Why do some website addresses have "www", and some don't? And why do some work with or without the "www"?
Helping people with computers... one answer at a time.
The "www." in website addresses is now typically optional, but there was once a reason as to why they were required in URLs.
Why do some website addresses have "www", and some don't? And why do some work with or without the "www"?
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Most of the time it's an oversight. Occasionally it's on purpose, but to be honest I haven't run across an "on purpose" in years.
It's common practice now that "www." is optional; mostly because it's redundant, and URL's are long enough without adding redundant information.
But once upon a time there was a reason.
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The original intent was that the "www" specified what you were trying to do, so you could be sent to the right computer to do that. Servers that were available for "World Wide Web" access used a "www" prefix. Servers that were available for "File Transfer Protocol" access used a "ftp" prefix. Even on the same base domain, www.example.com and ftp.example.com might well be completely different machines. The prefix was both a mnemonic device to help us remember what we're doing as well as a way to route us to the right server.
The question, of course, is what to do when no prefix is specified. The way internet names work, www.ask-leo.com and ask-leo.com are technically two different names and two different sites. As the owner of the base domain name ask-leo.com I needed to take a couple of extra steps to make them both behave the same way when you visit either with your browser.
Over time the web, and all those "www." servers became the predominant traffic on the internet, so more and more sites began to respond to references both with and without the "www.". As I said, it's become common practice, almost a pseudo-standard.
But unfortunately, "common practice" doesn't imply 100%.
Article C2019 - June 11, 2004
Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.
how do you get the IP address converted into a text name and can it be done without buying web space?
Posted by: Kayne at April 19, 2006 9:38 PMArticle is fine but, I have a small question.
Posted by: sarit at February 17, 2009 4:02 AMJust as when you type http://207.46.250.119, you go to: http://www.microsoft.com nad know that 207.46.250.119 = microsoft.com, can I know, when I visit (say) http://www.rediffmail.com, it is http://***.**.***.***?
Shall be grateful for your kind reply,
- Sarit.
To Sarit: I'm assuming you have a windows machine. If so, go to Start, Run. Type cmd then hit Enter. This will bring up a command prompt window. Now type tracert www.rediffmail.com then hit Enter. This command tracert means "trace the route to the following domain or IP address". After you hit enter, you will see a message saying "Tracing route to www.rediffmail.com [202.137.235.12]". There is the IP address. The rest of the stuff tracert does is map every IP address between you and www.rediffmail.com (if the request doesn't time out). There is probably another way to do it, but that's the way I use.
Posted by: Jared at April 23, 2009 6:52 AMYou wrote:
One thing you gloss over is the reason that the "www." has become so redundant -- namely, that its function has been almost entirely replaced by the protocol declarator. the "http://" at the start of the URL now does what the "www." once used to do; and of course, when "ftp://" begins a URL, the URL itself surely doesn't need to insist on the pattern of "ftp.whatever.com"!!! The "[protocol]://" prefix has pretty much obviated the need for that sort of idiocy. Yet it's still rampant!
Hooray for force of habit, huh? :( :( :(
Posted by: Glenn P. at June 13, 2009 5:02 AMAs far I know for free domain www is not required and
and vise verse.Is it correct?
17-May-2011
Posted by: Shishir at May 16, 2011 5:58 AM