[thelist] www prefix is it necessary?

Bob Haroche spambait at onpointsolutions.com
Mon Jan 24 16:12:17 CST 2005


The www part of www.domain.com is an Internet custom to tell the world that
the box that acts as a webserver can be found using the www "prefix".
Similarly, it's customary to use ftp.domain.com to tell the world that the
ftp server can be found using the ftp "prefix".   It's not required, and in
fact you could set up a server to host pages located at xyz.domain.com if
you liked. It's all a matter of how the web server and dns server for the
domain is configured. Note that Amazon.com can be found by typing
wwww.amazon.com (that's 4 w's).

Some browsers, like IE, will add automatically prepend the www to a URL if
the site can't be found without it.

If you manage your own servers, I recommend that you keep the www
configuration, even if you don't promote in writing/talking because most
people expect to find a website by using the www prefix.


-------------
Regards,
Bob Haroche
O n P o i n t  S o l u t i o n s
www.OnPointSolutions.com





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