A domain name address typically consists of several parts.  For example, the

alphanumeric URL http://www.paed.uscourts.gov/documents/opinions can be broken

down into three parts.  The first part is the transfer protocol the computer will use in

accessing the content (e.g.,  http  for Hypertext Transfer Protocol); next is the name of

the host server on which the information is stored (e.g., www.paed.uscourts.gov); and

then the name of the particular file or directory on that server (e.g., /documents/opinions).

A single Web page may be associated with more than one URL.  For example, the

URLs http://www.newyorktimes.com and http://www.nytimes.com will both take the user

to the 

New York Times

 home page.  The topmost directory in a Web site is often referred

to as that Web site's root directory or root URL.  For example, in

http://www.paed.uscourts.gov/documents, the root URL is http://www.paed.uscourts.gov. 

There may be hundreds or thousands of pages under a single root URL, or there may be

one or only a few.

There are a number of Web hosting companies that maintain Web sites for other

businesses and individuals, which can lead to vast amounts of diverse content being

located at the same IP address.  Hosting services are offered either for a fee, or in some

cases, for free, allowing any individual with Internet access to create a Web site.  Some

hosting services are provided through the process of  IP based hosting,  where each

domain name is assigned a unique IP number.  For example, www.baseball.com might

map to the IP address  10.3.5.9  and www.XXX.com might map to the IP address

 10.0.42.5.   Other hosting services are provided through the process of  name based

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