the internet

[freem]

ive heard that the government owns it. if thats so shouldnt it be free, but we all know it isnt. what i want to know it if i pay an isp like at&t to get on who does at&t pay and so on and so on. ive been wondering this for a long time right up there with "if i can go online and log on to a computer in germany for no extra cash why am i paying a $200 long distance bill". sorry for the ranting i just want to know.

[SoopaStar]

The government doesn't own it. The first internet was setup for the government use (or one of the first I should say). It connected government buildings and some universities.
The actual internet we use and many of the features that have been developed were done by the University Of Illinois (champagne-Urbana campus I think). It was going to be used to connect the wealth of knowledge that was held between all the schools.
here are some interesting sites to read ont eh history of the internet:
http://info.isoc.org/guest/zakon/Internet/History/HIT.html
first web browser and where IE got many features from:
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/Mosaic/
And, of course the U or Illinois webpage:
http://www.uiuc.edu/

As for who owns it--that is kind of confusing. For instance, goto a DOS prompt and type:
tracert www.yahoo.com (http://www.yahoo.com) and press enter.
You will see many names in there--sprintlink, mci etc. These are the companies that own those lines--they are [b]Backbones[b]--or the high speed access lines that the information runs through. The fees you pay your ISP go into its costs to connect to one of these backbones. There are also various telco charges they pay for the phone lines that run into their systems. The question you have regarding the connecting to germany--this was a big ordeal not too long ago. The phone companies wanted to charge long distance fees to all internet activity. But, the only problem (or one I should say) is that when you send a packet of information (for instance, that tracert we just did), you have no control over which direction that packet goes to reach its destination. From my location, I could send a data packet from my house, to st. louis, to chicago, to kansas city, to oklahoma, then maybe down to texas--if I was sending an email to a friend at Texas A&M University. however, sometimes that packet may SKIP kansas city, or get routed through new york! This is what can cause lag--if one server or route is chock full of data packets.
These high speed lines are also used to carry VOIP (Voice over IP) and regular telephone calls. this is one way that our long distance bills have gotten so cheap.
I could probably go on further, but I have probably bored (or confused?) you already.
Paul C.

[freem]

thanks, it wasnt confusing or boring. alot of questions i had were answered. ill also check out those pages.

[jadison]

I network of universities and other organizations are developing what's being called the "Internet 2". It's very interesting, the speeds are supposed to be FAR superior to the fastest speeds achieved by todays cable and DSL modems.

Read up on it here: http://www.internet2.edu/

Happy surfing

-jd-

[chipbgt]

If Al Gore invented the internet then I invented the message board.

[Glynn R Harris]

Just want to thank Soopastar for the tip on "tracert". I have had loads of fun the last 24 hours just seeing where my packets actually go!