Anatomy of a URL
Protocol://web server.domain.domain suffix/directory/file name.html http://www.Pirates.com/photos/CaptainSparrow.html http://mail.aol.com/jresto/main.html ftp://users.snip.net/~mickeyboy/index.html Protocol is the language in which your computer terminal and the other computers on the Internet speak. Http tells the computers that you are only viewing their files – window shopping. Https tells the computers that you need the information being passed back & forth to be encrypted – put into code. You will often use this when entering credit card information or personal information such as a social security number. Ftp tells the computers that you are going to copy files from your computer to the computer on the Internet – often you use it when you are sending revisions to your own personal website. You will be asked for your username and password – for security reasons.
Web server is part of the organization of files of a domain. The web server is always after the protocol://.
Domain is the part of the website that you rent. Since it is easier to recall a name (versus numbers), we generally use the domain name to find a website. If you forget to pay the yearly rental, someone else has the right to then rent the site. Domains are found between two periods.
Domain Suffix is the part following the domain. (Remember…suffixes in English class come at the end of a word too!) It is usually (but not always) 3 letters. Some common suffixes include .com, .edu, and .gov. The suffix gives the surfer an idea of the type of site – commercial, educational, governmental, etc.
