Jhalak & Sheenal

There are some basic aspects of a URL that we take for granted:

http://lakota.mcauley.nsw.edu.au:81/

Forward slashes and dots are used to separate different parts of a URL 

A URL never has spaces in it

It is mostly made of lower case letters

Uses both numerals and letters

URLs are actually made of set of four numbers (an IP address) such as 202.147.23.8 which are separated by a period. The reason why people do not normally see this in an URL is because it is not used as it is difficult for humans to use it and instead they are represented by alphanumerics, which is much easier to remember.

It is the unique address of a page on the internet.

e.g. Google Australia’s address: www.google.com.au

A URL specifies the address of a file.

URL : Uniform resource Locator It is known as uniform because it is the same throughout the world, and it is a method to locate any resource such as file or document on the internet.

•URLS are highly important in the world of the Internet as they act as street addresses for information on the Internet:

•http://netforbeginners.about.com/od/understandyourbrowser/a/URLs.htm : “Today, an estimated 31 billion web pages and Internet transmitters are addressed using URL names.“ URL’s are like street addresses or telephone addresses applied to give an address different web pages on the Internet.

• By telling the browser what protocol to use and informing the web server what page the user wants.

• A URL allows a browser to connect to a particular website, in other words it directs you to that particular webpage.•URL determines the particular part of a web site a user visits:http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/ - main page of website

http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue13/ - particular section on the website

The actual types of URL include: Static URL Dynamic URL Directory URL

Static URl is a URL that connects the destination without generating programming scripts.

Dynamic URL is the URL that uses the programming script to connect to the destination

Directory URL is one that does not consist of any file name that points the default file of the directory.

PARTS OF AN URL

Four main parts. This includes:

Protocol

Server name

Domain name

Directory and filename

PROTOCOL The protocol is used in communication between

a browser and the web server.

An URL consist of many different types of protocol depending what a person is looking for.

Different types of protocols include:httpftpGopherWaisNntp

And there are many others! It is used in communication between a browser

and the web server

PROTOCOL TYPES HTTP

is short of hyper text transfer protocol- it helps in how the messages are formatted and transmitted and provides a standard for web browsers to communicate.

FTP

This is short for File transfer protocol which allows a person to transfer files from one computer or server to another. You only need only need a computer name, user name and password. This is useful if you have composed a Web page on your computer and want to upload it.

GOPHER

It is a protocol where hierarchically-organized text files could be brought from servers all over the world to a viewer on your computer. Especially in universities, Gopher was a step toward the World Wide Web's http

WAIS

It is short for Wide Area information server. A database on the Internet that contains indexes to documents that reside on the Internet. Using the Z39.50 query language, text files can be searched based on keywords.

SERVER NAME Second part of URL

Separated from a protocol by a colon and two forward slashes.

(put a sample of the URL)

Server name tells a person about the machine aka the server that one wants to access

DOMAIN NAME The domain allows the person to recognise the

country in which the server is based in and the nature of the organisation that owns the server.

E.g: from previous URL,it is: .ac.uk- from this we can realise that it is a academic server because of ac and is in United Kingdom.

There are different country identifiers that tell where the server is based it is always in the end of a URL.

COUNTRY IDENTIFIER IN A URL

COUNTRY OF SITE’S ORIGIN

au Australia

ca Canada

uk United Kingdom

de Germany

Continuing domain name The domain name also has an

organisation identifier which usually comes after the country identifier/country code.

Some of them include:Edu/ac-showing it is an academic or

educational server.Co/com- showing a commercial serverGov-for government serverOrg- showing non-governmental, non-profit

making organisations.

DIRECTORY AND FILENAME Directory is part after the domain name

and between another set of slashes. It contains the files you will be

accessing. Most URLs are in directory structure

which can then help tell something about the site.

http://www.bps.org.uk/publicat/Periodicals/Psych/PSY9_97.HTMHere the directories are (publicat, Periodicals

and Psych).

• Provides information on the geographical location of where the site originated fromeg: www.google.com.au Australia

Through looking at the country identifier and organisation identifier in a URL, one is able to determine the reliability and accuracy of a website. Eg: For someone who is looking for websites on Australian Blue Mountains, www.bluemts.com.au/ which is a site based on a skiing resort in Canada not the Australian Katoomba Blue Mountains.

offers reliable and accurate information compared to www.bluemountain.ca/

• Provides information of the organisation who created the web page eg: www.student.mcauley.nsw.edu.au Educational organisation

• URL: Uniform Resource Locator

• It allows a browser to connect to a website

• It is like a street address for information online.

• A URL consists of a:

protocol domain name path (which is divided into 2

parts: directory and file name)