TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: Who Really Controls Internet?

Re: Who Really Controls Internet?

Barry Margolin (barmar@alum.mit.edu)
Sun, 17 Jul 2005 16:04:22 -0400

In article <telecom24.327.6@telecom-digest.org>, Tony P.
<kd1s@nospamplease.cox.reallynospam.net> wrote:

> Those are just TLD name servers, nothing more. The Internet would
> still work if those were to just disappear but it would be less useful
> or easy to use than it is now.

> Every server gets an IP address. That's what you really use to
> connect. DNS is just there to translate human readable to machine
> readable.

What you *really* use are binary digits represented as electronic
signal levels on various types of wires and radio transmissions, but
we don't make users modulate those manually, either.

And what about all the load balancing and fault tolerance that come
from allowing a host name to resolve to multiple addresses and
changing the mappings on the fly?

Names are more than just a way to make things user-friendly, they're
an important piece of the Internet architecture. I don't think
there's ever been a network of more than a few dozen machines that
didn't depend on a naming scheme to enhance the capabilities.

Consider this: how useful would the phone be if you could only call
people whose phone numbers you already knew, i.e. there were no phone
books or directory assistance?

Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
*** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me ***

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