Parts of a URL

A URL, like a file on your local computer has several parts.

Since the document, or file, can be on any type of Internet server, and on any type of computer, accessing the file via a URL requires specifying several pieces of information:

Three sections in a URL

Each URL has three distinct parts, each part has a different purpose, these purposes, or actions, are:

Specify the type of server, or method needed, to retrieve the document. By telling the browser or program the type of server or method it will connect to lets the browser know what it has to do with the information once it gets it. This is the only part of a URL that does not directly relate to locating a file on your local machine or on a network that you are attached to.
Specify the machine name where the document is located. This portion is used to identify the type of computer and where it is located on the Internet. This is equivalent to specifying a drive on your local computer or on a network.
Specify the path and document name that you want. This is exactly the same as specifying a path and file name in commands on your local network or drive.

These three actions, each independent, explain the reason for the three parts of a URL. Each URL is comprised of three parts:

1st, the type of resource to access

2nd, the name of the site where the resource is located

3rd, the directory path and resource name, or directory path alone

WARNING: URLs are Case Sensitive

Since many Internet servers are running in an UNIX environment, you must pay attention to the URL name. Most programs running in the UNIX environment are case sensitive. Because of this you should be very careful when typing URLs. Always assume that the URL is case sensitive.

Working with URLs

Look at the following URL --

        http://www.nosc.mil/planet_earth/countries/Philippines.html

This URL is an html document of 'Planet Earth Hope Page -- Country of the Philippines' it is a great link page for finding resources and information about the Philippines -- government, education, Internet, business, even newspapers and ezines.

The URL is comprised of three parts:

http://: The “http” means that you are dealing with a World Wide Web resource. It stands for “HyperText Transport Protocol”. This is the way that the Web moves information around the world. This information is critical to your browser. It tells the browser how to connect to the system.
www.nosc.mil: This is the next part of the URL. It is the name of the site where the resource is located. It is the name given to the actual server that sits somewhere in the world on the Internet.
/planet_earth/countries/Philippines.html: The final part of the URL is the directory path and resource name. Notice that the path is separated with forward slashes.

In the example above, notice how the last item ends in “.html”. That stands for HyperText Markup Language, which is the program coding that is used to create hypertext documents. Many Web addresses will end in it or using three letters in 'htm'.

If you connect to this URL, you will see a page that begins similar to the following:

Some other URLs may use numbers in them, as in the following --

       http://204.146.46.134:80/prev/explore/wtools/

This URL is an html document of “World Wide Web Search Tools”, a part of the IBM Global Network pages. It is a great link page for finding the different search tools available on the Internet for locating URL resources.

Like the previous example, this URL consists of three parts:

http://: The “http” means that you are dealing with a World Wide Web resource.
204.146.46.134:80: It is the name of the site where the resource is located. Notice that it has a numeric name instead of an English text name.
/prev/explore/wtools/: This is the directory path and resource name. Notice that it does not end with a document name.

NOTE: Ending an URL in a slash

When using FTP, HTTP, and Gopher URLs, the "directory path and resource name" will sometimes end in a slash. This simply means that the URL is not pointing to a specific file, but a directory. In this case, the server generally returns the "default index" of that directory. This might be just a listing of the files available within that directory, or a default file that the server automatically looks for in the directory. With HTTP servers, this default index file is generally called "index.html", but is frequently seen as "default.html”, "home.html", or "welcome.html".

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