URL is an abbreviation of Uniform Resource Locator, the global address of documents and other resources on the World Wide Web.
The first part of the address indicates what protocol to use. The second part specifies the IP address or the Domain Name where the resource is located. If using a Domain Name, a Third suffix is used, called the Actual Domain. A port number can also be used.
A URL can be any one of the following:
- http://www.microsoft.com:8080
- http://www.google.com/test.html
- https://www.paypal.com
- ftp://www.testserver/pub/application.exe
- telnet://www.nasa.gov
- svn://www.svn.reactos.com
- file:///C:/Windows/System32/Test.txt
The first 2 use the HTTP protocol. The third uses HTTPS, and the fourth uses FTP. The next two, Telnet and SVN are designed to be used by 2 different applications. The last one, uses the Mozilla/Netscape format for accessing local files on a PC.