What is a URL?

What is a URL?

A URL, or Uniform Resource Locator, is the location of a file on the Web. When you type the address of a Web page into your browser, you are typing a URL. The most common format of a URL is illustrated by the URL of this page: http://www.cites.uiuc.edu/101/url101.html. Here is a description of each part of the URL. (glossary: IP address)

http://

The first portion of the URL (http) designates the protocol that is used to locate the file or resource on the Web. A protocol is a standardized means of communication among machines across a network. Protocols allow data to be taken apart for faster transmission, transmitted, and then reassembled at the destination in the correct order. Here, http represents the HyperText Transfer Protocol, which is used to transfer Web pages across the Internet to Web browsers such as Netscape Navigator, Internet Explorer, or Lynx. Other common protocols include https (for secure Web pages—the S stands for "secure"), ftp (file transfer protocol), and news (for newsgroups).The protocol of a URL is followed by a colon and two slashes (://).

www.cites.uiuc.edu

The portion of the URL following the protocol (www.cites.uiuc.edu) designates the host name of the computer you are accessing. The designator www, found in many URLs, is an acronym for World Wide Web. While using www is conventional, it is not necessary. Some Web servers omit the need to type www. For example, http://www.cnn.com and http://cnn.com both work. In the United States, the right-most designator (e.g., .com or .edu) describes the type of institution or organization displaying the information (See the Extensions Table for a list of possibilities for the right-most designator). In this example, uiuc stands for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, which is an educational institution, or edu.

/101/url101.html

Following the host name, the directory structure and filename are included in the URL shown above. A URL may have any number of directories following it. In this example, 101 is a directory under the root directory of the host you are accessing. The file url101.html is located in the 101 directory.

Institutions on the Web

The chart below refers to the type of institutions you may see while accessing the Internet in the United States. Other countries have abbreviated extensions, with the terminal portion of the host name defining the country in which the host resides. For example, http://www.bbc.co.uk is the Web address for the commercial business (.co) called BBC residing in the United Kingdom (.uk). In the Unites States, domain names are distributed by a company named InterNIC, whose URL is http://www.internic.com.

Extensions
.com	commercial institution
.net	commercial institution (addition to .com)
.edu	educational institution
.org	not-for-profit organization
.gov	government institution
.mil	military
.int	international institution
.biz	commercial institution (new)
.info	unrestricted use (new)
.museum	museums (proposed)
.name	names of individuals (proposed)
.pro	lawyers, accountants, and doctors (proposed)
.aero	aeronautical industry (proposed)
.coop	cooperative organizations (proposed)

Networking and Computing 101 How Does Information Travel Across the Campus Network? How Does Email Reach Its Destination? What Does Your Netid Do For You? What is a URL? What is Wireless Technology? Which Operating System Are You Using?