E-Mail to the Editor
Is the www. necessary?
We had a couple of readers explain why on some servers http://domain.com doesn't necessarily take you to http://www.domain.com. Strap on your seat belts and be prepared for some pretty technical explanations from a couple of our German readers:
Klaus Johannes Rusch explains:
"There are a few good reasons for this:
"Caching: having the site accessible as www.domain.com and domain.com means that chances increase a client will fetch a page from your server rather than from a cache along the network (with transparent proxy caches taking off this year, this means wasting a lot of bandwidth). While more hits may be attractive for small to medium size sites it certainly is not for very large sites. One way to resolve this is configure a separate server for domain.com only to redirect traffic to www.domain.com, thus getting both the benefit of ease of use and good caching, with all content coming off www.domain.com.
"DNS: Larger sites may have a high TTL for the domain but lower TTLs for individual subdomains to reduce traffic on the nameserver, this again impacts the ability to change domain.com quickly if needed while it does not affect www.domain.com. I personally favor the www host names since they clearly indicate the type of service to expect, much the same way ftp servers are usually named ftp.domain.com, not just domain.com. Also browsers (Netscape 4 at least) look for www.domain.com when you type domain, rather than domain.com." -- Klaus Johannes Rusch (KlausRusch@atmedia.net)
Franz Weninger writes:
"The reason is that the 'www' represents the name of the computer running the www server, whereas the 'xxx.com' is the domain (=a group of computers). If there is no entrance in the DNS table for a _default_ webserver you will get the mentioned error back, as the DNS server is not able to resolve the address. Once there is a default www server configured you will be directed to this server if you just type a domain name without a computer name in the address box of your browser." -- Franz Weninger (fw@top-com.com)
Amazon Shoppers
Just wanted to let you know how much I enjoy your e-mail newsletter. Now that I know you make money on Amazon.com click throughs for purchases, every time I buy I will access Amazon.com thru your site so you can make a little on the transaction. I am in the process of putting up an office furniture site and find your info invaluable. Thanks again. -- Larry Michel, Corporate Liquidators.com, Houston, Texas.
Editor: Thanks, Larry. I appreciate you starting your book shopping at our site. Every little bit helps.
ISSN Number
How does one obtain the ISSN number on an e-mail newsletter? What is the ISSN number? -- Mayra Ruiz
Editor: ISSN stands for International Standard Serial Number. A "serial" is a publication like a newspaper or magazine that is "issued as one of a consecutively numbered and indefinitely continued series" (Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 10th edition, p. 1069.)
To receive an ISSN number you apply to the US Library of Congress at http://lcweb.loc.gov/issn/ Special information and criteria for registering electronic publications such as e-zines can be found at http://lcweb.loc.gov/issn/e-serials.html
