The URL comprises two parts, the protocol and the name (this may not be the standard terminology). The protocol is usually one of the following:
ftp://
http://
These stand for File Transfer Protocol and HyperText Transfer Protocl. The protocol for web pages is HTTP and this is the default protocol if none is typed in.
The next part is the HOSTNAME. The hostname is something like:
The hostname has a DOMAIN NAME, which is of the form a.b, where b is usually something like "com", "org", "net", or "gov" in the US. The b part can be lots of different names for different countries, also. (These names are controlled and registered by the Internet Naming Authority).
So, in the example above, the domain name is vermontdatabase.com. A domain name refers to a domain, which is a set of related internet addresses
John Elkins (john@vermontdatabase.com) 21 Sep 2001