Posts Tagged ‘web host’
Without a domain, websites are specified by an IP address. An IP address is an identifier that is used by computers to determine the location of a web server or website. However, for humans, an IP address, which is written in a numerical form, can be difficult to read. This is why domain names were invented. With a domain, a human can visit a web site through more user-friendly words or phrases. While a domain can include digits, they usually do not make up all of it, like what is seen with an IP address.
In terms of format, domain names have several parts. The first part is known as the protocol. The protocol lets the browser know what the domain is going to point to. The protocol is often ‘http’, which means the browser can expect to locate a hypertext document. In layman’s terms this means a web page. In the rare cases the URL is not ‘http’; it may be ‘ftp’ instead’, which means file transfer protocol. A webmaster would opt to use ftp if they would like visitors to download files from their server.
The second part of the domain name will be the subdomain. An example is “www,” which stands for “World Wide Web.” If a website consists of more than one server, the subdomain helps to identify the specific server to connect to.