URLs

A URL (or Universal Resource Location or Label or Locator) is the address of a document or resource. It usually takes this form:

protocol://domain name.first level domain name/directory/document.name

For example, the URL of a College Home Page you might like to visit is:

http://derwentside.ac.uk/~lyn_howdill/index.htm

The protocol is the Internet's agreed standard, used to reach the document or resource. On the Web, it is typically "http", but it can be any one of a number of other resources: (The protocol is always followed by "://")

http
A World Wide Web server. "HTTP" stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol.
gopher
an Internet Gopher site, menu driven directories of files and information
ftp
an anonymous File Transfer Protocol (FTP) site, archives of files
file
A file on your local computer system (hard drive, floppy, local file server)

The domain name. Is the host organisation's Internet presence, where the document resides (such as www.derwentside).

The first-level domain is the two or three letter code that identifies the type of organisation that controls the host computer (such as .ac.uk which means academic organisation in the UK). Some common first-level domain names are listed below:

	First-level domain	Organisation Type

	.co			Commercial Business
	.ac			Academic
	.com			Commercial Organisation
	.net			Computer Network
	.org			Organisation/Association
	.gov			Government
	.mil			Military Installation
	.ca			Canadian
	.fr			French		
	.au			Australian
	.uk			United Kingdom
	.jp			Japanese
The directory and document.name components of the URL are self explanatory.

BACK to Entering URLs.

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