People say "the internet" and "the web" as if they were the same thing. They are not: one is the hardware that carries data around the world, the other is the pages and websites you reach through it. Learn the difference, and how a URL names exactly one page.
The internet is the infrastructure: a worldwide network of interconnected networks, made of computers, routers, cables and wireless links. The world wide web (WWW) is the collection of websites and web pages that are accessed using the internet. A uniform resource locator (URL) is a text-based address for a web page; it can contain the protocol, the domain name and the web page or file name.
Fig. 1: the three parts of a URL
Section 01
Internet or web?
Think of the internet as the road network and the web as one kind of traffic that uses the roads. Email, online games and video calls also travel over the internet, but they are not part of the web.
Content: web pages written in HTML, images, videos, files
Relationship
Carries the web, plus email, file transfer, games and more
Is accessed using the internet, through a web browser
Protocols
Uses protocols such as TCP/IP to move data
Uses HTTP and HTTPS to transfer web pages
Examiner trap
"The web is the internet" or "the internet is a website" earns nothing. Use the key words: the internet is the infrastructure; the web is the collection of web pages accessed using the internet.
Section 02
What a URL is.
Every web server has a numeric IP address, but people cannot easily remember numbers like 93.184.216.34. A URL gives a web page a text-based address instead. In the lab, choose a URL and watch it split into its parts.
Protocol: the set of rules used to transfer the page, e.g. http:// or https://.
Domain name: identifies the web server that holds the page, e.g. www.example.com. It often ends in a top-level domain such as .com, .org or .uk.
Web page / file name: the path to the particular page or file on that server, e.g. /shop/boots.html.
Worked example Split a URL
Identify the parts of https://www.riverside-school.org/sports/fixtures.html
The protocol comes first, before the colon and two slashes: https.
The domain name runs up to the next single slash: www.riverside-school.org.
Everything after that is the path and file name: /sports/fixtures.html.
Answer: Protocol https; domain name www.riverside-school.org; file name /sports/fixtures.html
Your turn
In the URL http://news.example.co.uk/world/today.html, what is the domain name?
news.example.co.uk (the protocol is http and the page is /world/today.html)
Stage 1 · Learn
Check what the sim just showed you
Four quick checks. Each correct answer earns XP and records this skill on your profile.
Quick check+10 XP
Which statement best describes the internet?
Quick check+10 XP
In the URL https://www.shop.com/sale.html, which part is the domain name?
Quick check+10 XP
Which of these is part of the world wide web rather than the internet's infrastructure?
Quick check+10 XP
In the lab, what does the protocol part of a URL tell the browser?
Section 03
Why use names?
A URL is for people; computers on the internet are found by IP address. Something has to translate between the two, which is the job of the domain name server (DNS), covered in a later lesson.
Easy to remember: a domain name such as bbc.co.uk is far easier to recall and type than an IP address.
Can stay the same: if a website moves to a server with a different IP address, its URL does not have to change.
Exact: the file name part points to one specific page or file, not just the website's home page.
Examiner trap
A URL is not the same as an IP address. A URL is text-based; the IP address is the numeric address of the server, found using the DNS.
Stage 2 · Exam
Exam-style questions
Unlocks once the four checks above are done. Worth more XP, written to IGCSE Paper 1 standard.
Finish the four checks above to unlock the exam questions
Exam style+20 XP
Which statement about the internet and the world wide web is correct?
Exam style+20 XP
What is a URL?
Exam style+20 XP
Which part of http://www.games.net/levels/one.html is the web page file name?
Exam style+20 XP
Which service uses the internet but is not part of the world wide web?
Skill unlocked
The internet, the web and URLs, mastered.
This skill is now recorded on your profile. Keep the chain going.