what is this wvw domain?

[Sant_Singh_Rath]

Hi Everyone,

Recently I came up with an URL where wvw is used instead of www. Any idea about this as this is something new to me. I also wanted to understand what are the pros and cons of using it.

Really appreciate your time.

Thanks,

Sant

[Amit_Jain]

Hi Sant,

It's a subdomains. Even WWW is a subdomains. WWW is traditionally used to indicate that this domain is available in the web and disgusting that from domains like FTP. Now a days most of the marketers use naked domain as it is snappy, looks better on promotional material, and most brands don’t want something as important as their domain name cluttered with unnecessary and unrelated letters.

So WvW and WWW both are actually sub-domain on the root domain.

[Sant_Singh_Rath]

Thanks Amit Jain.. So it means there will be no consequences even if we are using wvw or naked domain?

[SanfordWhiteman]

Certainly there will be consequences if the zone apex (the more traditional DNS name for the "naked domain") doesn't point to the same server as this wvw and/or if the server is not set up to answer requests for both hostnames.

But if a request for either one goes to the same place, you can use them interchangeably.

[Sant_Singh_Rath]

Thanks Sanford.. Your answer is very helpful..  

[Tony_Mayse]

Hi Sant Singh Rathaur !

Good Advice

Amit is right on the nose with the advice that wvw is just another subdomain. You're probably familiar with configuring CNAMEs for use with Marketo which is one way subdomains can be created. A Marketo customer could, in fact, use wvw as a CNAME in hopes that their site visitors won't notice the difference and maybe you ran across such an instance.

It could all be totally innocent, but maybe not ...

Sanford Whiteman is also on the nose, of course. He mentions that "Certainly there will be consequences if the zone apex ... doesn't point to the same server" If that's true, the consequences could be more than just not working as-expected; they could be malicious. Replacing letters with look-alike characters or ones similar enough to be missed is a typical phishing technique. With the right access, legitimate or illegitimate, adding a subdomain is close to trivial. Once created, a look-alike site may be used to spoof a login page where a user will willingly enter their information sometimes including username and password. The site could also conceivably be used to capture a competitor's leads. I've never come across or even heard of a malicious marketing effort like that, but I would still be skeptical of the intent.

[Sant_Singh_Rath]

Thanks Tony Mayse‌! Your reply is really very helpful.