Internet idiot help! http:// and http://www ?

just_thrifty

Could someone tell me the difference between a site which is "http://", like MSE, and one that also has "www" in it? Sorry if this is a really stupid question, but I'm an internet dummie!

Tried googling to find out, so now know what http stands for, but that's it!

MercilessKiller

It's all to do with DNS. (Domain Name Service). What DNS does is translate a URL (http://..........) into an ip address..

For example... if you just type 216.239.59.104 into your address bar. You'll get http://www.google.co.uk

First of all "http" is the protocol that's used for the web. That HAS to be at the start of every single URL. So let's ignore that from now on.

google.co.uk and https://www.google.co.uk go to the same place, because google, who bought https://www.google.co.uk has set up their page to allow incoming traffic from just google.co.uk. In other words, the owner buys something.co.uk or something.com for example, but it depends how they set it up

gaming_guy

http: hypertext transport protocoil

there isnt any difference between sites that have http://www or www or even http://[websiteaddress]. for example, you should be able to access mse by using any of the 3 links below
http://moneysavingexpert.com/
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/
www.moneysavingexpert.com/

MercilessKiller

^^ though www.moneysavingexpert.com auto puts the http in

Notice some sites use https:// too. That simply means they're using a secure encrypted channel... Banks for example use https.

just_thrifty

Thank you MK & gg, think I've got it now. The http is always there, but the www is there if the owner of the site sets it up to include that? Thanks too, MK, for the info on https. :-)

gaming_guy

just_thrifty wrote: »

Thank you MK & gg, think I've got it now. The http is always there, but the www is there if the owner of the site sets it up to include that? Thanks too, MK, for the info on https. :-)

it doesnt really matter, but i have come across a few sites that will only load if you put www infront of the website URL (uniform resource locator).

also, if you are interested, HTTP runs on port 80 and HTTPS runs on port 443

superscaper

gaming_guy wrote: »

also, if you are interested, HTTP runs on port 80 and HTTPS runs on port 443

Only by default, not always the case. We have sites that use different ports.

Conor_3

just_thrifty wrote: »

Could someone tell me the difference between a site which is "http://", like MSE, and one that also has "www" in it? Sorry if this is a really stupid question, but I'm an internet dummie!

Tried googling to find out, so now know what http stands for, but that's it!

http - hypertext transfer protocol.

What follows after the / tells the server you're contacting some more information.

www is generic. When you put in http://somewhere.com, most browsers insert the www. in the background or the server assumes it.

http://something.somewhere.com would tell the server that you are trying to access the "something" subdomain of the somewhere.com domain.

http://user:password@www.somewhere.com would provide the username and password to a password protected website or page.

Conor_3

just_thrifty wrote: »

Could someone tell me the difference between a site which is "http://", like MSE, and one that also has "www" in it? Sorry if this is a really stupid question, but I'm an internet dummie!

Tried googling to find out, so now know what http stands for, but that's it!

http - hypertext transfer protocol.

What follows after the / tells the server you're contacting some more information.

www is generic. When you put in http://somewhere.com, most browsers insert the www. in the background or the server assumes it.

http://something.somewhere.com would tell the server that you are trying to access the "something" subdomain of the somewhere.com domain.

http://user : password@www.somewhere.com would provide the username and password to a password protected website or page.

MercilessKiller

I prefered the version with the tongue smily Conor

samhale

However http://schoolsfl.com goes to the sun site, yet http://www.schoolsfl.com goes to the correct website?

Edit: It used to anyway... I don't know how it was possible though.