(
Uniform
Resource
Identifier) The addressing technology for identifying resources on the Internet (or private intranet). The URI that is most widely known is the URL, which is the address of a Web page and technically an "HTTP URI." However, the Internet serves many functions (see below). See
HTTP,
URL and
URN.
There are more than 200 historical, permanent and provisional URI types, known as "schemes." Following are some of the major ones.
URI SCHEME
Prefix To gain access to
http: Web server
https: secure Web server
ftp: file server
im: instant messaging
itms: iTunes streaming
news: Usenet newsgroups
nntp: Usenet newsgroups
mailto: send email (SMTP)
imap: IMAP mailbox
pop: POP mailbox
sip: voice over IP (VoIP)
sips: secure VoIP
h323: H.323 videoconference
ldap: directory request
telnet: run program
nfs: network file system
wais: WAIS server
gopher: Gopher server
file: local file on host
ipfs: decentralized storage