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Go Here: http://www1.w3schools.com/css/css_reference_atoz.asp

Why does the website URL begin with http://www1 rather than http://www?

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2 Answers

up vote 4 down vote accepted

It happens that they've enabled wildcard DNS, and will serve up requests to subdomains named, well anything at all. No, really. Anything at all.

http://anything-at-all--no-really--anything-at-all.w3schools.com/css/css_reference_atoz.asp

What, you doubted?

Long, long ago, serving up the same content on multiple subdomains named "www#" was a cheap and simple load balancing technique. Each domain would correspond to a physical server. It fell out of common practice with the advent of sane reverse proxies and simplified virtual hosting technologies.

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WOW ! I tried whatthehell.w3schools.com/css/css_reference_atoz.asp and it opened the same page. I am so shocked that I am going to have another cup of coffee. Other try, areyouserious.w3schools.com/css/css_reference_atoz.asp and you-just-scared-the-hell-out-of-me.w3schools.com/css/… . – Chris May 30 '11 at 5:16
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Is it applicatable to all sites? – Chris May 30 '11 at 5:19
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The technique requires two bits of configuration. First, a wildcard DNS entry for the domain, as noted in my first link. Second, it requires server software that can handle arbitrary domain names. The easiest way to accomplish that (that I know of) would be using Apache's VirtualHost directives to set up a "default" virtual domain for a specific IP address. Normally the "default" virtual domain is what you see when there's no other domain configured on the IP address in question, but it can easily be used/abused for this purpose. Because it requires configuration, not all sites can do this. – Charles May 30 '11 at 7:09
Excellent, Thank you! Everything makes sense now! – Web_Designer Jun 1 '11 at 3:11
up vote 4 down vote

www and www1 are just subdomains of w3schools.com. There is no difference between a www and a www1 subdomain. You are wondering why it's www1 since typically the web uses www, but it makes no difference. It could be abc.w3schools.com with the same results. Determining the actual reason w3schools used www1 there would be a waste of time.

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