URL

Definitions for teachers by teachers

URL

URL
Uniform Resource Locator (formerly Universal Resource Locator) The global address of documents and other resources on the World Wide Web. This Internet address tells a browser where to find an Internet resource. The URL contains four distinct parts, the protocol type (or scheme), the machine name, the directory path and the file name. Examples of various schemes are "http", "gopher", "ftp", and "news". The scheme tells you or the application using the URL what type of resource you are trying to reach and/or what mechanism to use to obtain that resource. For example, the two URLs below point to two different files at the domain pcwebopedia.com. The first specifies an executable file that should be fetched using the FTP protocol; the second specifies a Web page that should be fetched using the HTTP protocol:

ftp://www.pcwebopedia.com/stuff.exe
http://www.pcwebopedia.com/index.html

HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is the Internet protocol specifically designed for use with the World Wide Web, and thus will be the most common scheme you are likely to use. Its syntax is:

http://<host>:<port>/<path>?<searchpart>

The host is the Internet address of the WWW server, and the port is the port number to connect to. In most cases, the port can be omitted (along with the preceding colon), and it defaults to the standard "80". The path tells the WWW server which file you want, and if omitted, indicates that you want the "home page" for the system. The searchpart may be used to pass information to the server, often to an executable CGI script, but for most WWW documents is not used. Generally, this part of the URL is omitted, along with the preceding question mark.

For example: http://www.springfield.k12.il.us/schools/Iles/explorer/index.html
The first part of the address (http://) indicates what protocol to use, the second part (www.springfield.k12.il.us) specifies the IP address or the domain name where the resource is located, and the last part (/schools/Iles/explorer/index.html) gives the directory path to the particular file (index.html).

Another character that may be frequently encountered when browsing the WWW is the pound sign (#), which can be used to point to a named anchor. An author of an HTML document can allow browsers to point to a specific section of a document by creating a named anchor within that document. Then, a URL with a pound sign and the anchor's name at the end will take you directly to that specific section. An example of this would be http://lrs.ed.uiuc.edu/students/madkins/AdkinsPortfolio.html#e-mail

What this means to you: A URL is what you type into the Netscape space marked "Location". It is the address of the website you want to see.

For more information see A Guide to URLs

by Margie Adkins

URL

(Uniform Resource Locator) -- The standard way to give the address of any resource on the Internet that is part of the World Wide Web (WWW). A URL looks like this:

http://www.leyhs.w-cook.k12.il.us/home/leyden.htm
or telnet://well.sf.ca.us
or news:new.newusers.questions
etc.

The most common way to use a URL is to enter into a WWW browser program, such as Netscape, or Internet Explorer.

by Brian Weinert

NetHandbook Glossary | NetHandbook Home page

Last updated: 31 July 2000