Off Topic: whats "www2"?

Sorry if this is off-topic, didn't know where else to ask.

But I have seen/ been referred to a www2.domain.com instead of
www.domainname.com. Whats the difference?

Does it use different message routing or something?

TIA

On Sun, 12 Mar 2006 13:50:58 -0000, in uk.telecom.broadband , "Jack"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Sorry if this is off-topic, didn't know where else to ask.
>
>But I have seen/ been referred to a www2.domain.com instead of
>www.domainname.com. Whats the difference?

Nothing at all.

The website's human-readable name is only there for our convenience.
It maps onto an IP address. Its this address which is important. You
can call your website anything you like, the www is totally optional,
though conventionally used to distinguish webservers from mailservers
and other servers.

Mark McIntyre
--

"Jack" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
news:(E-Mail Removed):

> But I have seen/ been referred to a www2.domain.com instead of
> www.domainname.com. Whats the difference?

Nothing, its just a different hostname. You could easily have something
like shop.domain.com.

Chances are it probably means that your being sent to a different server.
www.domain.com will point to one server and www2.domain.com will be a
different server for handling that bit. It'll all begin with http:// which
is what tells you the protocol being used.

--
Colin
*Drop DEAD from the email address to reply*

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Mark McIntyre <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> On Sun, 12 Mar 2006 13:50:58 -0000, in uk.telecom.broadband , "Jack"
> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> Sorry if this is off-topic, didn't know where else to ask.
>>
>> But I have seen/ been referred to a www2.domain.com instead of
>> www.domainname.com. Whats the difference?
>
> Nothing at all.
>
> The website's human-readable name is only there for our convenience.
> It maps onto an IP address. Its this address which is important. You
> can call your website anything you like, the www is totally optional,
> though conventionally used to distinguish webservers from mailservers
> and other servers.
>
> Mark McIntyre

Just to clarify, lest anyone gets the impression that they're
interchangeable . . .

DNS servers still need to know what symbolic address you've *actually*
chosen - otherwise they won't be able to resolve it into an IP address. For
example, if I have a site at www.joe_bloggs.com but put www2.joe_bloggs.com
into my browser's address field, it won't find my site.
--
Cheers,
Roger
______
Please reply to newsgroup.
Reply address IS valid, but is disposable in the event of excessive
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In message <Xns978499DE8BEC3cwfidei@84.92.1.12>, cw
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote
>"Jack" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
>news:(E-Mail Removed) :
>
>> But I have seen/ been referred to a www2.domain.com instead of
>> www.domainname.com. Whats the difference?
>
>Nothing, its just a different hostname. You could easily have something
>like shop.domain.com.
>

Example

<http://rswww.com>

--
Alan
news2006 {at} amac {dot} f2s {dot} com

"Jack" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Sorry if this is off-topic, didn't know where else to ask.
>
> But I have seen/ been referred to a www2.domain.com instead of
> www.domainname.com. Whats the difference?

It's a way of diguising scam sites eg: www2.paypal.com, www2.ebay.com

The true address is an IP number which is sometimes visible in your browser
and sometimes not.

If an address is anything different from what you think it should be, don't
click on the link.

(kim)

On Sun, 12 Mar 2006 17:19:16 UTC, "kim" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> "Jack" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> > Sorry if this is off-topic, didn't know where else to ask.
> >
> > But I have seen/ been referred to a www2.domain.com instead of
> > www.domainname.com. Whats the difference?
>
> It's a way of diguising scam sites eg: www2.paypal.com, www2.ebay.com

No, it's not. Your so-called 'scam' examples would still be resolved by
the DNS servers for paypal.com and ebay.com. Ergo, they can't be used
for a scam.

The correct answer has already been given.

--
[ 7'ism - a condition by which the sufferer experiences an inability
to give concise answers, express reasoned argument or opinion.
Usually accompanied by silly noises and gestures - incurable, early
euthanasia recommended. ]

"Roger Mills (aka Tiscali Tim)" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote in message news:(E-Mail Removed)
> In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
> Mark McIntyre <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> > On Sun, 12 Mar 2006 13:50:58 -0000, in
> > uk.telecom.broadband , "Jack" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> >
> > > Sorry if this is off-topic, didn't know where else to
> > > ask. But I have seen/ been referred to a www2.domain.com
> > > instead of www.domainname.com. Whats the difference?
> >
> > Nothing at all.
> >
> > The website's human-readable name is only there for our
> > convenience. It maps onto an IP address. Its this
> > address which is important. You can call your website
> > anything you like, the www is totally optional, though
> > conventionally used to distinguish webservers from
> > mailservers and other servers. Mark McIntyre
>
> Just to clarify, lest anyone gets the impression that
> they're interchangeable . . .
>
> DNS servers still need to know what symbolic address
> you've *actually* chosen - otherwise they won't be able
> to resolve it into an IP address. For example, if I have
> a site at www.joe_bloggs.com but put www2.joe_bloggs.com
> into my browser's address field, it won't find my site.

Nor is it guaranteed to find it if you just enter joe.bloggs.com - some
sites need the www and some don't. My own site won't work without the www
but others will.

Ivor

On 12 Mar 2006 15:53, Alan <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> cw <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote

>>Nothing, its just a different hostname. You could easily have something
>>like shop.domain.com.

Yes, I wish the banks would make better use of sub-domains like that to
have few opportunities for customer confusion - could easily have things
like loans.bank.com and savings.bank.com, etc, without needing to use the
extra domains (like halifax-online.co.uk) which allow domain squatting,
and for attempts to get customer data by setting up *similar* names.

Getting common for some to drop the "www" prefix (bbcnews.com, bbc.co.uk/...
and cnn.com because it takes time to say/read, perhaps!)

Usual for example.com and www.example.com to end up on same server, but
neither is guaranteed. www.nominet.org.uk works but nominet.org.uk won't
work. http://linux.vfm-domains.com/ works, but won't work as just that
domain name, or with the www. prefix means that spammers don't visit a
website, and junk mail to vfm-domains.com is just rejected, yet email
to (E-Mail Removed) will work... I used 'linux' as a
word other than 'www' 'web' 'support' but (almost) anything will do
in place, if one wants to set things up that way.


>Example
>
><http://rswww.com>

Not exactly useful... I suspect RS decided to go for that because there
are restrictions on 2-letter .uk domain names, and rs.com was registered
back in 1991, presumably by some US firm (Rocket Software uses it now).

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Bob Eager <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>>
>> It's a way of diguising scam sites eg: www2.paypal.com, www2.ebay.com
>
> No, it's not. Your so-called 'scam' examples would still be resolved
> by the DNS servers for paypal.com and ebay.com. Ergo, they can't be
> used for a scam.
>
Not true, I'm afraid. Try PINGing www.paypal.com and then www2.paypal.com

The first resolves to an IP address (even though the ping itself times out)
but the second doesn't.
--
Cheers,
Roger
______
Please reply to newsgroup.
Reply address IS valid, but is disposable in the event of excessive
spam.