Everything on the internet has an address, and no two pages, no two files, can share the same address. Consequently some URLS tend to get pretty long.
URLs consist of a PROTOCOL title, DOMAIN references, DIRECTORY names, and finally, a FILE name.
For this page, we are using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (http). The www stands for World Wide Web. The next item in this address is Geocities, which is usually (though not always) the name of the computer where the file is located.
The .com is the first level domain reference, and often you will be able to tell which country the web site is based in - a com.au first level domain, for example, denotes Australia, while a New Zealand-based domain may end in co.nz.
The "fully-pathed" directory name is mistere_nz, while the file name is intro5.html. This means it is a web page, in HTML (hypertext markup language) format.
From time to time you will encounter other Protocols, such as ftp:// or gopher:// or news:// - these are best read in other clients (internet applications), such as a gopher client, news reader or ftp client. More on those later.
You may be given a web address to type into your browser's address bar in order to view a recommended web site. This MUST be entered 100% correctly, or the page simply will not load.
A common fault is that sometimes a web address is printed in a magazine article, followed by a full stop.
There is no full stop, or dot, at the end of any web site address. The full stop is a grammatical obligation within the article, amd should not be read as part of the URL shown.
Occasionally when opening a web page you will encounter an error message, such as: "404, File Not Found".
There could be a number of reasons for this, the most common being that the file no longer exists on the server on which it was once located.
It could be, however, that the webmaster (the proprietor of the site you are trying to visit) is editing the files on the site, and it might, if you are confident that the site is still current, be worth trying again later.
Otherwise you could try deleting the file name from the address in order to locate the index of the directory that it should have been located in.
We can now advance to the NEXT PAGE.
If you are using Internet Explorer, click on VIEW, then select TOOLBARS, and make sure that "Address Toolbar" has a tick beside it. If you are using Netscape Navigator, click on VIEW, then select SHOW, and make sure that "Location Bar" has a tick beside it.
If not, click on ADDRESS TOOLBAR and a tick should appear. So too will your Address Toolbar.
If not, click on LOCATION BAR and a tick should appear. So too will your Location Bar. If you are using an older version of Netscape (v3.0) you will need to select OPTIONS, then select SHOW LOCATION.