URL syntax

Because the syntax for the rest of the URL varies depending on the scheme selected, URL schemes that involve the direct use of an IP-based protocol for a specified host on the Internet use a common syntax for the scheme-specific data:

//user:password@host:port/url_path

Some or all parts of user:password@, :password, :port, and /url_path can be excluded. The scheme-specific data starts with a double slash (//) to indicate that it complies with the common Internet scheme syntax. The different components obey the following rules:

user

An optional user name. Some schemes such as FTP allow the specification of a user name.

password

An optional password. If present, it follows the user name, separated by a colon. The user name and password are followed by an at-sign (@). Within the user and password field, any :, @, or / characters must be encoded.

The URL does not need to be completely URL-encoded. You only need to use escape characters for tokens specifically used in an FTP URL as shown in the following table. Any FTP URL that contains spaces must be enclosed in quotes; for example:

-FIREWALL FTP://Home Machine/FTP Files

Tokens

Replaced with

% (percent)

%25

@ (at)

%40

/ (forward slash)

%2F

: (colon)

%3A

; (semicolon)

%3B

& (ampersand)

Escape not needed, use as is

# (pound)

Escape not needed, use as is

8-bit or control characters

Escape not needed, use as is