    -> TCP FIN,ACK
    <- TCP RST
    <- TCP RST

So, the full traffic is 14 packet, all small (DNS, TCP handshaking) except the one HTTP reply packet containing the full website.

londons_explore · on Sept 19, 2017

It's still pretty sad that so many roundtrips are necessary...

One could imagine a merged DNS and TCP syn packet, which goes to a DNS server who converts it to a TCP packet, and gets forwarded to the origin server.