TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: FTC Do Not Call List

Re: FTC Do Not Call List

Mark Crispin (MRC@CAC.Washington.EDU)
Fri, 16 Dec 2005 18:04:06 -0800

On Fri, 16 Dec 2005, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:

> That's true -- I know nothing of that "whole world" that makes the
> Internet actually work. Unfortunately, when explanations are
> provided, they are very technical and loaded with acronyms or buzz
> words I don't understand.

Unfortunately, I don't know of any good pedagogical resource that
explains "what makes the Internet actually work".

Nor, for that matter, can I think of any single person who can answer
more than a small portion of that question. I know that I can't.

> It is entirely possible that the cost of redoing the Internet so it is
> properly secured in the first place may result in such savings that it
> is worth the effort.

That may be so, but the time needed to accomplish that task is likely
to exceed the lifetime of anyone reading this newsgroup. The current
Internet, as hardware, software, and protocols, is the result of 35 or
so years of the labor of thousands of hardware, software, and protocol
engineers.

>> Just take a look at how long IPv6 has taken, and is likely to continue
>> to take.

> What is "IPv6"?

IPv6 stands for "Internet Protocol, version 6". The current IP, which
has been in place since the transition to TCP/IP on January 1, 1983,
is IPv4.

A simplistic explanation of IP is that it is the protocol that does
the addressing. The 32-bit values, expressed as four 8-bit values
such as 10.44.105.69, are IPv4 format addresses.

The problem with IPv4 is that the Internet is running out of 32 bit
addresses.

IPv6 addresses are four times longer: 128 bits. IPv6 was adopted a
decade ago as the "next generation" of IP, and we are in a period of
transition from IPv4 to IPv6.

Supposedly, all US federal agencies will be IPv6 by 2008, and IPv4
shall finally die in 2025. Many people consider these dates to be
optimistic.

Although most modern operating systems support IPv6, there are many
many older systems which are IPv4 only and will never be upgraded.
Many of these systems are "mission critical" systems and are not
easily replaced.

Take a look in any large enterprise and see what does the payroll.
It's a jaw-dropper. Now, remember that many of these system were
patched for Y2K but not replaced.

> The government can and will tax anything it can get its mitts on
> unless the public violently objects.

That's high on the "well, duh!" list of truisms... :-)

> Anyway, the government does wants to tax Internet transactions, and
> they will find a way, regardless of whatever technology is used.

You can be certain that any effort to redo the Internet will be
required to "fix" all the "design flaws" which get in the way of
Internet taxation. To the designers of the past, these were features,
not bugs.

You may not remember the war between the ISO protocol suite and TCP/IP
in the 1980s. Basically, ISO was designed by governments and
commercial organizations; TCP/IP was designed by researchers and
hackers. TCP/IP won because it worked and was available then and
there, not because it was tax-friendly. There are a lot of people in
the ISO camp who say "I told you so".

Then again, if ISO had won, we probably would not be having this
discussion since Internet would remain a toy of the elite.

-- Mark --

http://staff.washington.edu/mrc
Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate.
Si vis pacem, para bellum.

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