converting internet addresses

[Lee_Shackelford at dot.ca.gov]

Dear BSD enthusiast,
     Greetings.  I am a newcomer to the BSD/Unix world.  On Wednesday, a
message was posted on FreeBSD-Announce by Mr. Nik Clayton announcing the
creation of a wiki site for the upcoming BSD convention.  He gave the
address as follows:  "http://bsdcon.kwiki.org/".  In attempting to contact
the site, I assumed that the omission of "www" from the address was a
typographical error.  So I pointed my web browser at "
http://www.bsdcon.kwiki.org".  The page that was delivered was a site for
posting shareware written in ruby language, and did not seem to resemble
the site described by Mr. Clayton.  I re-entered the address exactly as
spelled in the announcement, without "www", and received the correct page.
My question is this:  "What is the difference between what I am telling the
DNS server and outgoing gateway router to do when I enter into my browser
address box 'http://www.bsdcon.kwiki.org' and when I enter into my browser
address box 'http://bsdcon.kwiki.org'?"  My place of employment is a large
agency with thousands of client machines.  Most of the clients use
Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional operating system.  Most of the servers
use either Novell operating system, or I.B.M. Domino operating system. Many
thanks for your assistance.  Yours truly, Lee Shackelford