title: How long is a 255-byte string in the context of HTTP requests?
body: <p>I have a problem with long urls in the context of video streaming via the amazon cloudfront cdn and signedd urls on a media-box.</p>
  
  <p><a href="http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2068.html#b" rel="nofollow">RFC 2068 - Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1</a> states:</p>
  
  <pre><code> Note: Servers should be cautious about depending on URI lengths
   above 255 bytes, because some older client or proxy implementations
   may not properly support these lengths.
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>This seems to be exactly the limitation i am running into. Because 255 character long urls work, 256 characters don't.</p>
  
  <p>However I am a little confused because I thought in ASCII a character is encoded by 7 bit.</p>
  
  <p>I also know that the valid characters in an URL are entirely covered by the ascii alphabet.</p>
  
  <p>I do know that it is common practice to extend to an 8-bit alphabet to support more characters or use the one bit missing to one byte for error detection/correction.</p>
  
  <p>My question now is:</p>
  
  <p>In the context of http requests. What exactly is meant when speaking of a length of 255 bytes. How many characters and how is this number reproduceable?</p>