Internet Tips and Tools

Anatomy of a URL

The Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is a standardized naming address for documents and media available on the internet. It is commonly refered to as the internet address or "web address."

 Common Document Types:

Common Domain Name Suffixes:

See "ISO 3166 Country Codes" for a list of country domain name suffixes.

Troubleshooting a Bad URL

Frequently you will come across a message indicating that a URL is invalid. The standard message for an incorrect URL is: Error 404, Not Found. This message indicates that you have successfully connected to a server, but the specific page requested can not be located. This may be due to a URL which has been incorrectly typed, the page having been relocated on the server, or the page having been removed from the server. First, check the URL. Be sure it contains a domain name (eg. www.logisticsworld.com), and has single slashes between any directories and file names (eg. www.logisticsworld.com/contact.asp). A URL should not contain any spaces or commas.

If you suspect that the page has been relocated or has been removed from the website you may still be able to visit the main website by modifying the URL. For example, suppose the following URL returned a 404 error message:

http://www.logisticsworld.com/logistics/tutorial.htm

You might try this to attempt to access the directory in which the file was shown to reside:

http://www.logisticsworld.com/logistics/

If this is unsuccessful, you may go a step further and attempt to access the main website by entering the domain name alone:

http://www.logisticsworld.com/

Other error messages may occur which indicate a problem connecting with the web server such as: "a connection with the web server could not be established" or "unable to locate the host." These messages can result when the server is offline (perhaps for maintenance), if you have a poor internet connection, if the domain name (eg. the "logisticsworld.com" portion of the URL) is no longer valid, or if the URL has been typed incorrectly. If you verify that the URL has been entered correctly, you may try accessing the website again in case there was a temporary problem with the server or a poor network connection. You may even wait a day or so and try the address again. If the problem persists then the server may no longer be active, the domain name may be invalid, or the URL is incorrect.

LogisticsWorld