The second generation of web browsers iirc iiuc would put www in front
of a hope-this-is-a-url you didn't have www in front of.

So I assumed you could not have two sites, www.whatever and whatever,
and that you certainly couldn't have what I found today:

Yet today I found ecoxgear.com that is a real site, but
www.ecoxgear.com cannot be found.

Is this an error, a malfunction, or is it normal?

micky wrote:
> The second generation of web browsers iirc iiuc would put www in front
> of a hope-this-is-a-url you didn't have www in front of.
>
> So I assumed you could not have two sites, www.whatever and whatever,
> and that you certainly couldn't have what I found today:
>
> Yet today I found ecoxgear.com that is a real site, but
> www.ecoxgear.com cannot be found.
>
> Is this an error, a malfunction, or is it normal?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wide_Web#WWW_prefix

On Sun, 24 Sep 2023 15:00:14 -0400, micky wrote:

> The second generation of web browsers iirc iiuc would put www in front
> of a hope-this-is-a-url you didn't have www in front of.

Browsers would put www in front of example.com _only_ when the site
example.com could not be found. If you typed example.com and the
browser found the site example.com, the browser would _not_ do this.

> So I assumed you could not have two sites, www.whatever and whatever,
> and that you certainly couldn't have what I found today:

Wrong assumption.

> Yet today I found ecoxgear.com that is a real site, but
> www.ecoxgear.com cannot be found.
>
> Is this an error, a malfunction, or is it normal?

Nothing is wrong with this.

--
Kind regards
Ralph Fox
🦊

micky,

> Yet today I found ecoxgear.com that is a real site,
> but www.ecoxgear.com cannot be found.
> Is this an error, a malfunction, or is it normal?

Its absolutily normal.

The "ecoxgear.com" URL is the main URL/website, with "wWw.ecoxgear.com"
being one of possibly many sub-URL/-websites below it. You could also have
"images.ecoxgear.com", "content.ecoxgear.com", or any other
sub-URL/-website.

Where in 'ye olden days' the main site URL was normally never in use but the
"www" sub-URL/-website was, nowerdays websites are often dropping the "www"
sub-URL/-website and use the main one.

tl;dr:
The "www" prefix does not have any special meaning. It can be left out, or
any other name can be used in its place.

Regards,
Rudy Wieser

> .... It can be left out, or any other name can be used in its place.

By the person who manages the website (not the visitor!)

Regards,
Rudy Wieser

micky <NONONOmisc07@fmguy.com> wrote:

>The second generation of web browsers iirc iiuc would put www in front
>of a hope-this-is-a-url you didn't have www in front of.

>So I assumed you could not have two sites, www.whatever and whatever,
>and that you certainly couldn't have what I found today:

>Yet today I found ecoxgear.com that is a real site, but
>www.ecoxgear.com cannot be found.

>Is this an error, a malfunction, or is it normal?

The Web site is not obliged to use the www host. This simply had to do
with a very old style of administering a network, with separate physical
machines performing one major function, like naming the host the file
server lived on "ftp". The naming style has persisted even though these
separate physical hosts are unlikely to exist.

On my tiny Web sites, the www host cannot be found either.

fwiw, I've set the browser NOT to retry with www. I'd rather see the
error message.

On Sun, 24 Sep 2023 15:00:14 -0400, micky wrote:
> So I assumed you could not have two sites, www.whatever and whatever,
> and that you certainly couldn't have what I found today:

That has never been true, and as you discovered is not true today.

Webmasters who want www to be optional -- most of them, thankfully --
either use server code that redirects www.example.com to example.com
or vice versa, just as they use server code that redirects http: to
https:.

Possibly the first can also be done by having identical DNS records
for example.com and www.example.com, but that's just a guess. I know
that I had to make the mapping explicit on my host's server.
--
Stan Brown, Tehachapi, California, USA https://BrownMath.com/
Shikata ga nai...

micky <NONONOmisc07@fmguy.com> wrote:

> The second generation of web browsers iirc iiuc would put www in front
> of a hope-this-is-a-url you didn't have www in front of.
>
> So I assumed you could not have two sites, www.whatever and whatever,
> and that you certainly couldn't have what I found today:
>
> Yet today I found ecoxgear.com that is a real site, but
> www.ecoxgear.com cannot be found.
>
> Is this an error, a malfunction, or is it normal?

There is no requirement to use www as the hostname for a web server.
Any hostname will work. Even the absence of a hostname is allowed if
the nameserver directs to one.

www was the old way of guessing. That was back when web site defaulted
to www as the hostname. It was a poor guess, but users couldn't figure
out how to enter www themselves, or whatever was the correct hostname.

www may not be defined at the nameserver for the host running the web
server. So, you adding www is invalid. They use a different hostname
for their web server.

nslookup ecoxgear.com --> returns an IP address from the nameserver
nslookup www.exogear.com --> not found

In fact, nslookup on www.domain.tld can return an IP address that is
different than an nslookup on domain.tld. A web server might be running
on one host, but not the other. The admin decides what IP address gets
returned from their nameserver, so they can point a domain to a host or
a hostname to a host. They can even allow ANY hostname, but fall
through to the same host. In fact, often a host runs many server
programs, like both web and ftp are on the same host. You would get the
same IP address for that one host for both functions, but each server
program listens on a different port. Humans want names. Computers
demand IP addresses.

There is no www hostname in their nameserver. You adding one is you
trying to use a host that isn't defined there. If you don't specify a
hostname then the default host gets used. Sysadmins may use www, but
they don't have to.

There is no mandatory requirement that a web server use the www
hostname. Your connection does go to a host, but its hostname is not
exposed by their nameserver. In fact, any hostname could be used, but
it could get ignored, so the same internal host always gets used.

www is not a standard. It is a tradition, and not a requirement.

In alt.comp.software.firefox, on Sun, 24 Sep 2023 21:20:03 +0200, Frank
Miller <miller@posteo.ee> wrote:

>micky wrote:
>> The second generation of web browsers iirc iiuc would put www in front
>> of a hope-this-is-a-url you didn't have www in front of.
>>
>> So I assumed you could not have two sites, www.whatever and whatever,
>> and that you certainly couldn't have what I found today:
>>
>> Yet today I found ecoxgear.com that is a real site, but
>> www.ecoxgear.com cannot be found.
>>
>> Is this an error, a malfunction, or is it normal?
>
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wide_Web#WWW_prefix

This addressed and answered every point I brought up in my post. Thanks
a lot

In alt.comp.software.firefox, on Mon, 25 Sep 2023 09:08:20 +1300, Ralph
Fox <-rf-nz-@-.invalid> wrote:

>On Sun, 24 Sep 2023 15:00:14 -0400, micky wrote:
>
>> The second generation of web browsers iirc iiuc would put www in front
>> of a hope-this-is-a-url you didn't have www in front of.
>
>Browsers would put www in front of example.com _only_ when the site
>example.com could not be found. If you typed example.com and the
>browser found the site example.com, the browser would _not_ do this.

Aha.
>
>
>> So I assumed you could not have two sites, www.whatever and whatever,
>> and that you certainly couldn't have what I found today:
>
>Wrong assumption.

Yes, I did assume.
>
>> Yet today I found ecoxgear.com that is a real site, but
>> www.ecoxgear.com cannot be found.
>>
>> Is this an error, a malfunction, or is it normal?
>
>Nothing is wrong with this.

Okay.

Thanks and thanks all. (Sorry it took me so long to reply.)

In alt.comp.software.firefox, on Sun, 24 Sep 2023 22:28:52 +0200,
"R.Wieser" <address@is.invalid> wrote:

>
>> .... It can be left out, or any other name can be used in its place.
>
>By the person who manages the website (not the visitor!)

LOL
>
>Regards,
>Rudy Wieser
>

micky,

>>> .... It can be left out, or any other name can be used in its place.
>>
>>By the person who manages the website (not the visitor!)
>
> LOL

To your (and my) common sense perhaps, but such "common sense" turns out not
to be all that common ... :-( :-)

The stories of how people have been (very crudely) cutting parts off of
video, sound, etc. cards or connectors "to make it fit" are aplenty. As
are the stories of people who's (desktop) computer or internet doesn't work,
only for the helpdesk to find out that the power in their home/street is
out, "but what has that to do with anything?".

(also see https://notalwaysright.com )

Regards,
Rudy Wieser