How to Identify the Components of an URL

Most people today use URL's in their everyday lives. Whether its http://www.ehow.com or another website, we use URL's. But, how many of us really take notice of the different parts that make up the URL or what they mean. Well, today is your lucky day. This article is your lucky charm.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• The ability to read and/or internet access.

1. A Uniform Resource Locator, URL for short, is divided into several sections. For example, lets say you had the URL http://www.mywebsite.com/myfolder/myfile.html. HTTP or Hypertext Transfer Protocol, is the protocol or format used for the World Wide Web. Web browser and Web servers use it to communicate with each other. This protocol is used to send compressed and encrypted data requests across servers. HTTPS is the secure version of this protocol.

2. The Host name is a server or collection of servers from where the data is pulled. This is more commonly known as the World Wide Web or WWW. The Host name signifies a computer, printer, or device on a network. Each server, printer, or device has its own unique IP address.

3. The "mywebsite.com" part of the URL, is the Network name. This is also known as the domain name. However, it is usually written as www.mywebsite.com. Properly titled this is called the fully qualified domain name (FQDN). All the files and folders associated with a website are located here.

4. .com: The Dot com suffix is known as the top-level domain of the domain name. This suffix further identifies and describes the person or institution that owns the domain name. Other examples of top-level domains would be: .com for commercial institution, .gov for government institution, and .org for non-profit organization.

5. /myfolder: The requested web page will be in this folder.
   /myfile.html: The group of files within the folder.
   html: Stands for Hypertext Markup Language. This is the code used to write internet files. To sum up, when your enter a web address onto your browser, you are telling your computer to use http format to talk to a computer or group of computers in the area or domain of mywebsite commercial network which has myfolder and myfiles coded in Hypertext Markup Language (html). Whew!

Tips & Warnings

• Other top-level domain suffixes.
• .biz- business
• .air- aviation industry
• .coop- business cooperation
• .edu- educational institution
• .info- general use
• .int- organization establish by international treaties
• .mil- U.S. military
• .museum- museums
• .name- persons
• .net- internet provider or network
• .pro- professionals

[00Analana]

on 12/8/2008 Thanks for this informative article.