Weird www address thingie

[Greyd]

I always thought that

www.nameofwebsite.com

was the same thing as typing in

nameofwebsite.com

But apparently some websites will direct you to totally different websites? Heh? Please explain, I'm confused.

 

[child of wonder]

nameofwebsite.com is the domain of the website. the "www" part is what's called an "a" record. when you go to www.nameofsite.com that site's dns server will point you to the ip of the name "www" for nameofsite.com. however, one can set the ip for just nameofsite.com to be different.

 

[DnetMHZ]

Most sites point nameofwebsite.com and www.nameofwebsite.com to the same place for convenience but it's not mandatory.

 

[Greyd]

so....I'm assuming the same person is doing this for both? Or would they be two separate people?

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: child of wonder
nameofwebsite.com is the domain of the website. the "www" part is what's called an "a" record. when you go to www.nameofsite.com that site's dns server will point you to the ip of the name "www" for nameofsite.com. however, one can set the ip for just nameofsite.com to be different.

yep. That's why technically your supposed to use www. And redirect domain.com to www.domain.com.

 

[drinkmorejava]

The simplest way of putting it: www is just like a normal subdomain such as mysite.nameofwebsite.com. The owner can set it to forward to whatever they want. Although, personally I think they're absolute idiots of they both don't go to the same thing.

However, following proper convention like other people have said, the main site should be held under www.nameofwebsite.com and nameofwebsite should use a redirect to www.

 

[Greyd]

cool thanks guys

 

[Shawn]

what the hell is the point of www anyway?

 

[intogamer]

Originally posted by: Shawn
what the hell is the point of www anyway?

teh world wide webz

 

[SVT Cobra]

and with FF at least the default feature is

if you type in:

nameofsite

without any .com or www you will get the most viewed page on that site unless the site has it set differently.

 

[SVT Cobra]

Originally posted by: Shawn
what the hell is the point of www anyway?

www1.

www2.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: Shawn
what the hell is the point of www anyway?

Because generally when you access a remote system over a network, you access a host, not a domain.

 

[dullard]

They are not the same thing.

John Smith isn't the same thing as Smith. While they often are the same person, they don't have to be.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: child of wonder
nameofwebsite.com is the domain of the website. the "www" part is what's called an "a" record. when you go to www.nameofsite.com that site's dns server will point you to the ip of the name "www" for nameofsite.com. however, one can set the ip for just nameofsite.com to be different.

yep. That's why technically your supposed to use www. And redirect domain.com to www.domain.com.

I think you and I would have similar views on these retards.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: child of wonder
nameofwebsite.com is the domain of the website. the "www" part is what's called an "a" record. when you go to www.nameofsite.com that site's dns server will point you to the ip of the name "www" for nameofsite.com. however, one can set the ip for just nameofsite.com to be different.

yep. That's why technically your supposed to use www. And redirect domain.com to www.domain.com.

I think you and I would have similar views on these retards.

You just got a trout slap for making me click that link.

*SLAP*

 

[child of wonder]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: child of wonder
nameofwebsite.com is the domain of the website. the "www" part is what's called an "a" record. when you go to www.nameofsite.com that site's dns server will point you to the ip of the name "www" for nameofsite.com. however, one can set the ip for just nameofsite.com to be different.

yep. That's why technically your supposed to use www. And redirect domain.com to www.domain.com.

Or since my server has only one public IP but multiple domains, I use ServerAlias in Apache2 for name based virtual hosting.

ServerName www.domain.com
ServerAlias domain.com

 

[Pepsi90919]

Originally posted by: Shawn
what the hell is the point of www anyway?

to access the world wide web server at the specified domain, and not the IRC server, the mail server, the gopher server, or any other host.

 

[playstation3]

you got sent down the wrong tube.

 

[us3rnotfound]

Originally posted by: playstation3
you got sent down the wrong tube.

Best explanation yet :laugh:

 

[Schfifty Five]

Originally posted by: dullard
They are not the same thing.

John Smith isn't the same thing as Smith. While they often are the same person, they don't have to be.

wow, gee, you sure explained a lot :roll:

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: Schfifty Five

Originally posted by: dullard
They are not the same thing.

John Smith isn't the same thing as Smith. While they often are the same person, they don't have to be.

wow, gee, you sure explained a lot :roll:

He explained it perfectly.

The domain name can be likened to a family name. The first name is the specific identifier of a particular host.

Another analogy is USPS. The domain name is the city.

www.howdydoodyhood.ky.40222.subdomain.US.com. is a perfectly normal DNS name. It could even be a domain in itself and an actual host could be www.www.howdydoodyhood...

Well you get the picture.