Q.Briefly explain the different parts of an internet address.

An internet address (URL) is a structured pointer that tells the browser which protocol to use, which computer (host) to contact, in which organisation's domain it belongs, and which specific file is wanted.

[!ANSWER]

An internet address (URL) is made up of these parts: the scheme/protocol (such as http or ftp) that says how the resource is to be fetched; the host name, which identifies the specific computer or service (e.g. www.google.com, with 'google' being the host such as iisc, bsnl or google); the domain, which identifies the type of organisation — .com (commercial company), .edu (educational institution), .net (ISP) and country codes such as .in, .uk, .us; and the file name, which names the specific resource (e.g. index.html). Example: http://www.google.com/index.html.

[!TLDR]

A URL has a scheme (protocol), a host name, a domain (.com/.edu/.net/country code) and a file name identifying the specific resource.

Every resource on the internet has a unique address called the Universal Resource Locator (URL). Unlike a plain IP address, which only gives the location of a computer, a URL specifies the location, the protocol and the specific resource wanted. Its parts are:

1. Scheme / protocol: the first part (for example http or ftp) tells how the resource is to be accessed. In http://www.google.com/index.html the protocol is 'http'.

2. Host name: this identifies the particular computer or service on the network — for example a service provider, search engine or organisation such as iisc, bsnl, google or facebook. In the example, 'www.google.com' is the host name.

3. Domain: the last part of the host name identifies the type of organisation. Common domains are: .com for a commercial company, .edu for an educational institution, .net for an internet service provider, and country codes such as .in (India), .uk (United Kingdom) and .us (United States).

4. File name / specific resource: this names the exact file or page wanted on that host — for example 'index.html' in the example address.

Put together, http://www.google.com/index.html means: use the http protocol to fetch the file index.html from the host www.google.com.

[!ANSWER]

The parts of an internet address (URL) are: the scheme/protocol (e.g. http, ftp) telling how to access the resource; the host name identifying the specific computer or service (e.g. www.google.com); the domain showing the organisation type — .com (commercial), .edu (educational), .net (ISP) and country codes such as .in/.uk/.us; and the file name naming the specific resource (e.g. index.html) — as in http://www.google.com/index.html.

[!NOTE] The textbook's corrigendum corrects this question's printed wording.