Since I have the latest IE whoknowswhat, I faithfully plugged, into the address bar bankofgreatshakes.com. Nada. I called the bank and she asked me if I went to www.etc… I told clerk “Of course…no wait a minute…” My instincts told me that something was up, so I typed in www.etc…, and the site came right up.
What’s this, then? I can type in an address, and it goes to the internet. If I type in a www.address, it goes to the WWW. Can you explain this?
It’s nameserver protocol, and has to do with the way the server maps the IP address (that sequence of numbers separated by dots that is the actual network address on the internet) to the human-recognizable address. WWW may or may not be necessary, depending on how the bank, in this case, has mapped the IP. Many (most?) sites actually map their internet addresses for access either with or without the “www”, but it’s neither necessary nor mandatory at this point. So while “http://wikipedia.org/” and “http://www.wikipedia.org/” will take you to the same place, apparently The Bank of Great Shakes mapped www.bankofgreatshakes.com, but not bankofgreatshakes.com.
This is all greatly simplified, but that’s the gist, I believe. Undoubtedly there are dopers with more sophisticated knowledge who can clarify further, and in much more detail.
As Just Ed explained, it could be a DNS issue. It could also be a problem with the web server itself. Both yourbank.com and www.yourbank.com could point to the same IP address. The computer that lives at that IP address looks at your incoming request and figures out what page to send back. I’ve encountered setups where only the www version of the request gets the correct page while the yourbank.com request gets a generic page.
If trying to load yourbank.com gave you some kind of “Can’t find the server message”, then it’s a nameserver configuration problem. If you got some page back but not the one you were expecting (and also not a search page like I think IE takes you to) then it’s probably a web server configuration problem.
Actually, I was also trying to point out it might not be an error at all, and www is simply not an integral part of an internet address. There’s no www in your address bar right now, and as a matter of fact, www.boards.straightdope.com/ won’t get you anywhere.
Yes, the point is that within a domain such as bankofgreatshakes.com, the administrators can specify any host names they like, for web servers, mail servers, whatever kind of server. People commonly use “www” for web servers, but that is just a convention. Also, administrators commonly configure things so that using no host name at all directs you to the web server. Apparently the OP’s bank does not do that.
Mind you if you start using Google Chrome you can type any old junk in the meta search address bar and the right address will be on the drop down. I am sure bankofgreatshakes will be enough and once it becomes a site you use regularly the letter b will bring it up.
Hmm, I can’t help wondering whether, if IE automatically prefixed the “www.” and no other browser did, people would criticise IE for directing you to a site that you didn’t necessarily intend to go to. It’s debatable whether the auto-prefix thing is good design. You can already do Ctrl-Enter to save typing the www part.
shijinn, no, the entire domain (bankofgreatshakes.com) belongs to the bank, and they have to alter their DNS server (through their registrar, or through their IT department if they handle it in-house) for every new subdomain.
