To what I have understood, Http protocol is stateless because, once the data packets reach the destination, the connection with the server gets disconnected and only on the next request does the communication starts. To be more clear let us talk of a phone call made. Here, when there is a ring on the phone, we pick it up to talk. The person on the other end says hello. The phone line is still active when this response is caught and is sent to the receiver and continues till you credle the phone. This is a statefull session. But in case of an Http protocol, once the message is sent, it is divided into packets and the packets are sent to the detination and the connection is closed once this process is trough. It again gets activated for the next request. The basic advantage ot this is to provide a better speed of the data by letting the channel free for other requests. Hope this explains the http protocol in a lay man's language. Please let me know if I am wrong.