Could the internet be brought down by this financial crisis? Vanity

Thanks! That clears it up LOL!!

The internet is an example of a completely free market. That is why it works so well, almost no one complains about cost, speeds and bandwith increase geometrically, and access has become nearly universal in the short span of 10+ years.

No one (yet) complains about “minorities not having access” or “class bias” or “everyone has a right to equal internet access”

I can well imagine in the not too distant future the internet will be controlled for political purposes, and then YES - once the game is rigged, it will be subject to distorting bubbles and collapses like oil, housing, etc...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_Internet
Victorian Internet
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The Victorian Internet is a term coined in the late 20th century to describe advanced 19th century telecommunications technologies such as the telegraph and pneumatic tubes.

FReeper Conference Call! That’ll be a hoot! Or, maybe a live Skype Session?

If your question is serious and you really want to be schooled, then here goes a very simplified, dumbed down version.

The “internet” is a system of connected computers. It was developed under research by DARPA to provide researchers who were doing government sponsored studies and research with a method of sharing and linking their research work together so they could be more efficient. This was very early in the age of computers, when a “computer” filled a room, or several rooms, or several floors of rooms.

When several universities were to be linked together to form what was the precursor of the “internet”, software and communication protocols had to be established to make this happen. Because of the type of government research, some of it secret, the communications links were designed to be not only redundant but virtually “bomb-proof”- that is, even if one computer/university/research lab was bombed or destroyed, it wouldn’t effect any of the others communications. Remember, this was being developed during the “cold war” when everyone was anticipating being bombed by the Soviets.

The way the first internet was designed has probably come back to bite the government, since not even they can shut it down now. It was ***designed*** to be kill-proof. By the very researchers that were designing atomic weapons, etc. These weren’t no dummies.

After the internet linked many universities and research centers, people started designing software that would make their (and their fellow researchers) work and communications much easier. Gopher, WAIS, Usenet and other cryptic “services” were designed to allow people to share information over the new internet.

Initially, only large universities or research centers were allowed - and could afford- to be connected. Eventually, large corporations who could afford tens of thousands of dollars per month of connectivity (T1 lines, etc.) were allowed- and could afford- to connect. Then universities started allowing their students to connect, then businesses started selling time-sharing or shell accounts for connectivity. There was no advertising as virtually all “commercial” activity was pretty much banned from the fledgling internet. Slowly, commercial activity was allowed until it overshadowed the pure research that was the original purpose of the internet.

As computers become more affordable, more businesses and individuals started getting connected. You still had to really be a geek, as you typically were only provided a unix shell account, which was basically a command line interface [what some people fondly now mis-remember as a DOS command line]. To use it, you had to know unix commands and had to type them into the command line— there were no pretty graphics or “windows” or “web browsers”. Or “mouse clicks” as there were no mouses, only keyboards.

Then, the World Wide Web was created, which is just one service used on the internet. Email is another service, one that was used from the outset, and really wasn’t designed for what it would become used for in today’s globally linked society. The world wide web, or WWW, allowed the use of graphical front ends to the web (and somewhat to the underlying internet), which evolved into our present day browsers.

Nowdays, rather than just universities and research labs being linked together, just about anyone with some kind of primitive computer and a method of connection (POTS, cable, fibre) can be connected somehow to the “internet”. You can even put a home computer online as a server, although many ISP’s don’t like that because it can take up too much of their bandwidth.

So anyone from a research center, government, university or corporation to single persons can and do connect all kinds of computers to the internet. They pay for the computers and the internet connections. They may try to make some of that money back, but in reality, very few probably ever do, unless they are selling something online in some manner. Advertising may facilitate that, but advertising, in itself, really doesn’t create or sustain the internet- it just helps people and businesses recoup or justify their expenditures.

Certainly there are businesses like Google and Yahoo who would die quickly if advertising was eliminated from the internet. But in reality, advertising doesn’t run or drive or control the internet. There are a LOT of people, businesses, government agencies, corporations, etc. that would still have their servers online without any advertising as such.

As an example, I have a server online. I lease a computer in a data center, then host my own and other client’s websites. For all practical purposes, none of the websites have any Google or Yahoo or other paid ads on them. The sites themselves are the online presence (and yes, advertisement) for the business, in addition to being the communication/contact medium (email) between them and their clients or potential clients.

Some of the websites on my server aren’t even “advertisements” for businesses- they are “informational”. Blogs are an example of informational websites. Yes, I know a lot of blogs have ads on them, but they could and would probably be online even without any advertising on them. Many are supported and seen as a “labor of love”. Some, like Free Republic, rely on donations and could and would survive even if there were no advertising.

Sure, if nobody donated to JimRob&company or if nobody paid me for hosting and maintaining their websites, we may have to give up our servers. And that could happen if, like you say, “things really go south”. But all that would happen would be that there would be fewer servers online because not everyone could afford them. But the internet won’t go down, even if the worst of financial times or crises.

There’s a LOT more that could be written on the nuts’n’bolts of the internet, but this will give you a very rudimentary, simplified version of it. I’m sure there are many other FReepers who are more knowledgeable and could add their views.

However, it would be only the work of a few minutes for you to go to Scroogle.com (boycott Google!) and do some simple searching and find out the equivalent of a doctor’s thesis of information on your question, instead of posting a vanity. Then others wouldn’t have to spend their time redundantly writing what is already posted online for you to find should you actually want to make the effort to find that information out.

One of the very first things you should search for and read is the “Endless September” posting to Usenet. You might recognize yourself in there. In fact, here’s the link for you so you don’t have to struggle too much:

http://www.stopspam.org/faqs/endlesssept.html

Thanks for the answer to my question and that reassures me. Sometimes I get lazy and just ask questions here. What’s wrong with Google? Are they liberals.I’m not in the habit of checking every web site to see who owns it and their political affiliation.

In answer to your question, no. Way back in the day, there were only 13 Root Servers, but now they’re are 166, many are just mirrors of others, so hacks and phreaks can’t bring it all down. It just won’t happen, it’ll only get slow once in a while. I had a T-1 line installed last year at my business because I am a bit impatient sometimes. LOL As long as there are businesses online, there will be people who want to pay for advertising.

Feel free to spend some time here, it’s got a nice map you can click on too:
http://www.root-servers.org/