🚀 go-pugleaf

dantonio@iiic.ethz.ch (Denis Nicolas Antonioli) writes:
: Hi!
: I've made a few jealous friend when speaking from Internet to non connected
: people.

I've repeatedly run in to this funny illusion that people think
that the Internet is something that you can "connect to". 

While I must admit that the service providers tend to very sloppy 
with the term, I think that it is clear to all of us that the 
"Internet" is a lot more heterogeneous than what our average 
subscriber would imagine and that there are a lot of different 
views on what the "Internet" really is.

Just an example: from here I can telnet and ftp to world.std.com,
try that from the ETH.

I personaly would define the "Internet" as the collection of IP
service providers that allow their subscribers to exchange IP 
traffic with each other on a peer to peer base without traffic
based settlement*.

My definition would include NSFnet and the regionals connected 
to it, CIX, EUnet and a large number of European networks, very 
definitely the most important parts of the "Internet". But I'm 
sure that there are wildly differing views on this (for example 
a lot of e-mail only networks would be excluded by this definition).

One tendency is very visible: in the US the peering of networks 
is actively encouraged and practiced, in Europe a lot of forces 
are pushing exactly the opposite way (no amount of CEC money 
will compensate what European industry will loose due to this).

* if anybody is interested, I can expand a bit more on why this
  is so essential to the "Internet".
-- 
CHUUG/EUnet Switzerland				Simon Poole
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