Domain with www. or without?

One of those things that's been niggling at the back of my brain for ages ...

Why can you access some sites with just domain.co.uk e.g. bbc.co.uk and with others you have to use www.novatech.co.uk - I assume it's something to do with the way they are registered?

For example, if you type argos.co.uk it isn't found, but if you type www.argos.co.uk it does.

Is it just to do how they were originally set up

I have domain names registered and they can be accessed with or without www.

I appreciate it's technically http:// etc but web browsers have come on a long way since then - Hmm, can you remember when BBC TV used to read out http:// ..... what a mouth full

Just curious, when most companies just promote domain.co.uk

[Bifta]

I'm probably completely wrong, but isn't "www" the hostname (a bit like "forum" in forum.nthellworld.co.uk) and wouldn't it be down to the web server configuration as to whether you could access www.domainname.com using just domainname.com?

[Tricky]

Normally you can access your domain name via either method but it all comes down to DNS records. You would normally have an A record for WWW which would point at the same location as DOMAIN.COM, which in theory is looking for a machine called WWW in your DOMAIN.COM or a SUBDOMAIN as used on I-WEB or any other CPANEL site. Therefore forum is a subdomain of .cableforum.co.uk

If you look at www.dyndns.org they explain the wildcard approach a little better I.e. *.domain.com

Like tricky says - it's down to how the dns records are set up.

For instance, cableforum has a dns record for "cableforum.co.uk" pointing to our ip address, and then a CNAME record (which is like an alias) for "www.cableforum.co.uk" pointing to "cableforum.co.uk". Therefore either will work.

[Caspar]

I onced read an article somewhere about this common concern, tho as Bifta.Tricky/Pem are correct...a simple reason is that Web Hosts are lazy if they can't be bothered setting up your domain for you!

My suggestion is to find a webhost that do allow you to reference your domain fully!... (such as I-Web, http://i-websolutions.co.uk)

[Richard M]

Actually Cas, the hosts are being helpful.
The vast majority of users are not that experienced and assume that the "www." is part of the domain name.
That's why I strip out the "www." from the client login form on my webdev site when it's submitted.
Try pressing "login" on the link below and see what it changes to:
http://clients.phpfuture.net/?user=www.cableforum.co.uk

[ntl customer]

Why can you access some sites with just domain.co.uk e.g. bbc.co.uk and with others you have to use www.novatech.co.uk - I assume it's something to do with the way they are registered?

You couldn't access any pages using the bbc.co.uk/sitename address up until recently because it would just redirect to the www.bbc.co.uk homepage.

Apparently this was because bbc.co.uk was a gateway to the email and they had to do something about it as people were trying to access it all the time and got a error page, so they stuck up a 'dummy' BBC homepage that just redirected to the www.bbc.co.uk site.

Even now, when you type in bbc.co.uk/sitename it redirects to www.bbc.co.uk/sitename - it has been fixed recently because the BBC have dropped the BBCi brand and have rebranded their website to bbc.co.uk.

AIUI most browsers these days assume http:// and www. in front of domain names anyway, so you don't have to type them in.

Certainly Netscape 7 does that.

[Richard M]

It will only put the "www." in front if it can't find the domain (and try .com at the end).
Most of the time you are just seeing the webserver redirect you, which happens every time you enter a domain name without the trailing slash, e.g. bbc.co.uk instead of the correct way: bbc.co.uk/

All,

Thanks for the various replies on this subject and technical info.

I am still surprised that some companies don't get on to their web provider to ensure it does work without www.

I mean, Argos HAS to have www.argos.co.uk to work - it's hard to believe in this day and age, regardless of any technical reason.

Companies promote 'snappy' easy to remember addresses: bbc.co.uk but then Argos (and until recently PC World) you have to put www - I wonder how many interenet newbies are put off by this and wonder what they are doing wrong.

Again, thanks for all the feedback.

When I become Prime- Minister, I shall make it law that you don't need to type www

Originally Posted by mikelownds

When I become Prime- Minister, I shall make it law that you don't need to type www

Lets hope you never become PM then. There is no requirement, or need, to use a www. prefix all the time.