URL: URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator.
"What's that?" you ask.
Short answer -- the thing near the top of your monitor
screen (gray bar with a white window, says "Address,"
then http://www.oakridgewebdesigns.com/techtalk.htm.
It does say that doesn't it? It should if you're looking at this page.
When you go to another page, it will say something else.
If you want the long answer, here it is, straight from
W3C.org, the world organization concerned about that kind of thing. They
say:
"The World Wide Web may be defined as the
universal, all-encompassing space containing all Internet resources
referenced by Uniform Resource Identifier (URI)...
Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs, aka URLs) are
short strings that identify resources in the web: documents, images,
downloadable files, services, electronic mailboxes, and other
resources. They make resources available under a variety of naming
schemes and access methods such as HTTP, FTP, and Internet mail
addressable in the same simple way. They reduce the tedium of
"log in to this server, then issue this magic command ..."
down to a single click."
(You can read a lot more about URLs/URIs at http://www.w3.org/Addressing/Activity.)
Clear enough? Doesn't matter. No quiz. Nap's over. Move
along. Let's tackle the rest of the list.
DOMAIN NAMES, DNS, and IP: Another section talks
about selecting your domain name, so if you
read that, you probably think domain names are names. They are, but they
are also numbers.
"Huh?" you say.
Right. Domain names direct website visitors to a server
(the computer on which your website files reside that serves them us to
the world). Every server is assigned a number, referred to as the
"IP" address. The IP address is a string of numbers --
xx.xx.xxx.xxx. On registration, each domain name is assigned a set of
"Domain Name Servers" (DNS) that have unique IP numbers, which
tell computers around the world the IP address of the server where the
domain name resides.
Until you move your domain name from the registrar to a
web host, it is usually assigned the registrar's name server (the
registrar is the company you bought the domain name from). They will
often give you one of those "under construction" pages until
you move your websites files to a host server. When you move it, you (or
your webmaster) will have to tell the old server the IP address of the
new name server (NS) by updating the registrar's database with the
hosting company's identity so the site can be found on the Internet.
If we design your website and load it to a hosting
account, we will handle the IP/NS changes for you. We'll also submit
your site to the major search engines.
Email info@oakridgewebdesigns.com
if you have questions.
URL, DNS, IP,
domains --
what does it all mean?