# To WWW or not to WWW, that is the question.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-www-or-not-to-www-that-is-the-question/132700
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [October 17, 2002, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-www-or-not-to-www-that-is-the-question/132700 "2002-10-17T17:56:35Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2002, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-www-or-not-to-www-that-is-the-question/132700/1 "2002-10-17T17:56:35Z")
As we all know, most websites can now be reached by simply typing in “whateverthenameofthesiteisdotcom.”
Occasionally though, I find I still have to type WWW. Now, it’s not a problem, really. It doesn’t take that much more time to type the w’s, but I’m just wondering why? Are those websites on older servers? Does the server have anything to do with how the site is recognized? I’m sure somebody out here has the answer.
---
### Author:  [@MC\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MC_E)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2002, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-www-or-not-to-www-that-is-the-question/132700/2 "2002-10-17T18:10:28Z")
Whoever controls the DNS record for the “whatever” domain has simply set the same IP address for “whateverdotcom” and “wwwdotwhateverdotcom”. You could add a host record for “photopatdotwhateverdotcom” and point it to a functioning web server and people would still be able to reach it with a browser. In other words, the “www” is irrelevant and is just put there by convention, it can be replaced by anything or simply left off if desired (by the DNS administrator for the domain in question). As long as the address you publish is the same as the DNS record, it will work.
Now, some web browsers have the “feature” to automatically prepend a “www.” if the typed address is not found, but that’s another story.
MC$E
---
### Author:  [@scotth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotth)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2002, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-www-or-not-to-www-that-is-the-question/132700/3 "2002-10-17T18:18:33Z")
It is dns dependent.
if [www.domain.com](http://www.domain.com) and [domain.com](http://domain.com) point to the same ip it works.
---
### Author:  [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2002, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-www-or-not-to-www-that-is-the-question/132700/4 "2002-10-17T18:41:28Z")
Gotcha, I think. So, where are the hamsters in my computer?
---
### Author:  [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2002, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-www-or-not-to-www-that-is-the-question/132700/5 "2002-10-17T18:43:48Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by photopat \*
> \*\*So, where are the hamsters in my computer? \*\*
Near the magic smoke, somewhere around the philogestrion.
---
### Author:  [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2002, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-www-or-not-to-www-that-is-the-question/132700/6 "2002-10-17T19:05:57Z")
I think it’s mostly a historic thing.
In the early days of the internet, the domain name [foo.com](http://foo.com), say, would be registered to a particular organisation, and different servers would then have different prefixes, e.g. FTP server at [ftp.foo.com](http://ftp.foo.com), mail server at [mail.foo.com](http://mail.foo.com), WWW server at [www.foo.com](http://www.foo.com).
Nowadays, when we think “internet” we normally think “WWW”, so the www tends to be implied. Generally speaking, if you just type [foo.com](http://foo.com) into your web browser, the browser is smart enough to add the “www.” part itself, if it needs to. In this way, [foo.com](http://foo.com) will work even if the DNS entry for [foo.com](http://foo.com) does not point to [www.foo.com](http://www.foo.com).
However, many sites (including this board), don’t have the www prefix. Try going to [www.boards.straightdope.com](http://www.boards.straightdope.com) and you’ll be SOOL.
---
### Author:  [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2002, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-www-or-not-to-www-that-is-the-question/132700/7 "2002-10-17T19:45:57Z")
www. is the name of the server on which the site is hosted.
Most [domain.com](http://domain.com) addresses are set as default to [www.domain.com](http://www.domain.com), as explained. This is a convention. [domain.com](http://domain.com) can be made to default to any other server as well.
Take the example of [straightdope.com](http://straightdope.com)
[straightdope.com](http://straightdope.com) defaults to [www.straightdope.com](http://www.straightdope.com)
Whereas, [boards.straightdope.com](http://boards.straightdope.com) is another server within the [straightdope.com](http://straightdope.com) domain.
It would be possible to default [straightdope.com](http://straightdope.com) to [boards.straightdope.com](http://boards.straightdope.com) if the admins so desired. In this case, to reach the main homepage of [straightdope.com](http://straightdope.com) you would have to prefix it with www. So the www. prefix is only a convention, and generally the primary server for a given domain.
---
### Author:  [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2002, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-www-or-not-to-www-that-is-the-question/132700/8 "2002-10-17T20:32:28Z")
addendum: sometimes [prefix.domain.com](http://prefix.domain.com) is just a sub-domain pointer to a subdirectory on the same server, not necessarily a pointer to a different server. Not relevant to this discussion, but just incase my previous answer seemed misleading.
---
### Author:  [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2002, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-www-or-not-to-www-that-is-the-question/132700/9 "2002-10-18T13:45:08Z")
Remember, too … there used to be [gopher.someserver.com](http://gopher.someserver.com), [telnet.someserver.com](http://telnet.someserver.com), [irc.someserver.com](http://irc.someserver.com). Back in the good 'ol days, when the Web wasn’t so dominant, it was important to distinguish between the different services and protocols in a domain name.
---
### Author:  [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2002, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-www-or-not-to-www-that-is-the-question/132700/10 "2002-10-18T14:42:12Z")
Too much information…head expanding…blood rushing away from critical organs…can’t form complete sentences…aaak! Kryptonite!