What you need to know about Internet addresses

An Internet or Web address (sometimes called a URL, or Uniform Resource Locator) typically is composed of four parts:

A protocol name (a protocol is a set of rules and standards that enable computers to exchange information)
The location of the site
The name of the organization that maintains the site
A suffix that identifies the kind of organization it is (such as .com for a commercial organization)

For example, the address http://www.yale.edu/ provides the following information:

http:	This Web server uses Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).
www	This site is on the World Wide Web.
yale	The Web server is at Yale University.
.edu	This is an educational institution.

When you are viewing a Web page, the page's address appears in the Address bar in Internet Explorer.