More about URLs

Here is the URL format, again:

Protocol://Host/Path

The path is relative to a root directory that the host computer has designated to be the start of all Web page path names. For example, on the computer that hosts these pages, the root directory is:

C:/InetPub/WWWRoot

With the following URL:

http://chortle.ccsu.edu/java5/Notes/AppendixA/htmlPart2_14.html

the host will look for the following file on its hard drive:

C:/InetPub/WWWRoot/java5/Notes/AppendixA/htmlPart2_14.html

Note: URLs use the Unix-style forward slash (/). Microsoft operating systems use the backward slash (/). URLs are uniform across all operating systems, so always use the forward slash.

Usually the root directory contains a home page that is called something like default.html or index.html. If a URL does not include a path, then the host will send the home page. For example:

http://chortle.ccsu.edu

implicitly asks for the file default.html.