Re: What is an URL? (long reply)

[Sarah <sarah -at- TELEPORT -dot- COM>]

URL (rhymes with 3curl2) is short for Uniform Resource Locator. URLs are
to files on the Internet what call numbers are to library books   they tell
you where to find the file. URLs also tell you what kind of file it is.


URLs give the file type, followed by its location, then its file name:

   type://site/directory/subdirectory/filename


Types:
   - http means the URL is for a WWW page.
   - gopher means the URL is for a gopher file
   - telnet means that the URL is for a telnet connection
   - ftp means the URL is for an ftp file
   - mailto means the URL opens an email window so you can send mail to the
     address provided. This is the only kind of URL that does not have 3//2
     after the colon.

   You see all five types of URLs in the World Wide Web, and most Web
   browsers can handle all five.

Location:
   Location starts with the site (sometimes including a server name), then
   the directory, then any subdirectories.

File name:
   The file name is the last part of the URL. It may or may not include a
   file extension.


Example 1:

   http://www.csn.net/VeloNews/toursite/home.html

   - http means the file is a World Wide Web file
   - www is the server name
   - csn.net is the site
   - the file is in the VeloNews directory
   - in the toursite subdirectory
   - the file name is home.html


Example 2:

   gopher://gopher.teleport.com/11/portland/museums/pam

   - gopher means the file is a gopher file
   - gopher is the server name
   - teleport.com is the site
   - the file is in the 11 directory
   - in the portland subdirectory
   - in the museums subdirectory
   - the file name is pam


Example 3 (with thanks to rain -at- teleport -dot- com, who doesn't know I just made
him famous):

   ftp://ftp.teleport.com/pub/users/rain/pagan/symbols.txt

   - ftp means the file is an ftp file
   - ftp is the server name
   - teleport.com is the site
   - the file is in the pub directory
   - in the users subdirectory
   - in the rain subdirectory
   - in the pagan subdirectory
   - the file name is symbols.txt



I hope this helps.

This post is modified from the Web chapters of three of Teleport's
manuals, and therefore is copyrighted to Teleport Inc.

Sarah
--
docs -at- teleport -dot- com
sarah -at- teleport -dot- com