From: dougnews@access.digex.com (Doug Humphrey)
Subject: Re: BIG INTERNET QUESTIONS (IGNORE OTHER VERSION!)
Organization: Express Access Public Access UNIX, Greenbelt, Maryland
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1992 07:45:19 GMT

In article <1appauINNbqt@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu> brown@odin.ins.cwru.edu (Dan Brown) writes:
>In an earlier posting rsb5c@faraday.clas.Virginia.EDU (Richard S. Bondi) writes:
>After reading the rest of your article, I would suggest you dig a bit deeper.
>Find yourself a copy of Zen and the art of the Internet. If you want to get
>into the Technical stuff, get a copy of Internetworking with TCP/IP by 
>Douglass Comber. You seem to have a few gaps in your understanding of the
>network... as most of us do... :-)

both good references.  The Whole INTERNET (Ed Krol, published by 
O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.  ISBN 1-56592-025-2) is also a great 
book, just published.  

>>(Questions 2 through 4 are basic, the stuff I am really interested
>>in begins with question 5.)
>>
>>1.   In one sentence, what is your technical experience with the
>>Internet? 
>
>Cannot be describe in one sentense. Have been around it for about 4 years.

When I started it was NCP, not IP, and the total number of 
hosts fit on one screen... or on a bit of thermal paper ;-)

Asking for a one sentence description for that is a bit difficult.


>>2.   Is the following characterization correct, and if not, please
>>make any corrections:

[original question deleted]

>The Internet is a network of networks. It is based on the 7 layer model.

Actually, to pick nits, it is NOT based on the ISO 7 layer model. 
It predates that model, and does not map very well onto it.  The 
problem with the 7 layer model is that nobody knows what the last
two layers are used for...

>>4.   Is the following characterization correct, and if not, please
>>make any corrections:
>>     Macintosh and IBM PC users may have heard of programs like
>>Carbon Copy or Timbuktu that let one Mac or IBM take complete
>>control of another.  In other words, on my screen I actually see
>>YOUR screen, and all the commands and programs I run are actually
>>run on your computer, not mine.  A program that does this for any
>>two computers connected to the Internet has been written, and it is
>>called Telnet.  Since it was written with tax-payers money at the
>>National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), it is free. 

This is a really bad characterization, as it gives completely 
the wrong idea.  Central to the idea of "Carbon Copy" or "Timbuktu"
is that one system takes over control of another.  This is not at
all what is happening with Telnet.  To explain it this way is to 
lead someone to the possible conclusion that hooking into the Internet
means that people can take over their machines; not at all the case.

I would suggest that you use the "telnet allows you to connect 
over the network, over any distance, and act as if you are a 
terminal plugged right into a computer with a wire, and able to 
use it" analog.

>>5.   Email is free, whether to someone else at your university or
>
>Email is not always free. Someone has to pay the bills, which tend to
>be astronomical!

This is a very good point.  You are spreading the concept around that
this stuff is free; nothing is free, and in a time where the indirect
funding for such things (via schools for example) is dropping off, the
direct funding means (you write a check) is showing up more and more.

If you don't want to get into the sticky situations, you might not
want to go into the issue of who is paying for it.

>>8.   Where are the Internet cables?  Can they be seen around town
>>as easily as telephone and high-tension wires?
>
>As stated previously, much of the network is connected with Leased Phone
>lines. They run the same places all the rest of the phone lines do.

This is because they are phone lines.  The physical plant that is 
used for the internet is no different from that used inthe telephone
system,  Phone lines are used for low speed, and even when the high
speed things like fiber optics are used, they are the same as that in
the phone network; they are generally leased facilities from the 
phone companies.

>>10.  How is it possible for Internet connections to be so damn
>>fast? A server in Finland responds faster than my own desktop
>>machine can load Lotus. This boggles the/my mind.  Can you give
>>some insight on how this is possible with so much traffic?
>
>T1 phone lines run at 1.544 Megabit/sec (pg 437, Comber) T3 speeds are
>several times faster. How much speed to you need?

About 45 megabits per second

In general, I would say that you have some reading to do.  
Please be careful and not make the common journalistic 
mistake of assuming that just because you know a bit more
about a topic than your target audience, you are qualified 
to speak on that topic.  Even if you do not mean for your
words to have authority, they will because the people you 
are speaking to have less knowledge, and because journalists
hold a position of power in that respect.  The misconceptions
and inaccuracies that you spread to your readers will be 
around for years and will take many times this much effort 
to correct.  So, read some of the books that are cited, asks
questions of people like those on the newsgroups, and learn
all of the fun stuff.  Then, when you are armed with what
you know to be the correct knowledge, you can do your readers
and the network justice!

Nothing personal at all; it would just be so nice to see and 
really accurate article on the net...

Doug

-- 
Doug Humphrey              doug@access.digex.com               +1 301 220 2020
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