\b
# Match the leading part (proto://hostname, or just hostname)
(
    # ftp://, http://, or https:// leading part
    (ftp|https?)://[-\w]+(\.\w[-\w]*)+
  |
    # or, try to find a hostname with our more specific sub-expression
    full-hostname-regex
)

# Allow an optional port number
( : \d+ )?

# The rest of the URL is optional, and begins with / . . . 
(
   / path-part
)?

Read his comments at http://www.oreilly.com/ask_tim/index.html. He ...

\b
# Match the leading part (proto://hostname, or just hostname)
(
    # ftp://, http://, or https:// leading part
    (ftp|https?)://[-\w]+(\.\w[-\w]*)+
  |
    # or, try to find a hostname with our more specific sub-expression
    (?i: [a-z0-9] (?:[-a-z0-9]*[a-z0-9])? \. )+ # sub domains
    # Now ending .com, etc. For these, require lowercase
    (?-i: com\b
        | edu\b
        | biz\b
        | gov\b
        | in(?:t|fo)\b # .int or .info
        | mil\b
        | net\b
        | org\b
        | [a-z][a-z]\b # two-letter country codes
    )
)

# Allow an optional port number
( : \d+ )?

# The rest of the URL is optional, and begins with / . . . 
(
     /
     # The rest are heuristics for what seems to work well
     [^.!,?;"'<>()\[\]{}\s\x7F-\xFF]*
     (?:
        [.!,?]+  [^.!,?;"'<>()\[\]{}\s\x7F-\xFF]+
     )*
)?