Finding the right web site
Just as we use postcodes and Zip codes to find houses in a particular area, the Internet requires a method of finding web sites. This is the domain naming system which is used to structure Uniform (universal) resource locators (URL) which is a web address used to locate a web page on a web server.
Web addresses are usually prefixed by ‘http://’ to denote the http protocol that is explained above. Web addresses always start with ‘http://’, so references to web sites in this book and in most promotional material from companies omits this part of the URL. Indeed, when using modern versions of web browsers, it is not necessary to type this in as part of the web page location since it is added automatically by the web browser. Although the vast majority of sites start with ‘www’, this is not universal, so it is necessary to specify this.
Web addresses are structured in a standard way as follows:
http://www.domain-name.extension/filename.html
Domain names
The domain name refers to the name of the web server and is usually selected to be the same as the name of the company and the extension will indicate its type. The extension is known as the global top level domain (gTLD). There are also some 250 country code top level domains (ccTLD).
Common gTLDs are:
• .com represents an international or American company such as http://www.travelagency.com
• .co.uk represents a company based in the UK such as http://www.thomascook.co.uk
• .ac.uk a UK based University or College (e.g. http://www.derby.ac.uk)
• .org.uk or .org are not for profit organisations (e.g. www.greenpeace.org)
• .net a network provider such as www.virgin.net
The ‘filename.html’ part of the web address refers to an individual web page, for example ‘products.html’ for a web page summarising a companies’ products. When a web address is typed in without a filename, for example www.bt.com, the browser automatically assumes the user is looking for the home page, that by convention is referred to as index.html. When creating sites, it is therefore vital to name the home page index.html. The file index.html can also be placed in sub-directories to ease access to information. For example, to access a support page a customer would type www.bt.com/support.
Note that gTLDs are continuously under review and in 2000 Icann, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (www.icann.org) granted seven new gTLDs. Available from June 2001 are .biz for business, .name to be used by individuals, .museum, .pro for professionals, .aero for aviation, .coop for co-operatives and .info. Some of the proposed gTLDs refused included ‘.sex’, ‘.shoes’, ‘.kids’ and ‘.xxx’. The introduction of these names, while increasing choice where .com names have already been assigned, may make finding the URL of a company more difficult – it may no longer be sufficient to take the name of the company and add ‘.com’. According to another view, existing companies such as Amazon will attempt to register with the new domain such as ‘.biz’ which will not help to increase the availability of gTLD names.
Domain name registration
If a company wants to establish a web presence they need to register a domain name that is unique to them. Domain names can be registered via an ISP or at more favourable rates direct from the domain name services:
1. InterNIC - www.internic.net
Registration and information about sites in the .com, .org and .net domains.
2. Nomination - www.nomination.uk.com
is an
alternative registration service for the UK, allowing you to register in the (uk.com)
pseudo-domain. (Also AlterNIC)
3. Nominet - www.nominet.org.uk
Main co.uk site
Network addresses are unique numbers based on an agreed standard, or protocol. This makes them easy for computers to deal with, take for example the numeric address
213.134.111.77…
this number sequence, following the standard format of 4 blocks of up to 3 numbers separated by a dot, identifies a specific computer on the Internet according to an agreed protocol. And is commonly known as an IP address, where IP stands for Internet Protocol.
4. Humans also need to know and use network addresses, and IP numbers like the previous example are not easy for us to remember. So network addresses can also be names such as
www.edxcel………
As you would expect, names and numbers have to correlate to each other and website address above corresponds to the above the previous IP numeric address ie.
www.edxcel………= 213.134.111.77…