Generally, most browsers (ever since the 3.0 versions of both NSCP and MS) will assume that a period (.) or a forward slash (/) on a URL will take you to the index or default page of a particular web server. URLs don't like commas, though.
UBB's auto-URL feature assumes you are typing a URL whenever you type an obvious Web link beginning with www (it won't work with links that do not start with www in the address (you will need to use UBB coding for it). The auto-URL feature has been a part of UBB since about version 4 or 5.
Hope this helps.
------------------
AlphaSigOU
Causa latet vis est notissima - the cause is hidden, the results are well-known.