I have a simple question which may be naive, but am still gonna ask it anyways-
When I try opening a website with this URL : www.oyc.yale.edu
It doesn't open, however if I open it by removing www from the URL oyc.yale.edu,
it opens up.
Isn't www supposed to prefixed before every URL ? Also, what about http ?
Can some one care to explain ?
the www you see on many URLs is in-fact an optional subdomain. Subdomains (separated.by.dots) may point to a different address than their parent domain, or they may not be defined by the admin. If an admin doesn't define the subdomain www to be anything then www.oyc.yale.edu is the same as somerandomwords.oyc.yale.edu. Further, www doesn't have to point to the same server as the parent domain, so www.oyc.yale.edu doesn't have to deliver the same content as oyc.yale.edu, in the same way that oyc.yale.edu doesn't deliver the same content as yale.edu or www.yale.edu. That they do is simply a courtesy and tradition.
As for HTTP, that's optional in a browser these days. HTTP stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol. A Protocol is a defined way that computers talk to each other. There are actually a number of protocols on the internet, and the HTTP just tells your browser which one the server uses. Another common protocol on the internet is FTP, File Transfer Protocol. Your browser can understand both. Try going to ftp://ftp.microsoft.com to try it out.