| In early 1990s when web pages have become popular | | | | least one IP address. Therefore "domain. com" and |
| every website was in the form of "www. domain. | | | | "www. domain. com" are different domains and each |
| com". WWW became a synonym for the world wide | | | | has its own IP address which can be the same. We |
| web. Whenever you see a text in the form of "www. | | | | may have various services associated with our |
| domain. com" you immediately know that this is a web | | | | domain like FTP or private access area. In such case it |
| address. But is www mandatory for web address? | | | | makes sense to assign each service to its own third |
| The purpose of domains is to have some | | | | level sub-domain. One of the services could be web |
| easy-to-remember names. These names translate to | | | | pages at www sub-domain. But having the www |
| IP addresses which are needed to communicate over | | | | domain is not mandatory. You could have your main |
| the internet. The domains as we use them in the | | | | domain pointing to your website. It is the perception of |
| internet business are organized in a hierarchical naming | | | | the people that each web address should start with |
| system. We have a few general-purpose top domains | | | | WWW. |
| like com, org, net, country top level domains like us, uk, | | | | Majority of the domains have no other service than |
| de (each country has its own unique top level domain), | | | | web pages. Therefore you don't have to use www |
| and special top level domains like mobi, aero, museum | | | | for your website. But it makes sense to create and |
| and others. Each of theses top domain has a second | | | | configure www sub domain and redirect it to your |
| level of domain names where you can have anything | | | | primary domain. This way you will not loose visitors |
| you like (of course, if it is not registered yet). Each | | | | which will type www in front of your domain. It is also |
| domain name must be unique and not longer than 63 | | | | possible to do the other way--to redirect non-www |
| characters. | | | | address to www address. For this you need to |
| The level of domains doesn't stop there. Each second | | | | configure DNS records also for www domain and to |
| level domain can have any name as a third level of | | | | check with your website how to do redirection there. |
| domain. WWW is such an example. Every domain | | | | Usually it can be done with.htaccess file. |
| (regardless of the level) must be associated with at | | | | |