WWW2: What is it & Is it safe?

Before we dive into what WWW2 is, let’s understand what WWW stands for.

What is WWW?

The World Wide Web (WWW), commonly known as the web, is the information system where URLs identify web resources. The web is accessed by a web browser and enables you to access websites and other online activities. An example of a WWW-enabled URL is www.purevpn.com.

What is WWW2?

It is a relatively outdated domain naming technique that is still being utilized by a few websites. This domain naming technique is used to classify and give meaning to subdomains or hostnames that belong to separate servers. As an example, a typical website such as www.purevpn.com might be www2.www.purevpn.com, www3.www.purevpn.com, and you get the point.

Why Would WWW2 be used?

Website operators typically use WWW2 for balancing the load on a particular website. If one server where the www domain is hosted is experiencing overload, constant crashes, or technical maintenance, the website operator will have you redirected to a different server named www2, www3, www4, etc.

The entire redirection process will automatically take place, and you might not even realize that you’ve been redirected. It’s only when you see the URL that you might learn that you’ve been redirected to a WWW2 domain. Although there are other ways of balancing overload and crashes on a particular website, some website operators stick to WWW2 addresses.

Having said that, you might question the authenticity of such a domain when you’ve rarely encountered it during online browsing or streaming. With that in mind, a question arises, is WWW2 safe?

Is WWW2 safe?

If you’re on a website and notice WWW2 or WWW3, there’s nothing for you to be worried about as such. What you should be concerned about is the domain name is the one that you intend to visit. Once the website traffic and server load is managed, you will automatically be redirected back to www.

Pro tip: Ensure that the domain you’re visiting is genuine and isn’t altered. In the case of suspicions, don’t visit the domain and avoid opening links from non-genuine sources or whose original name is changed to a different name.