The Pipes ?
by Ross Lasley
I was discussing some pretty mind blowing numbers with my sister Beth recently when Amy and I went out to see her in San Diego for the weekend.
She wanted to know how many people were on the Internet, how many it could support, and how the whole thing was connected now anyway. I gave a big sigh (Beth is a schoolteacher, so of course she wants to know such things) and wondered exactly how to respond – my knowledge is way above novice but I am not a telecommunications engineer.
It occurred to me the best way to discuss this was the pipes analogy – popular but dependable as people can understand things like electricity and water flowing to American homes. Most people also get that there is something akin to highway traffic jams occasionally – and, just like the roads, stuff can get mucked up for a wide array of reasons.
The Internet today is much bigger than you might imagine – it is getting big enough that the sheer size is hard to wrap your brain around. The physical level is still pretty limited though – ten companies own 66.5% of all the backbones.
The vast majority of the public connects through their ISP – of which there are literally tens of thousands. Here is a pretty comprehensive list: http://www.thelist.com
Those ISP's then connect to each other through local loops – basically your ISP has a connection to the Internet just like you do. Good ISP's actually have several – in this way when their Internet Connection fails their customers never know about it as they just switch where it is coming from. (this is often called an 'upline provider failure' when your ISP can no longer get you to the Internet because their local loop is down).
The Local Loops then connect into the ISP's POP – Point of Presence. Depending upon the user service requested (asking for email is different than asking for a web site) the connection then goes to ISP Backbones, which lead to large circuits and those main backbone providers. All Internet traffic moves over these pipes and most people are surprised to learn 2/3 of it is controlled by these ten players:
27.9% - UUNET/WorldCom/MCI
10.0% - AT&T
6.5% - Sprint
6.3% - Genuity (level 3)
4.1% - PSINet (cogent)
3.5% - Cable & Wireless
2.8% - XO Communications
2.6% - Verio
1.5% - Qwest
1.3% - Global Crossing
( thanks Russ Haynal – http://navigators.com )
When traffic is moving between these big pipes there certainly can be traffic jams and other problems – which often translate into geeks saying things like 'the net is slow today' or 'anything off the west coast has a serious latency'.
Ever wonder how they know such things? All the data is online and this is one of my favorite visual places to take a peek: http://www.internetpulse.net/
All those squares tell you how fast traffic is moving and if it is backed up (the lower the number the better). We also see colors on this chart when things are slow – green squares are fast, yellow is medium and red is slow. If you click an individual number you'll see the data underneath it – those top level number are averages.
This issue is going to get bigger and bigger as more and more people want to connect more and more devices to the global network. It really isn't hard to envision that your home appliances, TV's, telephones, and computers will all be connected to a single network soon if they aren't already.
The newest IP scheme (the tech junk that specifies how all this works together) has more addresses than the current one.
IF you think of the surface area of the entire planet – including the oceans – the number of devices that could be connected to the Internet is one thousand five hundred sixty four (1,564) per square meter.
I just hope it's enough.
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 Tech Tip |
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by Michael McGrath
Pop-ups, pop-unders, annoying as all get-up, don't you think? Some sites you just can't get onto, as the pop-ups get in your way; some sites you just can't leave, as the pop-unders won't let go of you. What to do?You have two choices available to you. First, you could go to www.download.com, that terrific Cnet site where lots of free software can be downloaded. You'll find Cnet's Editor's Choice November 2003 and Tucows 5-Cow award winning software, StopZilla. It's a free download, small footprint of only 2.5 MB, and is easy to install and set up. Follow the instructions on set up and you'll kill those pop-ups dead.Some of you have browsers already that will kill those pop-ups for you, though. If you use Opera or Mozilla, check your Preferences sections and you will find a Pop-up window killer already. All you have to do is turn it on, and the setting takes effect immediately.
You don't have to take it any more. Follow these steps to rid yourself of them... get the free download, or, check your browser settings. In a matter of minutes, you'll be surfing without unwanted windows anymore. |
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