what is www2?

What is the difference between www & www2? I've seen sites that say www2, what does that mean?

I'm going to guess your talking about Internet 2. Internet 2 is basically a super fast network similar to the original 'Internet' and only Universities and Governments have access to it.

I believe that currently the fastest recorded rate of transfer is on the Internet 2.

But don't take my word on any of this, I'm just trying to recall facts from my head, go on google for more indepth and accurate information.

Isn't it subdomain name only ?

yeah it's just a sub-domain.. my guess is used for load-balancing, www, www1, www2, etc..

or for using diffrent servers i.e. server2 => www2.domain.com

We all know that “WWW” stands for World Wide Web, which is a kind of prefix before normal domain name. Web was created around 1990 in Geneva, Switzerland. But what is WWW1 or WWW2?


You must noticed www1 or www2 once in a while when you are visiting a website. WWW1, WWW2 or even WWW3 is nothing but a mirror of the original web server which is typical WWW. Many websites like government, banks even major search engines like Google(www1.google.com or www2.google.com) and Yahoo(www1.yahoo.com or www2.yahoo.com)! uses www1 and www2. The main purpose of this techniques is to reduce server load. Sometimes the original server need to be updated or modified but major websites like .gov, .edu, google.com, yahoo.com cannot just shut their main server down for hours to update their system. Therefore, they need to use www1 or www2 duplication of their mainframe server.

Sometimes this different servers used for the serving users based on their geographical location. Suppose, if someone type http://www.google.com form US, they might be taken to the original google server which means http://www.google.com but if someone type http://www.google.com from Africa, it might take them to www2.google.com or www1.google.com.

I was surprised that not a lot of information showed up in Google or Yahoo when i was searching for it. If you know more about WWW2 or WWW1 please feel free to share with everyone here by adding your comment at the bottom. I was wondering if there is any security issue behind this mirror web server policy?

quted from
http://blogsandbucks.com/what-is-www2-or-www1/

I never knew that and whilst I'm sure it's probably true I'm not totally convinced because it's such a crass way of dealing with the issue. That said I can't think of a reason why "www2" would exist publicly, especially within big firms. Load balancing and maintenance can be kept completely blind to users.

Anyway else heard of a 3rd/4th/5th reason

First Thing is that it is not sub domain.
It is used to reduce load, but it is also used to increase security of a website. Before people used www2, www1, www3, www6 for secured Connections but nowadays https and http6 connections are used, these connections are better and they encrypt the data that is being transferred, we can't say that https and http6 encryptions cannot be cracked, but they are much secured than www secure connections. Nowadays google and yahoo also use https connection which is Verisign Class 3 protection but still they do not use wildcard security as there is https connection only on Login items in Google and Yahoo. Many sites like expat job group network have shifted to www5 from http6. https system is more secure than http6 systems. Google has also taken the security(https system) from Thawte, INC. But then also it is easy for hackers to break the encryption and take the information. The person who knows how to create ssl can easily get into the encrypted files. Means the people of Thawte can easily hack google's website.

If you have any problem regarding anything, be free to contact me,

Regards,
Arun
Themegastar1 Owner