The Internet

What makes “the Internet” unique?

We had:

- The written word
- The PRINTED word
- The Telegraph
- Radio
- TV
-Telephone (which is pretty close, actually?)

The Invisible Barbecue(s)

American Telephone and Telegraph

Interesting history here.

AT&T

In 1907, the head of AT&T argued that
the nature of telephone technology meant that it “would operate most
efficiently as a monopoly providing universal service.”

WAAAT. You mean?

Yes. AT&T OPENLY said

"Competition is BAD."

AND IT WORKED.

No seriously lol

But..was this all bad?

That's $30?

(Don't get caught up in "ism's" y'all)

Good Ol’ AT&T

They had the physical network?

Which worked like the following:

Smart Network (circuit switching)

A remarkable, complex system...as opposed to…

Well, let’s try it...

Our L'il Internet

Another algorithm

RULE 1 - Pass this note to $VOLUNTEER

RULE 2 - If you can't, then pass it to someone

who is closer to them than you are.

Our L'il Internet

C D B
(1/4)

Our L'il Internet

A E E
(2/4)

Our L'il Internet

F A E
(3/4)

Our L'il Internet

E D F
(4/4)

Okay, so how did THAT work?

Dumb Network (packet switching)
indirect, node based “post-office” connections

Consider how “resilient (and redundant)” this system is
Due to SIMPLICITY.

This worked WITHOUT a seating chart!

The bad complexity of a “smart” network

(E.g. Susie → John → Fred → Singh → Joe)
and then what if a node is absent or moved, etc.

Dumb Network!-packet switching

TOP 3 THINGS ABOUT THE INTERNET!

PACKET SWITCHING

(peer to peer node based network)

— aka, a "dumb network"

We definitely KNOW what was sent

"CDBAEEFAEEDF"

Note how we dealt with "errors"
or Fuzz in the line?

Repetition (multiple packets)
and Error checking (4/4) — more on this later

ALSO What was sent?

okay, but what WTF is
CDBAEEFAEEDF

HUGE CONCEPT #1

All computers do is “numbers”

you put numbers into them
it messes with the numbers
it gives you some numbers back

(but, you can store anything in numbers;
more detail on this in a few weeks)

But seriously?

Eh, lets see?

What was sent?

Hex: CDBAEEFAEEDF =

226,202,757,033,695

What was sent?

MAC Address?
Perhaps a computer was identifying itself.

CD:BA:EE:FA:EE:DF

What was sent?

Perhaps, a lovely color scheme...

What was sent?

Perhaps, a lovely color scheme...

What was sent?

Music?

What was sent?

Something else?

110011011011101011101110111110101110111011011111

What was sent?

Wait - maybe encrypted?

(badly)

Tricky...

C	A	F	E

D	E	A	D

B	E	E	F

Obviously, a restaurant recommendation. (Or not.)

Cafe Dead Beef

TOP 3

DIGITIZATION

(literally, turning any "data" into a number)

PACKET SWITCHING

(peer to peer node based network)

DIGITZATION

NOTE, as demonstrated:
The nodes need not know or care what the data “is”

(Later, we learn that ,in fact, encryption can prevent them from knowing)

But — we HAD this. Sort of

telegraph?
Fax Machines (documents) - 1800s!
Party Lines (group chat)
Info Hotlines (websites

Farmer's "Internet?"

FARMERS INTERNET

Until they didn't.

WAIT SOME MORE:

Why do we believe it when companies say they LIKE COMPETITION?

"Yeah sure, if I have a hot dog stand, I would just LOVE for there to be another one across the street."

THATS CRAZY.

So. AT&T OWNED THE NETWORK.

Who owns your telephone and what does that mean?

TOP 3

3) PACKET SWITCHING
Use of a “Dumb” Network:

2) DIGITIZATION
(literally, turning any “data” into a number)

1)…. who owns the internet?

ARPANET

THE DEFENSE DEPARTMENT CREATED IT.
PUBLICLY OWNED UTILITY.
(mostly)

ARPANET + Open source

Building random stuff on it.

ARPANET

Why didn't the American Telegraph and Telephone company invent the Internet?

ARPANET

Why didn't the American Telegraph and Telephone company invent the Internet?

(somewhat controversial) thoughts on invention

The public sector (schools, defense, NASA, government) etc. is as inventive and as innovative as private companies...

..eh, probably more.

(the internet, GPS, touchscreens, digital photography, water filters, invisible braces etc.)

Nobody owns the internet

It’s a “protocol” or
”technical agreement”

Side Question

Who gives you the fastest internet?

Who did up until about a year ago?

Of course: Who were the “ISPs” in the beginning?

Earthlink, America Online
Juno, “Freenet”
Schools. Libraries. Community centers

And who are they now?

The owners of the pipes and switches

Cable and Telephone

TOP 3

DIGITIZATION
+
PACKET SWITCHING
+
PUBLICLY CREATED UTILITY
=
Peer to peer node based network

What services/protocols ACTUALLY look like this?

Vs THIS

ish

Once again

Diversity of layers (OSI)

Application (HTTP, telnet, etc)
Presentation (framework MIME)
Session (pipe,SOCKS)
Transport (reliable packet delivery, TCP)
Network (nodes and address, IP)
Data (PPP)
Physical (wires, radio, USB)

UNOFFICIAL ABOVE APPLICATION?

e.g. Wordpress, Facebook? Apple?

dreams love? Instagram?
Twitter? Black Twitter?
Fortnite? selfies Discord? Hopes Slack?
Mastodon? Etc. etc. etc.)

Centralized, Decentralized, Distributed

Can be different things at different layers.

Diversity of transmission media:

- telephone lines (modem/DSL)
- tv cable
- wireless (802.11)
- satellites
- radio
- lasers (pointless, but true)
- fiber

Another point about wireless and freedom.

All the wifi things work at
2.4ghz

Why?

The FCC, again.

The FCC dictates what you can do at what frequencies.

This is why Radio and over the Air TV,
and CB radio and Satelites all don't mush over each other.

They say who is allowed to do what.

...so naturally, when wifi came out, they set some aside just for that, right?

LOL NO WRONG

The EXACT opposite.

Microwaves

Microwaves heat your food by BLASTING 2.4ghz waves
at the water in it so that they rub against each other.

The FCC saw that Microwaves were going to be the hotness (stop)....

Microwaves

And *deliberately* chose NOT to regulate that frequency.

i.e... Because of likely microwave oven interference
we're not going to set this aside;
ANYONE can do whatever they want on it, good luck

Microwaves

And they did, and it works fine.

Your microwave is a faraday cage
and data doesn't require that much energy.

So yes, wireless home data in the air and
your heat in the pizza is the same thing.

Mobile Broadband / Wireless Cellular Internet

Different. Basically, internet over the cellular network instead of with wires.

Likely to be about 30% of market share whoa

Complex combo, but mostly "old-school FCC regulated complexity" at the bottom

With BS marketing. Like 5g ☺

Diversity of protocols

- telnet
- gopher
- usenet
- email
- irc
- html/www

The real power?

The physical structure -> The "political" power?

The Usual Path

- Your computer
- Your router
- ISP “station”
- Bigger ISP Station/Backbone
…. etc.
Decentralized

But what else CAN do internet

- Laptops
- Tablets
- Phones
- Routers
- Cars
- Ovens?

Lampposts

All running you know what

wardrive, and find out yourself – :)

Mesh Networking

True Distributed..

IS technically possible!

And some are doing it

Super redundant, very resilient

..what's not to like?

In fact, if everyone is a "peer.."

Peer to peer?

Bittorrent

No Cell or wifi...

Why is peer-to-peer so scary?

Specifically, why is "Distributed" so scary?

And what do we have in reality?

i literally just made up the following slides this morning

Centralized

Old AT&T
Twitter
Facebook
Canvas
Netflix
etc.

Decentralized

THE INTERNET
Email
The Web

Distributed

Mesh Networks
Bittorrent
Bitcoin/Crypto
Some chat

Fake decentralized?

Reddit
Discord

Forgive the language but...

Enshittification

Anything centralized in any way is susceptible to this

the end

Backlinks: FSU Courses:LIS3353:Raw LIS3353 Slides FSU Courses:LIS3353:Raw LIS3353 Slides:LIS-3353 - History of Operating Systems:LIS-3353 - History of Operating Systems