Web Pages, Web Addresses, and Web Sites

The most basic part of the Web is a single Web page. Web pages can include text and graphics, as well as forms that you fill out, music, audio, video, and animation. Web pages are connected to each other via hypertext , a system that allows you to jump from any page to any other page or file, simply by clicking on a hyperlink (or link ). What's in a link? Well, any number of things can be in there, but most important is the Web address of the page it's linked to.

When you click that link your browser sends out a request for the page. Internet routers then look at the address to determine which Web server to send the request to, and then forward it on. Routers work a lot like the different levels of a postal system—deciding whether to deliver a letter to a local address, or forward it to another post office.

Once the Web server on the appropriate host computer receives the request, it looks at the Web address again to see which file has been requested. If the Web server can't find the file, it sends back an error message (most likely a "404"). So as you can see, on the Web, if it doesn't have an address it doesn't exist.

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