Tip Sheets

Using the Internet

Understanding the web site address

Every Web page, and every document on the Web has a unique address (URL). An example of a typical web site address is http://www.schoolnet.org.za/news/pr/index.htm

Let's have a closer look:

http://	www.	school	za	news	pr	index.htm
protocol	web server name (can be left out sometimes)	organisation name (SchoolNet in this case)	country	folder	sub-folder	file name
	server | domain | name			file and folders on the server

Protocol
Indicates which convention a browser will use to access the Net. http stands for a Web site, ftp for FTP sites, gopher for gopher sites and file for a file on your computer.

Server Domain Name
Typically refers to a physical machine. In URLs for Web sites, this portion usually, but not always, begins with www.

Folder
This part points to specific folders on the Web server where a document is stored. Forward slashes are used to separate directories.

File name
This refers to an HTML document (a document written especially for the Web) and it typically ends in .htm or .html