Dumb Internet Question.....

[madeline_con]

Can someone please explain how the U.S. controls the internet and how other countries would be able to control and/or influence it if it were "intenationalized"?


I've heard talk for some time about U.S. technology being what "runs it", and saw a segment tonight on Lou Dobbs about China and Iran (of all people) wanting to wrest control from the U.S.

Anyone with a good idea of the main points and the ability to explain on a not too technical level, please respnond. :)

(I taught myself HTML, and do have a site, but I'm no computer whiz.) :(

[hiley]

1. Well we were supposed to give control up

EU says internet could fall apart
· Developing countries demand share of control
· US says urge to censor underlies calls for reform

Richard Wray
Wednesday October 12, 2005

Guardian

A battle has erupted over who governs the internet, with America demanding to maintain a key role in the network it helped create and other countries demanding more control.
The European commission is warning that if a deal cannot be reached at a meeting in Tunisia next month the internet will split apart.

At issue is the role of the US government in overseeing the internet's address structure, called the domain name system (DNS), which enables communication between the world's computers. It is managed by the California-based, not-for-profit Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) under contract to the US department of commerce.

A meeting of officials in Geneva last month was meant to formulate a way of sharing internet governance which politicians could unveil at the UN-sponsored World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis on November 16-18. A European Union plan that goes a long way to meeting the demands of developing countries to make the governance more open collapsed in the face of US opposition.
snip---

The US government, which funded the development of the internet in the 60s, said in June it intended to retain its role overseeing Icann, reneging on a pledge made during Bill Clinton's presidency. Since Icann was created, the US commerce department has not once interfered with its decisions.

snip---
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5307024-103676,00.html

[madeline_con]

4. "... the internet will split apart ..."

How so? Do you know what this means?

Would a particular server not be able to relay info from some domains to others, for instance?

(I'm no computer whiz, as you can tell)

[bananas]

8. It means other countries will use alternate root servers

see my post #6 below.
It won't make any difference at all.

[madeline_con]

9. So, the world won't crumble either way?

What about restricted access in some regimes? ;-o

[MojoXN]

2. ICANN...

Internet corporation for assigned names and numbers, is based in California. There's your answer, in a nutshell. For details, see google or an IT geek. :)

MojoXN

[longship]

3. In short, the top level domain and DNS.

That's the system that translates addresses like "scumbag.com" to an internal IP address like "192.168.1.92" (I know, I know, it's not a real one). The DNS system is built on a core set of servers, call root domain servers. The rest of the domain lookup is built under these servers in a rather large tree of machines distributed all over the world. I have one of these sitting three feet from me at my desk. It handles the address translation for my domain.

The control of these root servers, and the top level domains that they control (.com, .net, .org, .edu, etc) is the question.

I think this is what you want to know.

DNS == Domain Name System.

[madeline_con]

5. Yes, sort of like MSG # 4....

Basically, could say, China control huge chunks of the net, disallowing those within its system access to "outside influences", and vice versa?

That's the best way I can explain/ask the question.

[bananas]

7. China already does that

which is why this whole thing is pointless.
Just like companies and schools run software to censor the internet,
blocking or redirecting domains, scanning webpages and email for objectionable content.

[madeline_con]

10. Thanks. I get it now... Thanks, all!

:hi:

[bananas]

6. They're only talking about the DNS root servers

They are exaggerating immensely, it isn't about "control of the internet".
DNS is the "Domain Name System", which is how www.whatever.com gets converted into an IP number. The IP number is all that's needed to reach the computer.
The DNS system is mostly distributed, but the U.S. has kept control of the "root servers".
If the U.S. doesn't compromise, at some point other countries will just start their own root servers.
There are already "alternative DNS" systems out there using their own root servers. You can use them, too - a lot of people do.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_DNS_root

[Skink]

11. I thought Google controlled the internet.