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I always assumed that it was to tell your PC to get outside its local area network and out onto the World Wide Web. For example, if you were working in your office are in a classroom. And that would explain why on my home PC I never need to use it.
Well, never say never. I couldn't find an example right now, but I seem to remember there were some sites... I think United Airlines used to be this way... where you couldn't get to the site without the www.
Can someone please explain?
Thanks, Peter
The reason it is there is you can run lots of different prefixes for various uses, ie you might use [mail.domain.com...] for a webmail interface
[uk.domain.com...] for a UK version of your site while
[fr.domain.com...] would be the french version.
...that said, there is no universal law stating that domains need the www subdomain. Personally i find it more user-friendly to avoid it altogether, but that's a matter of taste i think.
/claus
i find it more user-friendly to avoid it altogether
I found that many (mostly new) users are a bit disoriented by sites without the www. People are used to it and for most of them it means it's something on the web. Most never go as far as thinking like 'wait, there's this http:// bit, too'.
The www is just another sub domain. If a host has it setup to redirct to the main public files folder (or has an automatically created mirror in www) then you'll get the site. This should be default but often it is not, in which case you have to use just domain.com.
A site not working without the www (not the other way around) is the result of some humorously stupid server administration.
Edit: I've only seen sites that don't work without the www at larger companies, btw, which is where you always get the really interesting screwups that they've convinced themselves are features :-)
[edited by: IanKelley at 10:29 pm (utc) on Sep. 1, 2003]
of course, the way to reach his site was with or without www but the "vvv" just got inserted by the server. It was a plain joke.
The big company comment... i agree, it's absolutely right. Interesting errors occur - but they are errors just the same. Perhaps they have good people doing their webdesing at high rates, but they don't really know about the DNS system.
/claus
The domain name system (DNS) is set up using levels. There's a finite set of "top level domains" (TLDs) and then a virtually unlimited number of lower-level domains. Levels are read from right to left with the most important level at the end of the domain name, and levels separated by a dot.
TLDs are eg. "com", "net", "us", "org", "uk", "kr", "tv" and so on.
A "domain name" is actually a second order, or second level, domain name in most instances. But this name cannot be used on it's own, domains never can. They must always be used with the higher level domain names, separated by a dot. That is, you can not just use "example", you have to use "com" as well and separate the two with a dot, as in "example.com"
Some TLDs are regulated in such a way that the second-level domain is also a fixed finite set, eg. "co.uk".
Using these TLDs your domain name is actually a third level domain name, but the rule is still that you can not use it without the higher level domains, ie. it has to be "example.co.uk" and not just "example".
So, your full domain name is "example.com", or "example.co.uk". That is your property.
As you are the owner of this domain name, you are permitted to use lower-level domain names on it. That is, you can voluntarily choose to employ any lower level domains in addition to your domain name if you think this would be of value to you. These are your "subdomains", just like your "main domain" is a "subdomain" of the TLD you are using.
Each time a lower level domain name is added to the domain name string, a new separate domain is created. It's a container for use for some purpose, and nothing else. If you were an isp, you could have, eg:
customer1.example.com
customer2.example.com
customer3.example.com
and customer 3 could in turn have
"son-of.customer3.example.com", "pets-of.son-of.customer3.example.com", and "dog.pets-of.son-of.customer3.example.com"
- in the last example we are dealing with a sixth level domain name which is the unique domain that belongs to a pet dog.
Now, a few years ago there were all kinds of uses for this new "internet-thing". We had file downloads via FTP, we had text browsing using gopher, we had email using smtp, we even had this brilliant invention of Tim Berners-Lee, the WorldWideWeb. To keep track of all these possible uses for "the internet" on their servers some bright people became accustomed to use lower-level domain names.
To reach the FTP server of a company you would type "ftp.example.com", to reach the mail server, you would type "mail.example.com", and to reach the WorldWideWeb server you would type "www.example.com".
This was never a standard or a demand - all the time the companies were free to use whatever subdomains they desired to solve whatever tasks they had. It just became a convenient way to do things, and at the same time you had the co-existing:
department1.example.com
department2.example.com
department3.example.com
... and "main-office.department1.example.com", "recruitment.department1.example.com" and so on, as well.
As time went by...and it went pretty quick... the "WorldWideWeb" became so popular that is almost a synonym to "the internet" - at least it's often used this way, although it's wrong. The "www" is just part of the internet, although the most popular part (at least next to email)
Still, internet worked in a peculiar way.. all the time new people were coming to it, and they adopted the habits of those already there. Thus, they also adopted the use of the "www" subdomain for hypertextual content, although there was no need for it anymore, as hypertextual content was really the main thing on the internet.
That led to confusion... an extremely common confusion. People were using the main domain and a subdomain of this domain ... for the exact same things!
They still do. Companies publishing on the internet have now mostly decided that their main content is the hypertextual content. And that content is found on their main domain. But, as "customer is king" they keep using a subdomain as an "alias" to their main domain - for historical reasons, and because some of their customers have not yet found out that the part of the internet that is found in browsers is the WWW. There's no need to keep that an exception anymore, as now www (is the) rule.
For this reason, the www exception is no longer necessary.
[edited by: claus at 10:03 am (utc) on Sep. 2, 2003]
We have [network]-[firewall]-[internet]
The www, tells the network to direct the page/site request external through the firewall rather than try to resolve it using our internal DNS.
In general external internet terms, it is a bit archaic and I believe stems from the 'good old days' when there were a greater proliferation of FTP and other protocols in use.
Hope this helps
