[905] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: internet consumer reports on state-wide IP networks
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (John S. Quarterman)
Wed Jul 3 21:36:22 1991
From: jsq@tic.com (John S. Quarterman)
To: Steven.Grimm@Eng.Sun.COM (Steven Grimm)
Cc: com-priv@uu.psi.com
In-Reply-To: Your message of Wed, 03 Jul 91 15:47:11 -0700.
Date: Wed, 03 Jul 91 18:59:55 -0500
>>Absolutely right! I find it almost impossible to use the phone system
>>because the carriers refuse to tell me how they are routing my
>>phone calls.
>That's not what people (well, I, at least) mean by network maps. I
>don't care if my packets have to go around the world eight times to get
>to point B, but if I don't know where point B is, I'm not going to send
>any packets in the first place.
I agree. Maps that show links are misleading, because they give
the impression that they have useful information. Yet they don't
tell you where to go, how fast you can get there, what you'll find
when you get there, or whether you'll be permitted to use it.
Services, resources, policies, and demographics are of interest,
and could be shown on a network map. But the traditional style of
network map, which used to be of some use when you had to do manual
routing (especially on networks like UUCP), doesn't show you such things,
except painfully, partially, and indirectly.
Also, the average user would probably much rather see a general map
of the Matrix than a map of just what their local carrier or a single
long distance carrier happened to connect. Think about those nifty
maps in the telephone book. They show how to get there and how much
it costs, mostly. They don't show where the cables go. (Telephone
maps also show area code maps, equivalent to IP network number maps,
but that's just because the telephone user interface is so barbaric
it requires the user to enter the underlying network address.)
As others have been asking lately, why haven't we seen a map of the
whole net yet? I don't mean just the Internet, even though that's
an increasingly large part of it. I mean the Matrix.
John
--
John S. Quarterman
Matrix Information and Directory Services, Inc. (MIDS)
701 Brazos, Suite 500 jsq@tic.com
Austin, TX 78701 +1-512-320-9031
U.S.A. fax: +1-512-320-5821
