/index.htm reload?

Hi everybody,
I've just got this small doubt, and a small answer would probably be enough.

When a visitor visits my site through an external link 
("erwnerve.tripod.com"), the index.htm file is automatically returned. The 
links to the home page from other pages in my site are to "/index.htm" and 
not "/" [so that I can browse my site on my hard disk]. My question is, 
does the browser treat "erwnerve.tripod.com" same as 
"erwnerve.tripod.com/index.htm" (and therefore loads it from cache) or does 
it reload it?

If they're not treated as same, any tips on how I can work around it?

Am I clear?
I got this doubt when viewing my cache using CacheExplorer.

(Pls cc to erwmag(at)email.com since I'm on the digest.)
TIA!
-erwin 

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