Uniform Resource Locator (URL)

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Resources on the Internet are accessed using an addressing scheme known as a uniform resource locator (URL).

• contains all the information necessary to identify and access an item
  • E.g., URL for an HTTP resource might contain the following elements:
    • protocol describes the access method or service type being used
    • host location is usually represented by a FQDN
      • not case-sensitive
      • host location can also be an IP address
      • IPv6 address must be enclosed in square brackets
    • file path specifies the directory and file name location of the resource (if required)
      • may or may not be case sensitive, depending on how the server is configured