Internet

Overheard: New Internet on its way — thanks again to CERN

“We need so much processing power, there would even be an issue about getting enough electricity to run the computers if they were all at Cern. The only answer was a new network powerful enough to send the data instantly to research centres in other countries.” Tony Doyle as quoted in Coming soon: superfast internet

Yes, that’s right folks. The Internet could soon be made obsolete by a new “grid” system that’s going to transfer data 10,000 times faster than our current broadband Internet connections. Think of it — 10,000 times faster!!!

The Grid’s main purpose is to track the data associated with CERN’s Large Hadron Collider “big bang project” — although the Grid will also be made available to some researchers. Current thinking is that CERN is reinventing the Internet and no matter what you think about CERN messing with sub-atomic particles, the idea of a new Internet is intriguing — especially with recent predictions of our “using up” the Internet we have by 2010.

The new Grid has routing centers, dedicated fiber optic cables and over 50,000 servers — and the potential to offer everything from HD video telephony to the transmission of holographic images.

Overheard: Internet needs a $130 billion makeover

In three years’ time, 20 typical households will generate more traffic than the entire Internet today. Jim Cicconi, as quoted in AT&T: Internet to hit full capacity by 2010

Jim Cicconi, AT&T’s senior executive vice president-External and Legislative Affairs,  gave an interesting speech at the Westminster eForum on Web 2.0 last week.  First he got people’s attention by saying that the Internet will reach full capacity by 2010 and we need to invest $130 billion to update the infrastructure.  Then he went on to say that private industry should be the fixer, not government.  I agree with him. 

“I think people agree why the Internet is successful. My personal view is that government has widely chosen to…keep a light touch and let innovators develop it. The reason I resist using the term ‘Net neutrality’ is that I don’t think government intervention is the right way to do this kind of thing. I don’t think government can anticipate these kinds of technical problems. Right now, I think Net neutrality is a solution in search of a problem.”

Video: Vint Cerf talks about Net neutrality

Net neutrality is the principle that data packets on the Internet should be moved impartially, without regard to content, destination or source.

Overheard: ISPs are not the Internet police

The industry’s trade body, the ISPA, has spent months in discussions with music and movie companies about ways of preventing illegal filesharing, but buoyed by recent success in France, the major record labels and Hollywood studios have lobbied the government hard for faster action. Richard Wray, Filesharing law ‘unworkable’

If you asked yourself “What recent success in France?” like I did, here you go.  Short version? There are less than a dozen ISPs in France. All the stakeholders got together and agreed that service providers in France will issue warning messages to customers who are downloading files illegally — and if the customer ignores the message, he loses Internet access.  An independent authority, supervised by a judge, will be in charge.  

Overheard: Goodbye Netscape

In the unlikely event that you know someone who is still using Netscape, this would be a good time to point him or her towards Firefox, Safari, Opera, OmniWeb, or Internet Explorer 7, depending on the OS. And as you surf the ‘Net on March 1, stop and observe a moment of silence for the passing of what was once a hallowed name on the Internet. Eric Bangeman, AOL ending all support for Netscape on March 1

Even though users can still download Netscape 9, AOL will no longer provide any support at all for the browser. That includes security patches and bug fixes, too. AOL recommends fans of Netscape turn to Firefox, and if they’re especially nostalgic for the Netscape look and feel, install the Netscape theme and extensions for the popular open-source browser.

Overheard: Domain kiting is dead

Domain kiting is now dead. There is no longer any way to register and drop a domain without incurring a fee. Tasting operations now have a higher cost to operate, but they have not been stopped.Google And ICANN Did Not Kill Domain Tasting; Domain Kiting and NSI Front Running DOA

Domain tasting operations register bulk batches of domain names and keep the domain name that they believe will make them a return and delete the rest. Often times the taster will use a search company to place ads on the domain for that 5 day period in order to assess whether a domain name is worth keeping. Currently if the domain is deleted within the 5 day window there is no fee involved. This led to the abusive practice known as domain kiting. The kiter would register a bulk list of domains and keep them for the 5 day period and then delete and re-register the domain for another 5 day period, never paying for the domain or a fee. The practice does tie up large sums of money, as the registry requires registrars to prepay for registering domains.

According to an ICANN report, 94% of all .com registrations in January 2007 were deleted.

Overheard: Gov’t wants total access to Google search records

The nation’s top spy, Michael McConnell, thinks the threat of cyberarmageddon is so great that the U.S. government should have unfettered and warrantless access to U.S. citizens’ Google search histories, private e-mails and file transfers, in order to spot the cyberterrorists in our midst. Ryan Singel, NSA Must Examine All Internet Traffic to Prevent Cyber Nine-Eleven, Top Spy Says

On a related note, the Bavarian police want the gov’t to sanction a Trojan to help them eavesdrop on Skype conversations.

Overheard: Tiered Internet services — it’s here

Time Warner said on Wednesday that it was going to start testing a new rate plan in Beaumont [Texas] that would limit the amount of bandwidth each customer can use each month before additional fees kick in. Saul Hansell, Time Warner: Download Too Much and You Might Pay $30 a Movie

Overheard: Attention - this is your captain speaking. You may now log on.

“I think 2008 is the year when we will finally start to see in-flight Internet access become available. In a few years time, if you get on a flight that doesn’t have Internet access, it will be like walking into a hotel room that doesn’t have TV.” Henry Harteveldt, as quoted in the article Web Access and E-Mail on Flights

Finally! Yee-ha!

Overheard: Who’s been eating my bandwidth?

The cynical side of me wonders whether the excessive buzz about P2P is intended to build public acceptance for tiered Internet service. Margaret Rouse

Why should IT care about BitTorrent or The Pirate Cove? Bandwidth. Nate Anderson got slammed for dramatizing numbers in his article Nocturnal P2P transmissions account for 95 percent of Internet traffic , but there’s some serious buzz again about what to do about peer to peer.