What do the numbers next to www mean?

[gmaster1440]

I've noticed some web pages are accessed by associating numbers next to the 'www' part of the url. For example:

http://www38.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=1%2B1

What does this mean? How would I be able to configure that for some of my own sites? Is it DNS side?

Thanks

[samarudge]

This is really quite simple
the www. prefix is irelevant to your site I.E. daniweb.com and www.daniweb.com go to the same server but www. can be treated as a subdomain for example
daniweb.com could go to server1 (IP 123.123.123.0)
BUT!
www.daniweb.com could go to server2 (IP 123.123.123.1)
so
www2.daniweb.com could go to a third server. This method can be used to distribute load among many servers but I don't think this is the best method. I would always use Apache with ether mod_backhand or some other configuration of mod_p-r-o-x-y (Take out the dashes, for some reason my school blocks that word)
So in answer to your question this is a DNS setting but it is not recomended
Regards,
Sam Rudge

[gmaster1440]

Thanks for the explanation, i get it now :)