A URL, or Uniform Resource Locater, is an address for a specific document of a specific type on a specific machine on the internet. You've seen a million examples, more or less of the form:
"http://" means Hyper Text Transfer Protocol - it specifies the type or kind of document you are trying to locate (a web page). More specifically, it specifies how the identified file should be transfered and interpreted. If you've downloaded documents or files from the web, you may have noticed a slightly different type of url, say ftp://ftp.yahoo.com/ -- this means you're looking to use the File Transfer Protocol.
The second part of the address is the domain name (neil.verplank.org). Technically, "verplank.org" is the domain, and the "www" or "neil" part is a sub-domain - sometimes you'll see sites that have many sub-domains (eg groups.yahoo.com, games.yahoo, weather.yahoo.com, etc). The last part of the url is the path within the domain to a specific directory and document. For instance,
says go to the domain, look in the classes folder, then in the build folder, and get the 5-sitecreation.htm document. When you see only the shorter version (/classes/build/), there is an *implicit* page specified, usually "index.htm" or "index.html." Thus, these two addresses are equivalent (they point to the same thing):
Domain names have numbers associated with them, sometimes you'll see the actual numbers in the browser location window. The numbers are IP or Internet Protocol numbers, and look like this: 207.229.143.3. It's the same relationship as a person has to a phone: Neil Verplank = 312.555.1212 and neil.verplank.org = 64.81.145.64. Also, you've probably noticed that domains have extensions, of the form .com, .edu, .org, .gov, .mil, and now a host of others. These usually specify the type of domain you're looking at: .com means commercial, .edu means a university or school, .org means not-for-profit, etc.
So, in order to have a website, you must have a URL. A URL is not the same as a domain name. Continuing the telephone analogy, a URL is similar to a phone extension - it points to a specific page within a domain. You *can* have your own domain, but you don't have to. In either case, what you have to do is pay an ISP to host your website for you. The two cases might look like this:
There are two reasons why you might want your own domain. The first is professionalism - you look more like a business when you have your own domain; obviously this is strictly subjective. The second reason is that when you register a domain, you've leased that domain for as long as you want to pay for it, and can put your website wherever you want.
A bit more explanation: since all of you are on the internet, you must be paying an ISP for access to the web. Most ISP's provide you with a free web page, something like the second example above - you get a user page within the domain of the ISP you use. You might all want to check with your particular ISP to see if this is true - if you've got a free website coming, it's a good place to experiment for this class, even if you think you'll want your own domain at some point. However, if you ever switch your ISP, or if they go out of business or get bought, you will probably lose your URL (your personal site). This is not true if you've registered your own domain; even if the company hosting your domain goes away, you can set your website up with another ISP, and still keep your domain name.
It comes back to the telephone analogy - if you're using a personal page at your ISP, then you effectively have an extension on the "phone" network of your ISP - if they decide to change things, or go away or get bought, you could lose your "extension," since it's subject to their system. If you have your own domain name, you will associate it with a specific set of numbers that point to your ISP (your ISP will do this for you most likely). So if your ISP goes away, you can point your domain name at a different set of numbers (on a different ISP), and your domain will still work.
So, the bottom line is that you need a place to put your website, and you can either use the free user website address that your ISP probably provides, or you can pay to have your own domain name. If you want your own domain, you simply have to get on line and register an available name. I recommend http://www.register.com/. Right in the middle of the page, type in the domain you think you think you want to see if it's available. You'll probably want a dot-com domain. Also, you'll have to be creative, because an awful lot of domains have already been registered - every word in the english language, and probably every last name have already been taken. You should type only the domain part in the form, and check the domain extension. In other words, don't type "www.aklimley.com," rather type "aklimley" and check the .com box to see if your name is available (I notice that aklimley.com *is* available!). From there, just follow the instructions, and you can register your domain.
Important note: registering your domain and signing up for web hosting are not the same thing. Register.com (and netsol.com, and others) primarily server as internet registrars - they have giant servers that keep track of 1) who registered a domain, 2) the domain itself, and 3) the IP numbers of that domain (what machine on the internet the site can be found on). In other words, if you wanted to, you could pay register.com to actually register your name, and pay your present ISP to host your domain. You can also pay register.com to register your domain *and* host your website - this is certainly the easiest route, but those two things are separate and you do have a choice. You can also (most likely) pay your present ISP to register a domain name for you, and then of course to host this website on your behalf, and let them take care of the details.
Another important note: when you register a domain, you must provide your email address. This email address becomes a matter of public record - if you type in "verplank.org" at register.com, it will tell you the domain is "taken." If you click on the work "taken," you can see who registered the domain, and their email. Sadly, this fact is exploited by spammers worldwide, so registering a domain can produce unwanted spam. Having your ISP register your name for you can potentially prevent this, as they can use their email to register the domain, and keep your email off the public record, but of course there's a fee involved (usually around $75 to register a domain).
As you can see at register.com, there are a number of benefits to using them - they can submit your site to search engines, and a number of other options, including email forwarding. If you're email is name@someisp.com, and you register a domain, you will then also be able to get a new email, such as yourname@yourdomain.com. If you don't want to check to email boxes, you can have mail to yourname@yourdomain.com forwarded to name@someisp.com, and all your mail will come to one place (which is nice).
Finally, there is the issue of money - if you're paying an ISP to have access to the web, you may as I've said already have a free website coming. Registering a domain typically costs $20-$40 per year, and hosting a domain typically costs $15-$30 per month (above your ISP costs, which simply give you access to the 'net). One final benefit to having your own domain is that ISPS (and register.com is an ISP as well as an internet registrar) usually provide access to a number of services as part of the deal. One example would be the "formmail" script - this is what I use I my sites in lieu of posting my email on the web - you click on a button, you get a form, you fill out the form, and it is emailed to you behind the scenes (see my contact page as an example).
And I should mention that your website that you're building now is independent of where you put it. That is, whether your site address winds up being www.aklimley.com or www.yahoo.com/groups/users/~aklimley or whatever has no bearing on the site itself. The URL you get is simply the address of the site.
So, check with your ISP to see if you have a free site, and check with register.com to see if the domain you want is available, and one way or the other, make certain you have a place to put your website when you're all done.