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Thread: How the Internet works

  1. #1
    Senior Member Godsrock37's Avatar
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    How the Internet works

    so I'm doing a presentation for AP American History on how the internet came about and some history and current events and stuff, and i wanted to give them a brief overview of how it all worked. But i had this question thats been on my mind a while but i never cared enough to ask. Who decides who is allowed to be part of the internet and how to connect and stuff. I was reading wikipedia and it's all like "its and open community with no central regulation" to paraphrase. And it brought the question back up, why can't i just go find a wire and tap it so to speak and give my house access, why do i have to pay my ISP, and who do they pay? Who's at the top of the food chain. It said something about a collaboration of networks that mutually assented to join, is it just a bunch of networks that got together in the beginning and anyone who wants to join now has to pay to be in their club?

    Man im starting my own club. Who wants to join? We'll have our own internet, and The Internet can pay to be in our club.
    if God was willing to live all out for us, why aren't we willing to live all out for Him? God bless,
    Godsrock37
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  2. #2
    Senior Member IKnowNot's Avatar
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    If you string the wire I’m in!

    Try googling these keywords:

    Internet Backbone

    ICANN
    " And maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be" --Miguel Cervantes

  3. #3
    AO's Resident Redneck The Texan's Avatar
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    Git R Dun - Ty
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  4. #4
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    Hi Gosdsrock,

    You have been given some good links to start with. But to take up on your hypothesis............

    1. A LAN is simple, you can set one up in your own home, workplace, appartment block or whatever. It is private and you control it.

    2. A WAN is more far reaching and introduces the concept of some sort of carrier............generally a Telco.............. once again it is private, and could be internally owned.

    3. WWW ...............as it says "World wide" so you need some sort of organisation to facilitate it.

    Now, it is #3 that we are interested in? and the issue is not that different from the one faced by the postal or telecommunications services, or even the media.

    Radio and TV stations have a limited power (transmission range) and are given certain frequencies, bandwidths and timeslots by their local authorities. You have unique telephone numbers and postal addresses?

    When these "go Global" then it is an international body that takes over and agrees the "rules".............. The Universal Postal Union is one that comes to mind

    What I am saying is that the WWW faces the same issues as these earlier technologies, in that it is not "hard wired" and is global in its embrace.

    The requirement is basically to assign unique addresses that everyone agrees to, although this has been somewhat obfuscated by political sidetracking.

    The Texican (hi Tex how's it hangin pal? ) has cited ICANN. Please look at it and check the makeup (nationalistically speaking) of its management.......... it may live in America, but it has many nationalities amongst its personnel........... hell, the UN headquarters are in America?

    Telecoms are regulated from Geneva by this lot:

    http://www.itu.int/net/home/index.aspx

    Postal services are regulated from Berne by this lot:

    http://www.upu.int/

    And the message here? well, nuking Switzerland might be considered reasonable sport............... nuking the USA might provoke some unfavourable criticisms ........... at least from our ballistic submarine fleet
    Last edited by nihil; May 28th, 2007 at 12:02 PM.

  5. #5
    Senior Member Aardpsymon's Avatar
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    your problem with tapping someone else's wire is simple. Its someone else's wire.

    Although no-one "controls" the internet as such, people DO control each individual wire. Thus, there is nothing stopping you running a wire from your neighbours house and sharing their broadband, so long as they agree.
    If the world doesn't stop annoying me I will name my kids ";DROP DATABASE;" and get revenge.

  6. #6
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    Aard~

    I don't think the issue is about whose wire it is. I dealt with that in the LAN/WAN bit.

    What we have with the internet is the unique addressing and conformity requirement, not who actually provides the hardware and connection services.


  7. #7
    Senior Member RoadClosed's Avatar
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    See if you can get Al Gore to come speak.
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  8. #8
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    Wouldn't that part of the Globe be too warm for him?


  9. #9
    Senior Member Godsrock37's Avatar
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    ok, i get the individual unique addresses and what not, but now i am talking about the wire. how come i have to pay my ISP? Who do they pay? I'm assuming it's that alliance of networks i read about on Wikipedia that kinda started it all up and joined together. I think I kinda answered my own question but let me know if im on the right track.

    thanks for all the help guys, i understand it a lot better now

    p.s. - we're watching his movie in AP Bio, so we might as well make a day of it
    if God was willing to live all out for us, why aren't we willing to live all out for Him? God bless,
    Godsrock37
    my home my forum

  10. #10
    Senior Member RoadClosed's Avatar
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    how come i have to pay my ISP? Who do they pay?
    You pay your ISP for their bandwidth and a DSLAM or Cable distribution hardware. They have to have an OC, Mux equipment DSLAM, DACCS etc and all the routers to get yo ass to www.antionline.com.

    They pay vendors fees and companies like UUNET, MAE-EAST, PSI, Level 3, Linx, Al Gore, etc.
    West of House
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    There is a small mailbox here.

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