WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE URL?

[whyme1]

look at this site. http://slowdowndundas.org and this one. http://www.slowdowndundas.org

the same name only difference is the "www" part, why is it like this? also, if i type this url, www.al-ex.net, it wokrs, but if i type al-ex.net it says "Page not found"

Anyone know why this is?

 

[daniel1113]

It has to do with the way the server is setup, specifically the DNS settings.

If the webmaster doesn't set it up correctly, you will either get a different page, or just an error.

 

[AFB]

Originally posted by: daniel1113
It has to do with the way the server is setup, specifically the DNS settings.

If the webmaster doesn't set it up correctly, you will either get a different page, or just an error.

Yes, some point domain.com to www.domain.com.

 

[nakedfrog]

Yeah, that bugs me, because I rarely type the "www" these days.

 

[HonkeyDonk]

control enter

 

[Anubis]

ha mine works both ways

 

[kkeennyy]

Originally posted by: daniel1113
If the webmaster doesn't set it up correctly, .

"correctly"? It is often by design. I reserve WWW host to educate people about the pointlessness of WWW prefixes, but then I also use mod_rewrite to enlighten people about their IE spyware infections, too.

 

[Chronoshock]

Yup, DNS settings. All the addresses do is point you to an IP so whether www.___.____ or ___.___ point you to the same thing is up to the settings

 

[kkeennyy]

there is no requirement for www.domain.com to be a CNAME for domain.com

 

[daveshel]

DNS issue.

 

[Chompman]

Isn't www2 suppose to come out also or did they scrap that idea?

 

[daniel1113]

Originally posted by: kkeennyy

Originally posted by: daniel1113
If the webmaster doesn't set it up correctly, .

"correctly"? It is often by design. I reserve WWW host to educate people about the pointlessness of WWW prefixes, but then I also use mod_rewrite to enlighten people about their IE spyware infections, too.

Great... I hope you don't lose any potential visitors.

 

[Adul]

Originally posted by: Chompman
Isn't www2 suppose to come out also or did they scrap that idea?

WWW is just a sub damain really.

I could assign WWW343534 if I wanted to

 

[Garion]

OK, perhaps a bit more explanation is in order...

Background: DNS is a fairly simple thing - It's a system that maps hostnames ("www.foo.com") into IP addresses (192.168.222.35). Your computer actually communicates to other machines on the Internet via IP address, not it's hostname. Think of DNS as an Internet phone book - You look up someone's name in the phone book and it gives you back their phone number. You then use that number to contact them.

A hostname is just something easy for us to remember. When you punch in "www.foo.com" in your browser, your computer goes and looks it up on it's DNS name, finds it's IP address, connects to that address and does it's business.

"www" is just a acronym for "World Wide Web". It's just a convention to name web servers. There's nothing saying that you have to have it. There's lots of web servers out there that DON'T start with "www", like "search.yahoo.com".

Using the domain name as a hostname ("foo.com") is a bit different on the back end, but, for the most part, can be treated like any other name. It's not necessarily tied to the www.foo.com, it can be something totally different.

So, it's really not a DNS problem - It's just someone who hasn't taken the time to aim "foo.com" to "www.foo.com" as a shortcut, or someone who is using "foo.com" for something other than web services.

I could go a lot deeper (i.e. host headers on web servers in hosting sites, etc.) but hopefully you get the idea.

- G