Re: TECH: Netscape - Handy URL keystroke hints

[Gabriel Gancarz <gancarz@ALEXIA.LIS.UIUC.EDU>]

> You wrote:

> >The only reason so many URLs have "www" in them is mostly because it's
> >fashionable...
>
> a coorespondent tells me this is not so:

I guess I've learned something.

I now know the real reason some "www" sites will work without the "www"
in their URLs.  For example, typing "alexia.lis.uiuc.edu" will do the same
thing as "www.lis.uiuc.edu".

Thank you for the correct explanation, and my apologies to the group for
my misinformation.

On Sat, 25 Jan 1997, Duncan Grey wrote:

> You wrote:
> >The only reason so many URLs have "www" in them is mostly because it's
> >>fashionable...
>
> a coorespondent tells me this is not so:
> "It will only work like this if the machine(s) listening to the IP address
> of the actual domain name (eg cnn.com) are running an HTTP server.
>
> In the case of CNN www.cnn.com is simply an alias for cnn.com, ie. their
> web server is running on those machines (cnn.com has 5 IPs).
>
> There is nothing to stop the site administrator moving the HTTP server
> onto a different machine. If they do this and don't redirect accesses
> to cnn.com to the new machine, you will be greeted with a message like
> "Cannot connect to host".
>
> This is the reason many sites will give you a URL of www.site.com. They
> are then free to move the web server between different machines and just
> change the alias for www so it points to the new machine. If you use the
> URL they give you, then the change of machines will be completely transparent
> to you. If you don't, there's a good chance it won't!
>
> As an example, try accessing the St. Vincent College web server as
> stvincent.ac.uk - you won't get anywhere as I haven't actually given
> stvincent.ac.uk an IP address.
>
> www.stvincent.ac.uk is an alias for raven.stvincent.ac.uk, which has IP
> address 194.73.244.233. At the moment you could use any of these for
> accessing our web site, but if we move the web server onto another
> machine www.stvincent.ac.uk is the only one of these which will continue
> to work."
>
> But I dare say it's worth a go anyway!
> Best wishes
> Duncan
>
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> _/ Duncan Grey, Head of Resources | Duncan.Grey@a4503.camcnty.gov.uk  _/
> _/          Hinchingbrooke School, Huntingdon  UK  PE18 6BN           _/
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