def __strip_protocol_from_url(url):
    """
    Strip the PROTOCOL specifier from an URL string and return it, along with
    the remainder of the URL.
    """
    if '://' not in url:
        return None, url

    parts = url.split('://', 1)
    protocol = parts[0]
    url = url.replace(parts[0] + '://', '').lstrip('/').rstrip('/')

    return protocol, url