Talk:Internet

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The following seems a bit fishy to me...

"Sites like meetup.com exist to allow wider announcement of groups which may exist mainly for face-to-face meetings, but which may have a variety of minor interactions over their group's site at meetup.org, or other similar sites."

[Copied from the "Social Impact" section of the page] —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.219.49.206 (talk) 13:34, 12 May 2008 (UTC)

If it seems fishy, we can't include it as a reliable source. However, the idea behind what they have there does make scense. Just sending business tyo associated people is an old business trick, and is actually illegal in a few cases.

Oh, and the new articles should go down the bottom of the page. Corrupt one (talk) 23:40, 13 May 2008 (UTC)

Correct information by adding link

Professor David L. Mills is cited in this article for his contributions and his "fuzzball" router. However there is no link from his name to his page. You'll find him listed here: [1] Afterburn188 03:14, 27 September 2007 (UTC)

Add a Link?

Does anyone feel that we should add a link to the following site? [http://earlyhistory.googlepages.com/historyoftheinternet Development of the Internet] - Please give your reasons as to why or why not! Thanks! West wikipedia —The preceding unsigned comment was added by West wikipedia (talk • contribs) 18:41, 9 December 2006 (UTC).

Because it does not cite it's sources, doesn't add anything already in Wikipedia, the site is non-notable i.e. it hasn't been cited as an authority by other reliable sources and it's authors are completely unknown. In fact if I google for earlyhistory googlepages com I get nothing. Please read WP:WEB (under criteria), WP:RS (e.g. Non-scholarly sources) and WP:NOTABLE and ideally please solve this one link first before you start posting to all the other entries you've been trying to make. Ttiotsw 18:48, 9 December 2006 (UTC)

The links you wish to add to all these articles do not pass any of the criteria for external links, as has already been explained to you. Even if the links did pass the criteria, your objective is obviously to promote your web site, and that objective will not be accomplished here. I suggest you consider productive content editing rather than just attempting to get your site linked from numerous pages (see WP:SPAM). -- mattb @ 2006-12-09T19:02Z

I concur. To "West wikipedia": If you fail to understand Wikipedia policy, your account will be blocked and any edits from your account will be reverted. Wikipedia editors have already encountered several sites similar to yours, and the community consensus has been that links should such sites should be deleted as spam as well as possible Google bombing or link farming. --Coolcaesar 06:55, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

Capitalization issues redux

I just reverted a bizarre statement that Nohat tried to insert into the Capitalization conventions section, in which he claimed that "the telephone network," "the power grid," and "the sky" were exceptions to the rule that proper nouns are written in uppercase in English. Actually, those are all common nouns, because there are many examples of each---every country has its own telephone network and power grid, and every planet with an atmosphere has a sky. On the other hand, I could manufacture proper nouns by simply inserting qualifiers that are proper nouns in themselves: "the AT&T telephone network," "the Pacific Gas and Electric power grid," and "the Earth's sky."

It's analogous to the difference in object-oriented programming between classes and objects. Common nouns are classes and proper nouns are objects (and an object is a particular instance of a class). --Coolcaesar 03:49, 27 April 2006 (UTC)

Yes, but when talking about the entire global telephone network, taken together (and it is all connected), we still don't capitalize it. Why would the internet be any different? Same with sky—there is only one sky on the planet earth, and when people say "the sky" they are referring to the one sky on this planet, but we still don't capitalize. When I say "the sky is blue" I am referring to the one single instance of sky that exists on this planet. There is only one—it is unique in exactly the same way that the internet is unique—but we don't capitalize it. This observation is directly applicable to the capitalization of internet, so I have restored the commentary as well as a reference to a knowledgeable source (a linguistics professor) who makes the same argument. Nohat 06:30, 27 April 2006 (UTC)

"Internet" was capitalised during the bubble when techies ran it and people thought it was like God - omnicient and omnipresent. Since the bubble burst, non-techies have grown to resent the implication that anything like this could be so important. Familiarity breeds contempt. We've moved to "internet" on our website because people said that "Internet" was pretentious. We're based in the UK, BTW. Stephen B Streater 08:26, 27 April 2006 (UTC)

Nunberg's argument is faulty in his reference to the power grid. He is a linguist, not an electrical engineer. He is clearly discussing an area outside his own sphere of expertise. For example, I cannot take my hair dryer to Europe and directly plug it into the wall because (1) the plug will not fit, (2) the voltage is different (220V v 110 V) and (3) the frequency is different (60 Hz v. 50 Hz). Furthermore, most countries cannot shift power to each other as easily as they can share computing resources under the modern distributed computing model. If California were having another energy crisis this summer, France cannot lend us a few hundred megawatts for a day, because there is no direct link between their power grids. So it is simply foolish to speak of one "power grid."

Also, it appears that Nunberg's commentary was originally a radio commentary for a show that is not a regular news program, which meant it was not subject to the rigorous editing that regular news programs, newspapers, or academic journals usually go through. Thus, it is highly suspect and probably falls under original research. See Wikipedia:No original research.

The point is that there are multiple power grids, running on all kinds of wacky technologies. Power grid, standing alone, is a common noun. But there is only one Internet (capitalized), which is a proper noun, that runs on TCP/IP.

As for "the telephone network," there are actually many telephone networks, despite the loose appearance of interoperability. Just look at the mess with telephone numbers. But there is only one Internet Protocol.

Also, to take Nohat's ludicrous argument the other way, I could argue that the Queen of England is unique, since there is only one at any given time, so why don't we just call her queen elizabeth ii? Or how about the president of the united states? Realistically, there are many queens, many presidents, many skies, many telephone networks, and many power grids. But there is only one Internet.

That is the argument that the majority of educated Americans adhere to (including the vast majority of computer journalists, computer programmers, and electrical engineers), and nothing is going to change that in the foreseeable future. Wikipedia is not about changing minds, only about providing information on the status quo. The blogosphere is for changing minds.--Coolcaesar 18:19, 27 April 2006 (UTC)

First of all, this is a question about language, so a linguist is exactly the kind of expert we should turn to for providing guidance. I fail to see how the fact that his opinion was presented in the context of a non-news radio show in any way diminishes his authority to present opinions on English-language usage.

Second, even if it is "foolish" to speak of one power grid, people do still speak and write about such things. The fact that the conception of something may be incomplete does not change how one capitalizes its name. Knowledge of a topic and knowledge of how to use the English language are NOT the same thing, and it is perfectly possible to write about something which the writer has limited knowledge of and still use unimpeachable English. The relevant facts of the matter are that whether or not "internet" is a proper noun is not a res judicata, and there are arguments on both sides of the issue that warrant mention in this article.

The statement "there are many queens, many presidents, many skies, many telephone networks, and many power grids. But there is only one Internet." is begging the question. There are obviously many internets, not only internets which are completely disconnected from the internet, such as networks operated by the Department of Defense, but the internet is itself composed of many internets. The term "the internet" is the one global internet, the same way that even though there are many skies, "the sky" is the one global sky, and even though there are many telephone networks, "the telephone network" is the one global telephone network (which uses a single protocol—voice). The things are exactly analogous, and arguing that they are not is sophistry.

No one is advocating trying to change minds, but it is important to include all legitimate viewpoints on this linguistic matter. This viewpoint, presented by a linguist, is perfectly legitimate and deserves mention in the article. While it is true that the capitalized convention is currently the most prominent, the noncapitalized variant enjoys some usage by respectable users of the language, and it is important to recognize not only the variety of usage, but the variety of reasons for the variety of usage. The analogy with "sky", "telephone network", and even "the power grid", despite your quibbles, is perfectly apt. Nohat 19:23, 27 April 2006 (UTC)

I'm afraid you're on to a loser here, Nohat and friends. Coolcaesar is prepared to be rude, beligerant, to insult you, your education and your country, and will try to destroy your will to help on WP before he'll let you change a word of "his" section on this topic. He's about the only one, and almost a year ago he himself wrote "news sources in Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom prefer "internet" much, much more", which is perfectly true, but I think he waits for these arguments to flare up. And it keeps happening, because he's wrong; but winning again means more to him than improving or balancing the article, it seems to me. (Feeling chewed and spat out from the last mauling I got) --Nigelj 21:27, 27 April 2006 (UTC)

I have confidence in Coolcaeser's commitment to NPOV, that he will agree that there is room for all viewpoints on this topic to be fairly represented in the article. Nohat 23:07, 27 April 2006 (UTC)

Well, I still disagree with you, but as I am too busy with personal and work matters at the moment to get involved in another Wikipedia flame war, I will back down on this issue for now. --Coolcaesar 05:03, 29 April 2006 (UTC)

Thank you for doing so, Coolcaesar. I've rearranged and tightened up the wording in the section a bit. I hope it shows in a valid way, both views on the subject and I hope you find it OK for now. --Nigelj 09:51, 29 April 2006 (UTC)

"... United Kingdom prefer "internet" much, much more", which is perfectly true ..." - nonsense. A number of pretentious (and frankly, ignorant) British newspapers may prefer 'internet', but educated Brits write 'Internet', which is the correct form. To say that a linguist is the right person to pronounce on a topic s/he understands nothing about is arrogant, as well as ignorant.

“Internet” is the proper name of the network most people connect to, and the word needs to be capitalized. ~ UBeR 02:55, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

IMHO, the Internet is the largest internet in the world... but I'm not getting into any flame war on this - it's obviously generating strong feeling ;-) Poweroid 18:36, 19 December 2006 (UTC)

The Internet is a NAME of an internet. As such, I am sure Nohat would agree that as a NAME, it must have capital I. That is opposed to the TERM internet, which should have a lowercase i. The MAKERS of the Internet reffer to the difference between Internet and internet in the book Where wizards stay up late. I have made the correction to the main page. The term Internet to name that internet comes from Transmission Controll Protocal/ Internet Protocal (TCP/IP), which are the very basic protocalls used be the Internet. Corrupt one 00:36, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

British Invention

Wasn't the Internet a British invention? I'll edit this page with the info I found later, im going to put the info into words that other people can understand... Garfunkle20 11:39, 20 May 2006 (UTC)Garfunkle20

Hmm I think that the french were the first to use some sort of internet for public use with their minitel connection. They were allready in use in 1981 ! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Xklsv (talk • contribs) 13:30, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

Well, the Web was - look up TBL.

I look forward to seeing your information. Stephen B Streater 18:19, 20 May 2006 (UTC)

Especially since the only possible contributor on the British side of the pond was Donald Davies, who was English. And Davies' contributions were more on the theoretical side; as far as I know, he didn't actually do hands-on work on the IMPs or on the TCP/IP protocol stack itself. The key people are Licklider, Taylor, Kleinrock, Engelbart, Cerf, Kahn, etc. --Coolcaesar 19:04, 20 May 2006 (UTC)

Sorry, my mistake. The article I read was about Boolean expressions. I dont know where I got that it contributed to the making of the internet, mabye with the exception of Scripting languages... Garfunkle20 13:53, 21 May 2006 (UTC)Garfunkle20

Thanks for checking before you put it up on the main article. Stephen B Streater 13:55, 21 May 2006 (UTC)

Sorry if I caused any hard feelings. I really should have read the article carefully. Hey! Gimmie a break! Im 16! Garfunkle20 14:32, 21 May 2006 (UTC)Garfunkle20

Actually Packet Switching was developed by a British scientist before his American counterpart as the phone company in America refused to co-operate. Without the packet switching, the Internet woud be impossible. Corrupt one 00:38, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

Without several dozen other things, none invented by the British, it wouldn't be possible either :)

Exactly that would be like sayin the Sumerians invented it, since it wouldnt exist without writing —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.241.65.126 (talk) 18:36, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

Al Gore is not British! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 40four (talk • contribs) 20:13, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Charles A. Petrik

Isn't this Charles A. Petrik just a figment of someone's imagination? i.e. vandalism? I'm removing him. (Rajah 04:39, 11 June 2006 (UTC))

If he is indeed a hoax (which seems exceedingly likely), then I guess he'll be no more real over at Ronald Pelton. I'll go remove him. --Ashenai 04:48, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Picture of the internet

It seems to me that this article could use a picture of the internet. I was thinking either:

A: a big nice picture of planetary bandwidth/connections, etc.

B: A picture of the standard flowchart representation of the internet, a cartoon storm cloud that says "the internet", possibly with lightning.

Any thoughts?

--Zzthex 04:53, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

• Cute. There's a "picture of the Internet" floating around with just a monitor that says "Welcome to the Internet". But, seriously, no.Danny Lilithborne 05:24, 12 June 2006 (UTC)
  • It might help certain people make the point that the Internet is not a dump truck. 66.171.45.111 23:02, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

Of course not, its a series of tubes. Anyways, a picture of a router or an ethernet cable would be a great addition.

• What about this one: http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/map_of_the_internet.jpg ?

• • Very funny. Or maybe even : http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/online_communities.png (my personal favorite)Whatipedia 23:24, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

The picture of the internet is created from data almost three years old (2005) and the internet has grown greatly since then. Is there an updated picture to be found?--Exander (talk) 02:06, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Web applications in workplace section

What is the purpose of including this minor factoid? What does this add other than a doubly redundant clause? Web applications are not even the primary reason why people can work from home, they are one among many means, all of which should not be mentioned here. Are we to add more and more about "e-mail", "remote desktop access", "also normal websites", "specialized proprietary software", "oh, and combinations of these", etc. 12:09, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

To be frank, I think the whole section is a bit waffly. However, Web applications give a new dimension to using the Internet from home or other remote location because all the data is available from anywhere without installing new software. This is qualitatively different from using traditional desktop applications with an Internet connection, where an installation is required. Web applications, for example, allow collaborative working from multiple locations including cyber cafés where installation of new software is prohibited. The cost of liccences and support for installing software on random PCs at home is a major limiting factor in working from multiple locations. If we're going to cut out something, I'd say something more like this:

• The Internet is allowing greater flexibility in working patterns, especially with the spread of unmetered high-speed connections. Today, many people have more flexibility in working hours and location. Web applications allow people to work (separately or collaboratively) through standard Web connected PCs.

This is a new area, but Web applications (which include a wide range of options such as web email, Google, Wikipedia and video editing) are a major factor in changing the work place options. Stephen B Streater 13:15, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

Okay, but it needs something along the lines of what you wrote above, rather than repeating that it's for "web-connected PCs" and without simply plunking down "using Web applications" without a minimal description of what it is. —Centrx→talk 14:24, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

I've put something up - concise but covers these points. Stephen B Streater 15:07, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

ownership and value

so who owns the internet and how much is it worth?? imagine if someone else bought it... it would be billions! 203.211.75.42 06:19, 20 June 2006 (UTC)

That comment's not too bright. There are several reasons the Internet could never have been created or owned by one person, starting with the issue of the initial capital costs. Please see Project Xanadu. --Coolcaesar 19:42, 20 June 2006 (UTC)

Additionally, the internet would have never gotten so popular if it was a private entity, as censorship alone, which is treated quickly as damage on the internet, would have killed it. 68.228.33.74 23:13, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

I have read recently that other governments are becoming concerned about US government control of the internet. Other than buying the equipment - does it cost anything to be on the net - who do you send your check to ( the guy who owns it ) if anyone? The not too bright among us thought the US government started it on a small scale and then it grew - Al Gore seems to think so and he would never tell a fib. I believe censorship and bugging are quite common on the net - information appears to be capable of being purged if desired ( or so I have found - searching a few months later for a person ( of no international importance I thought ) the information, of which there was a lot, has gone ( is it possible only in one area or would it have to disappear everywhere - just curious, not a federal case).

Huh? Not sure what you're getting at; it was invented by a project funded by the US military and grew well beyond their expectations. The backbones are owned, as is the cable connecting everything, other than that though I'm not sure who can claim ownership of what. Gtadoc 02:36, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Censorship in France?

I don't think any form of Internet censorship exists in France. It is unlawful to sell nazi memorabilia in France, but there is no difference in doing so online versus offline. As far as I am aware, the French government does not block information on the Internet in any way. --194.109.232.21 19:58, 26 July 2006 (UTC)

No, that is censorship because a French citizen can get an enforceable court order to require an online company doing online auctions in France to police all auctions for Nazi-related material, and to remove such auctions whenever it finds them. That was the key issue in the Yahoo! case a few years ago. In contrast, in the United States, such a court order would be unconstitutional under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, because the American public policy in favor of free speech requires a much higher standard of imminent harm (where the speaker would have to be explicitly urging physical violence against particular persons and would have to be speaking to an audience which he knew was capable of such violence). This distinction is commonly taught in Internet law courses in American law schools to illustrate the difference between American and French public policy on freedom of speech and expression. --Coolcaesar 04:57, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

That is an absurd definition of censorship, not a million miles from Clare Short referring to pornographic magazines as 'censorhip of women's right not to be harrassed by pornography'. The French model is not censorhip, but a prohibition on selling certain items - SELLING, mate, not MENTIONING.

A prohibition on selling certain items, because of the content that they communicate, is equivalent to censorship, because it is suppressing the communication of the content to an audience. For example, if selling any copies of Pokemon cartoons was illegal because Pokemon encourages the resolution of conflicts through violence or causes thousands of kids to have seizures (both technically true), then much fewer kids would ever know who are Ash and Pikachu. The point is that by limiting the sale of an object, one ends up limiting the distribution of the object as well as any inherent meaning it communicates. Both, of course, are the goal of the French law. In contrast, the United States tends to be more tolerant of abhorrent and disgusting political ideas, because it was founded by revolutionaries whose views amounted to treason against the Crown. Oddly, the U.S. is more intolerant towards nudity and sex in its media, though, than many other countries. --Coolcaesar 04:09, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

I believe it is - I know it is - illegal to mention anything about the Nazis concerning the holocaust if it is in a nonbelieving manner. That's censorship - how you get caught I don't know - snitches or direct government search? - by any definition. China also seems to censor what gets into China.

About the start statement for this discusion part:

I would say it should be phased "There is no Internet censorship in France.", instead of "There is no censorship on the Internet in France." The difference is that Internet Censorship reffers to censorship relating specifically to the internet, and does NOT include all other forms of censorship that apply in France.

If you think that restrictions on SELLING does not qualify as censorship, but only restriction on mentioning things is censorship, then here is a question for you: If France has NO censorship on the Internet, is child pornography freely available online? If even THAT is allowed freely, then there is no censorship on the internet there. Corrupt one 00:54, 14 April 2007 (UTC)

Al Gore

I could swear Al Gore made the internet in his basement in the early 1990s. What was he just bullshitting everyone?

But serially, it would at least be interesting to note that Al Gore said he invented them internets. ABart26 23:42, 3 August 2006 (UTC)

You are an idiot. He never said he invented he. He said he played a key role in helping to fund it. He did, voting in favor of funding DARPA. The news media twisted "funded" into "created", and then turned "created" into "invented". He never claimed to invent it, much like he never claimed to have "discovered" Love Canal. Coolgamer 19:39, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

Please do not engage in trolling. In his role as a legislator, Al Gore was a major force behind the privatization and commercialization of the Internet in the 1990s — but he did not invent the technology. His role is already noted in the History of the Internet article. --Coolcaesar 16:46, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

Please do not engage in humorlessness. One line clarifying about a well-known misquote is entirely appropriate. It's probably not a stretch to claim that Gore's statement is the most famous quote using the word "Internet". Woodshed 07:00, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

Could we at least put somewhere in there that "the Internet is serious business"?

Another good source of information regarding VP Gore's role in the internet can be found at Al Gore and information technology, which may not have existed when the previous responses were written (I didn't check). It explains the source of his comment and how it came to be interpreted. CsikosLo (talk) 16:23, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

This is shameful. You mention AL GORE, but there is no mention of any of the TECHNICAL INNOVATORS LIKE BURT METCALF AND HIS ASSOCIATES WHO REALLY GAVE ARPA THE MEAT AND BONES OF THE INTERNET. THIS IS LIKE MENTIONING THE LIGHT BULB WITHOUT THOMAS EDISON. NO WONDER THERE IS DIMINISHING INTEREST IN ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE IN THIS COUNTRY!!!

70.106.60.44 14:36, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

Apparently you haven't been interested enough to look up what you're talking about or to contribute meaningfully to wikipedia. Your so-called BURT METCALF is a fiction of your imagination. Bob Metcalfe's role in Ethernet is discussed in that article. As for History of the Internet, there's a whole separate article on it, linked from this one. Dicklyon 16:37, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

Internet2

Internet2 seems to be listed as a research network in this article. However the Internet2 article says that it is a consortium which develops network technology, and that it is frequently mistaken for a network my the media. From the article: This is misleading since Internet2 is in fact a consortium and not a computer network. Could someone please confirm/disprove this? Matt73 23:29, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

internet

== [[Meaning of internet

             Importance of internet
             advantages 
             Disadvantages''''']] ==

---

Whoever is reponsible for the above I cannot tell.

My question is to that person(s) - May "internet" ever be written uncapitalized?

Is that a correct usage of this newly coined word?

Yours truly, Ludvikus 14:20, 6 September 2006 (UTC)

No, it may not. It is a proper name.

Actually, as mentioned elsewhere on this discusion page and in the article, the Internet is a specific internet. All networks of networks are internets, but only one is called the Internet. Corrupt one 02:31, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

vandalism

somebody has vandalized this page.Yet-another-user 04:21, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

i have removed the vandalism. Yet-another-user 04:27, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

lol —Preceding unsigned comment added by 204.113.186.241 (talk) 14:33, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Internet and internet

hey guys I just did a search on internet <lowercase and i got redirected to the Internet Page. I am certain that there is a difference. Internet you all know and internet being a bunch of interconnected networks using all different kinds of protocals and topologies. am i mistaken? if not should we make a page for internet and link it to the Internet page?

Indeed, there is a difference between the Internet, and an internet.

I am of the opinion that this article should be renamed as The Internet, and that this articles current heading be used for the general sense of interconnected networks. -FrostyBytes 11:42, 26 September 2006 (UTC)

Hey that is not a bad idea at all--Sniperwolf3 06:11, 29 September 2006 (UTC)

In my opinion, Internet spelled with a capital I is The Internet. One generalized rule for capitalization is that a word must be capitalized if it is the name of some person, place or thing that is the only one of its kind. Therefore, since there is only one Internet, it should be capitalized. Uncapitalized internet could simply refer to any of a number of networked networks that exist; however, using the term internet might cause some confusion, I think. Then there is the term intranet but that is somewhat different in it use. Katalaveno 14:36, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

The Internet is a NAME of an internet. As such, I am sure you will agree that as a NAME, it must have capital I. That is opposed to the TERM internet, which should have a lowercase i. The MAKERS of the Internet reffer to the difference between Internet and internet in the book Where wizards stay up late. I have made the correction to the main page. The term Internet to name that internet comes from Transmission Controll Protocal/ Internet Protocal (TCP/IP), which are the very basic protocalls used be the Internet. Corrupt one 00:39, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

I agree, but names can become common nouns, and I believe this has happened with the name "Internet" (which is now used to identify the services it offers, which is not the same thing as the technical basis for them). I have edited the relevant section to reflect this. Rp (talk) 15:15, 1 August 2008 (UTC)

This is so dumb. It's not a name in the sense of a trademark or title, it's just the word we came up for it. Compare "the world", "the universe", "reality", "the atmosphere", and so on. Yes you can argue there are other instances of each, but we can also imagine other internets, and the usages are very analogous, therefore I do not enjoy seeing the word capitalized as a standard.207.189.230.42 (talk) 19:53, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

Linked to on Slashdot

Here. Perhaps that could explain the spate of vandal IPs today. E. Sn0 =31337= 22:23, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

Definition of Web on Internet page

I take issue with the definition of the WWW on the Internet page - a collection of documents? Wouldn't it be more accurate to say that the web is a graphical interface we use to access files on the Internet? Because don't lots of people now say they're going to upload a video to the web, or download a podcast from the web? They don't say they're going to go look at an HTML page with some Ajaxy stuff that allows them to view a video.

Valid point - the correct word is resources, to include files, interactive Ajax applications, multimedia etc. I've updated the article, but kept it brief. The sentence above is interesting: maybe what they should say is something like, "they're going to upload a video using the internet to put it onto the web, or use the internet to download a podcast that they found by using the web". If they could be bothered, that is :-) --Nigelj 17:58, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

Well, this is part of the problem with the Web combining aspects of hypertext and Internet technologies. Hypertext traditionally dealt with documents (that is, textual objects). Even today, the Web is primarily about documents; HTML documents still form the primary navigational structure (and their formal structure is called the Document Object Model, after all). A true hypermedia Web that transcends the document model would be one where people could seamlessly link from the middle of one Flash presentation to the middle of a QuickTime movie to a particular page in a 300-page PDF, but we haven't gotten that far yet. Although we can embed plug-ins in HTML documents, and although some plug-ins like Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat support direct links into HTML and other types of files, the linking isn't truly universal, with Flash's and QuickTime's refusal to expose all objects as links posing the largest obstacle. This is one of the issues that really gets on the nerves of hypermedia scholars, that Macromedia (now part of Adobe) and Apple are more interested in protecting their little fiefdoms rather than supporting a truly open and seamless Web. I hope this clears up the issue. --Coolcaesar 05:45, 5 November 2006 (UTC)

Because almost all 'web' browsers support protocols other than HTTP, such as FTP, I think that the issue must be addressed. For those people who are trying to really understand or study Internet concepts, I think defining and distinguishing between web and Internet in this article is valuable information. I know this isn't the exact point brought up above but I think it's still worth a mention. Katalaveno 14:40, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

In Weaving the Web, the book written by Lee-burner about making the World Wide Web, he got the Web part from the fact it was the only term he could find that described how the resources interconnected from many points to many other points. The definition for Web has not changed, just the type of files that are used. It grew to include images, but they were not there originally, and so should NOT be part of the definition of the WWW

It would be most accurate in my point of view to state the the World Wide Web is a collection of interconnected FILES.

Still, I'll check my facts before I make any changes. Corrupt one 00:41, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

Could you even generalise it as a collection of interconnected files? Technically, a growing number of websites use dynamically created content, through Content Management Systems, such as weblogs or even this site. Wikipedia is a collection, in itself, of some files, some multimedia resources, and a whole lot of database driven text. Frustrating to classify, but damned exciting to develop and explore. Lucanos (talk) 04:58, 15 January 2008 (UTC)

And Wikipedia is part of the Web. Before the Web, the internet was mainly a network of networked computers that stored information is directories, and you could not just easily go from one to another, but rather had to go all the way to THAT computer and work your way down to that data. The Web is basicily the system of connectivity between bits of data on the Net. I think that the easiest way to describe the Web would be as a system of interconnected files on the Internet.

Also, I just realized, this is going to far into what the Web is, and whould be continued there. Corrupt one (talk) 23:26, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

Help with Portal:Internet

I'm finding it hard to find the time to maintain Portal:Internet, and I'm looking for co-maintainers. Anyone interested? Computerjoe's talk 17:27, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

Section about Microsoft not NPOV

The section about Microsoft is clearly not neatral. It seems to be saying that Microsoft got its employees to blog to try to "impress" people with their technical expertise. In fact, many of Microsoft's employees (for example Raymond Chen) has been writing on the Internet long before they joined Microsoft and just continued when they joined. Some companies have tried to stop that sort of behaviour, others have not. There is no devious plan behind Microsoft's actions (or, rather lack of actions) in this case. I think it is more noteworthy to point out the companies that expressively forbid their employees to blog about their work (e.g. Google). Unfortunately the page is locked now.

Accuracy of statistics

In the article, it says "As of September 18, 2006, over 1.08 billion people use the Internet according to Internet World Stats.", but on the page that links to, it lists the total number of users as "1,086,250,903", which should be properly rounded up to 1.09 billion, not 1.08 billion. Monsday 21:21, 14 November 2006 (UTC)

I think that would be quite useless. First, the total number 1.08 billion is not rounded number, the article says "over 1.08 billion", which refers that there are more than 1.08 billion users of internet which is correct. 1.09 billion would be faulty statement, because there'aint so many users - only 1.086 billion. You can't round numbers detecting users, votes ect. And anyhoo, who cares? :P —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 192.89.97.1 (talk) 12:17, August 20, 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, like when I brag about having 10" when it's really only 5.0002". Ladies get angry when it comes down to business and they was all ready for 10". It's just not polite to round up sometimes.59.167.86.232 15:26, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

Rules say, stick with the facts. Don't add falsehoods, or you will get into trouble. Corrupt one (talk) 23:18, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

Autonomous Systems

I feel there is a need to cover the subject of autonomous systems, with respect to the internet. 202.54.176.11 09:47, 28 November 2006 (UTC)nr, 28-Nov-2006

That is way too much information for 95% of Wikipedia users. Remember, most users don't know the difference between a compiler and a interpreter, let alone the difference between the Web and the Internet (yes, there is a difference). Perhaps a See also link at the bottom might be appropriate, but autonomous systems are too much of a tangent for any in-depth coverage here. --Coolcaesar 21:59, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

See Autonomous system (Internet) --Nigelj 22:16, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

Would it not be correct to state that the internet is a conglomeration of interconnected autonomous systems? 59.93.32.35 13:49, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

No. Originally it WAS, as you put it "a conglomeration of interconnected autonomous systems." That is, each system that linked via the internet was able to function on its own, and to a certain extent without needing each other. However, I reckon that since Domain Names came out instead of just IP Address Numbers, we have become more dependent on a directory of them to connect to each other. Most of you would know the domain name for Yahoo!, but would you know the IP address Number for it? Also, we have had systems become more dependent on each other. A Business that sends out Emails to its customers to tell them what new things are in depends on the customers Email servers. It depends also on the BANKS systems to get the transation done! then their is the fuss with messing with things like all the Host system, the Server system, and others. That is assumeing the people who own it are also maintaining it, and don't have some other people running their security for them. There are many ways in which they are becoming more dependent on other systems. Some systems are still autonomous, such as BBS's (Yes, I THINK there are still a few out there. I'm not sure where, but I THINK they're out there), but most of them are heavily into security, like banks and government military systems. I must admit, some just want to controll it all themselves, and don't want to have to put up with other people's incompedences (Examples include some large businesses.) Corrupt one 00:41, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

CERN or USA

Who actually started th enet is it CERN or the USA Military?--Darrendeng 07:25, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

As far as I know, the USA Military created a lot of the Internet (internetwork) protocols and CERN was where the World Wide Web was invented. 80.42.143.242 17:52, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

If I remember correctly, in the book, Where wizards stay up late, which was written by people who MADE the internet, they were FUNDED by a US military department DARPA, but THEY developed it without military help. They were called the Advances Research Project Agency (add Defense to the start and you have the name of the funding military department), and their first network using the Internet protocalls was called the ArpaNet. Darpa developed the second network and called it DarpaNet.

It was made NOT by the US military, but by people FUNDED by them. I'll check my facts. Corrupt one 00:42, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

They were funded by ARPA, which was set up in the pentagon, and established by Eisenhower (or however you spell it) as a responce to lagging behind the Russians in technology. ARPA granted money out to people for research in all kinds of areas on the grounds that technology must develop all around.

The idea for the Internet came about due to people being annoyed at having to have terminals for many different networks in their officesand having to, log into each, them not sharing information and having to know the programming language for each computer system!

The only work done with the military in mind was what would come to be called packet switching, giving the internet is decenteralized formation. The packet switching never got of the ground in America until the people planing on connecting the different mainframes learned about it from a British guy who had developed just about the same thing on his own for different reasons. It was litteraly gathering dust in the militaries Research ANd Development (RAND) department! The Internet people took it for themselves.

Read Where wizards stay up late by Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyon. The start for the origins of the idea, and chapter 2: A Block Here, Some Stones There, for the information about Packet Switching. Corrupt one 01:34, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

I am pretty sure you will find that the motivations behind the development of (D)ArpaNet and the internet stretched well beyond users getting tired of walking from single-purpose terminal to single-purpose terminal. The very nature of the internet, and the self-healing characteristics of the decentralised routing system, were part of the defence forces influence. From what I recall from the training I have had exposure to within a telecommunications framework, the underlying purpose of the internet was to provide a communications system which would not be destroyed or disrupted (permanently) from the loss of any single point.

This motivation was through fear of the whole nuclear sneak attack/Cold War thing, where, in a traditional telephone network, alot of the traffic goes through a small number of critical points. The problem with that system is that the loss of one point can essentially blackout a far larger portion of the geographic area covered by the network. With packetised switching, and intelligent routing, if a switching point fails traffic is simply routed around it until it comes back online.

Mind you, with the increased growth of internet traffic and infrastructure, and the involvement of traditional telecommunications companies in the creation of internet backbones around the world, some of the initial tenets of internet design have been disregarded, or devalued, over time. So, for example, alot of the Pacific telephone trunks, and a large portion of the Pacific internet pipelines all run into and out of San Francisco, meaning if it has a catastrophic failure a good portion of the traffic into and out of USA would be affected.

An interesting topic to research though, and to see how it continues to develop over time. Lucanos (talk) 05:12, 15 January 2008 (UTC)

Packet switching was developed to solve the problem of backlogs in informations occuring, and in case one part went down. Please read When Wizards Stay Up Late. Since it was made with the help of the people who made the internet, I think it would be one of the more reliable referance books for this matter.

That is MY verifiable referance. Where did you get YOUR information from, and does it possess as much reliabity as mine? Corrupt one (talk) 23:16, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

Section: Terminology

It feels to me as though the second paragraph in this section pretty much repeats the first, albeit in more complicated terms. The first paragraph gives a very clear and easily undertsnable, if basic, explanation of the difference between the Internet and the World Wide Web and then the second paragraph continues on to explain it in more complex terms, but will ultimately do nothing more than confuse the person reading this article. I may just be nitpicking, but I just thought I'd share my two cents on the way that section reads. --IndigoAK200 10:13, 2 December 2006 (UTC)

I think I originally wrote what is now the first paragraph (I may be wrong about that - but if I didn't actually create it I certainly wrote a large part of its current wording, and have helped maintain it for some time now). At the time it was a second paragraph in the lead section. On the 21st November, a user at 70.50.237.242 added the new material with the comment, 'as suggested, merged "define and distinguish between" paragraph from Web vs. Internet which will now redirect here' (diff). I don't know what discussion led to this - maybe it was on the other article, or maybe I just missed it. The two paragraphs were later given a separate heading.

I agree that they both say the same thing in two different ways. My feeling is that the second paragraph is overly-technical for this early in the article, before any of these terms have been introduced or discussed. My suggestion would simply be to delete it: (a) it would also be redundant to come back to the issue later in the article and (b) I strongly feel that this confusion is so rife and so wrong that it needs to be laid to rest right up front - prefereably in the lead as it used to be.

But maybe I'm too close to this, due to my involvement in the original text. If this is all that remains of a whole previous article, probably someone somewhere feels it should be kept too. What the second paragraph says is not wrong, it just isn't the way I would explain it to anyone other than a trained and experienced network engineer - and they, most likely, would already be very familiar with the distinction! I'd move the original text back up into the lead too. --Nigelj 14:52, 2 December 2006 (UTC)

I agree that they both say the same thing, and that Nigelj was correct in avoiding a conflict of interest. Personnally, I think they need to be replaced with someing VERY simple, so that most people can understand it. Something along the lines of "The Internet in the name given to the group of interconnected networks using the Internet Protocals. Once the networking is established, we can run other protocals. One of them is called HTTP and is the basis of the World Wide Web. The World Wide Web was designed to help interlink different resources on the Internet, and provide better and easier access." Corrupt one 00:43, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

Internet vs. Internet Service

I'm seeing a growing trend here in the U.S. of people referring to having internet service as having an internet. ISPs are doing this too when marketing their services (AT&T and Earthlink are notable examples). I personally find this rather odd. I can't think of any other service the average person consumes to which we refer in a similar manner. For instance, we don't say that we have a cable, we say that we have cable. The former would be confusing -- I personally have many different cables including network cables, power cables, phone cables, etc. Granted, there are some who can honestly say they have an inter-network (internet for short). Some businesses for example. However, that generally does not apply to everyday consumers. Comments? Siggimoo 15:53, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

I haven't heard the precise usage you are talking about and I live in the Bay Area too. I have seen/heard the AT&T TV commercials where they say, "you can get Internet, cable, and phone all on one bill." Can you cite a particular advertisement or describe a particular TV commercial so that we can understand what you are talking about? --Coolcaesar 07:00, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

Earthlink ran a TV ad campaign not too long ago in which their "staff" spoke about their Internet services, working at Earthlink, etc. One of the people stated, "...I will do all I can to get you a high-speed Internet that goes up to 70 times faster than dial-up." I've been looking around for an online copy to which I can link, but I'm not finding it. If I do, I'll post it here. -- Siggimoo 16:47, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

Was that on a cable network? I have only over-the-air antenna. I haven't seen a Earthlink campaign for a long time. --Coolcaesar 20:13, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

Also, for important issues like evolution of language, a single advertisement is insufficient evidence of a "trend" and to draw that weak inference would constitute original research in violation of core policies like Wikipedia:No original research and Wikipedia:Neutral point of view. You need to get either several written examples (for example, if you can show that several prominent journalists have published that usage) or even better, an academic paper by a English professor or professional lexicographer. After all, the job of lexicographers is to update dictionaries to reflect current usage! --Coolcaesar 21:10, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

Internet vs. The Internet

referring to Internet as "the internet" is a grammatical error which assumes that Internet is the only network that exists. Much the same as calling any Internet browser "Internet Explorer." --Rebent 14:55, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

It may not be the only network, but it is arguably the most important, it's like The Pill, i'ts not the only pill in existence, not even the most important, but massive amounts of people who hear the words "the pill" are going to think about birth control pill.--Chain Impact 15:03, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

I can't understand how there can be 'massive amount of people'! Shouldn't it be 'large number of people' instead? Kazimostak 13:10, 9 February 2007 (UTC)

Be that as it may, "the pill" is not a trademark. Should we change all the instances of "tissue" to "Kleenex" just because it's the most widely recognized? --Rebent 15:04, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

This is incorrect, see the Internet#The_name_Internet in this very article. An internet is any internetwork of networks, many of them exist. The Internet is the large, publich internetwork of networks that most people use. Wrs1864 15:05, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

you are obviously misreading it. Internet#The_name_Internet is about the convention of using upper or lower case is in the word "Internet" --Rebent 15:08, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

The section, correctly says: "Under this distinction, the Internet is a particular internet, but the reverse does not apply." Wrs1864 15:15, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

The section is about Internet capitalization conventions, not about internet article usage --Rebent 15:19, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

Yes, clearly, but that doesn't change the fact that there is "*the* Internet" and "many internets", of which the Internet is only one of them. Now, whether the capitalization alone is enough to make that distinction is somewhat open to dispute. Wrs1864 15:24, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

Hi Rebent, and welcome to Wikipedia. I think if you have a look at some of the Wikipedia policy and guideline pages, you'll see that what we're trying to do here is to reflect and record current knowledge. I think you'll agree that most English speakers refer to 'the (i|I)nternet' millions of times a day both in writing and in speech. So that's what we do here. You maintaining that they're wrong to do so is an original thought on your part, at best. --Nigelj 16:36, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

Hi Nigelj, and welcome to Wikipedia. I think that if you had a look at the dictionary or any peer-reviewed encyclopedia you would find that, in the real world, just because many people believe in something doesn't mean it should be true. Perhaps you should add a section entitled "Internet vs. The Internet" and express your claims there, so as to keep the article NPOV --Rebent

There is only one Internet in the context of this article. The word "the" is providing the definite description when used with the noun "Internet" because though traditionally internet could mean any old bunch of routers it is now properly "the Internet" i.e. that big network based around the root DNS servers and with IP addresses issued by a central managing body (more or less ICANN). You can have other networks but you'd never refer to a bunch of routers using private address space as "the internet" but as an "intranet". In the context of one company you could say "the intranet". I think it would be very hard to make a claim of that "the Internet" is an improper definite description unless you can show us where these other internets reside ? Until then "the internet" sticks for me and "internet" is WP:OR. Ttiotsw 02:15, 23 December 2006 (UTC)

D'oh! great point about intranet. I've put a mention of it in the naming section. (dang, the autosign bot is *quick*!) Wrs1864 02:49, 23 December 2006 (UTC)

The internet is a series of tubes

I'm deleting the section that follows:

"The Internet is a series of tubes The internet is made up of a series of tubes. To operate the internet at it's full potential, linus is required. Linus can be acquired at your local retail JC Penney's clothing store."

But it is a series of tubes. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.118.175.10 (talk) 23:37, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

The Mobile Internet is Incomplete

There has to be more about the mobile internet. Websites are created specifically for users of mobile phones. They tend to be smaller, require less input and text-based. Also, SMS/texting can fit in somewhere, i'm sure. - Ashton V. 08:08, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

Cultural/Social Significance

There is no mention of the cultural and social impact of the internet in this article. Unless there is an unmentioned article I have not seen, then I feel that it be said there ought to be one. The internet is the most revolutionary advancement in human history, in every aspect of our lives, ever. Virtually nothing has made information more available, easier to connect to one another or change our lives. It is not unreasonable to consider the possibility of an article discussing the impact of the internet in human society, science and development.Eedo Bee

See Wikipedia core policies at Wikipedia:No original research, Wikipedia:Verifiability, Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not. I agree the social impact is relevant but assessment of such impact is so subjective that every assertion needs to be cited. Otherwise you're just asking for a huge edit war. --Coolcaesar 18:58, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

I plan on adding an article, or at least a stub on Internet Communities. I have come across much information about increases in technology. If you look at things about sociology, the Internet, and other such things, you might be able to make a section for it. Possibly even an entire article! In some books like Virtual Nation and Cyber Cultures, there are things about the social impacts.

Things to look at include Social changes, Privacy, crime and the law, changing business practices and other such things.

Just PLEASE send me anything you get about communities on the internet! Corrupt one 02:32, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

Very confusing sentence

While discussing protocols used in the Internet: (in the TCP and UDP part), it was written: "The latter is a best-effort, connectionless transport, in which data packets that are lost in transit will not be re-sent." To me, this is confusing, espcially 'best effort' and 'data packets that are lost in transit will not be re-sent' part! Would anybody enlighten me please?? Kazimostak 16:58, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Did you try following the link to UDP in that sentence? That article has, "UDP does not provide the reliability and ordering while TCP does. Datagrams may arrive out of order, appear duplicated, or go missing without notice. Without the overhead of checking if every packet actually arrived, UDP is faster and more efficient for many lightweight or time-sensitive purposes." Does that help? Once you realise what was confusing you, let us know and maybe update the article yourself if it actually is confusing in the way it puts this point across. --Nigelj 22:39, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

The sentence quoted is an elegant and perfectly clear summary of how UDP compares to TCP. We do not need to make it unnecessarily wordy for novice Internet users or novice Wikipedia uesrs who do not understand how to click on hyperlinks to other articles to get the full explanation. We do not need to import the details of UDP into this article! --Coolcaesar 07:48, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

After Nijelj's explanation, things became clear to me. I think I did not read the sentence carefully, and that's all. By the way, I am neither 'novice Internet user' nor 'user who do not understand how to click on hyperlinks to other articles to get the full explanation'. And more importantly, I didn't know that there are ridiculous humbugs like Coolcaesar who infest wikipedia talk pages like viruses and try to 'enlighten' people in this boorish way! Again, Nigelj, thank you so much for your civility and politeness! Kazimostak 17:25, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

Shopping

In the "Common uses of the Internet"-area, shouldn't shopping be mentioned, with ebay and Amazon as the most obvious examples? (Another example on how it can be used in work, is how movies are made, both animated and live action.) 193.217.195.42 22:06, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

Wouldn't that come under ebusiness? Corrupt one 02:33, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

Significant Internet Events

Should the DDOS on the root servers count? As reported here: BBC News 86.130.104.36 18:22, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

Language

"English is the most prevalent..." and most abused? Either it prevails or it does not. Can someone please edit this? Thanks Snoom haplub 22:23, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

Prevalent means how much it prevales. To preval means it does it job. In this instance it prevales as being widely used with many things set up for it. If a language does not preval, then few, if any, sites will be set up to catere for that language. By saying that English is the MOST prevalent, that means it is the most commonly used language on the Internet. Corrupt one 02:34, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

Internet's effect on sociology

I am looking for research on information about how the internet has created some online communities that would not of ever existed without them. by this I mean both the communities based on people who have something in common thanks to the growing technology (like hackers and web comic artists) and also communities whoes members previous to the internet were seperated by distance or fear of embaressement (or arrest) (Such cases include Furries, perverts, and peopophiles).

All I have been able to find is stuff on how the technology is changing the type of society in real life, and totally ignoring these types of communities!

If ANYONE can tell me where to find this information I am after, contact me, PLEASE Corrupt one 03:56, 27 February 2007 (UTC)

Woof, vice magazine still wants to write that story about furries? how booooring... ;) --lynX

I was only giving examples off the top of my head. I could of just as easily of mentioned anarchists or different protest groups. Also, I was thinking about people who like having them as Avatars and roll playing anthromorthic animals in roll play games (and not the sexual kind either, although it DOES bring up the matter of internet communities being misunderstood by a few public cases of negitive exposure [both meanings intended]). I am also interested in how lynX would automatically think about Furries as in the fetish context immediantly, would know about a magaizine called Vice magainze, which caters to fetishes by the sound of the context s/he put in in, and that s/he seems to be so familiar with it that s/he is bored by it.

I would also like to ask that s/he keeps all comments in this section related to this subject.

The s/he is NOT accidental, since I have no idea WHAT fetishes s/he engages in on or off the internet, and I am covering myself in case they include MORFing. Thanks to no-one being able to tell anything about a person, and people lying about themselves, for all I know Lynx may be a fifty year old fat, hairy, foul smelling, drunked homosexual guy who likes being gang banged. S/he might also be an upstanding woman of good taste in her twenties, but since she knows that kind of magazine well enough to consider a Furry Fetish boring, I would not place any money on it.

Before anyone started accusing me of Trolling, I would like to find out lynX's response to this matter I have just raised about false identities used on Internet communities, another important matter when talking about the internet as a whole, as it deals with self representation.

I would also like for him/her to send me copies of the stories on Furries she mentioned in that comment of his/hers, as well as of any other fetish community s/he is ware of articles about, so I can see how Internet communities as a whole are portrayed there. Corrupt one 01:31, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

Internets

The distinction was evident in many RFCs, books, and articles from the 1980s and early 1990s (some of which, such as RFC 1918, refer to "internets" in the plural), but has recently fallen into disuse.

The first uses of the plural I can find in RFCs are in RFC 870, RFC 872 (quoted), and RFC 882. Capitalization is inconsistent. My suspicion is that before 1982, "internet" was rarely if ever used as a noun, but only or mainly as a determiner: i.e. "internet mail", "internet protocol", "internet service" were popular, while "an internet" and "internets" were rarely used. Then Gore helped create "the Internet" (i.e. NSFNET and everything attached to it with TCP/IP) which turned the term into a proper noun. On the other hand, it's quite possible that "internets" was widely used before 1982 and that it's just hard to come up with references to prove it. Rp (talk) 15:43, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

I don't know how it'd be researched, but Internets seems to be more frequently used recently if only in the context of joking. Messatsu 04:45, 3 March 2007 (UTC)

While I personally agree with your assessment, this isn't something that's easy to support with hard numbers. What's more, it's likely that this usage is marginal in the grand scheme of things and only prevalent in certain parts of internet subculture. In any case, I think that the humorous usage of the plural "internets" is trivia at best, and its inclusion wouldn't improve this article in any significant way. -- mattb @ 2007-03-03T07:32Z

What about the example, "(like radio or newspaper, e.g. I've found it in internet)" used in the article? That's a joke, isn't it, like 'interweb' and 'tinternet'? No-one actually says 'I've found it in internet' even in America, do they? I'm planning on changing it to say 'I've found it on the internet' - has anyone got a problem with that? --Nigelj 11:02, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

Actually, including the difference between the Internet and internets would be a way useful. Most people do not understand what the Internet is, and think that netowrks can only be linked via the Internet. I am talking about people in the IT industries! This should tell them that the Internet is just ONE internet. You might specify that large companies have an internet containing smaller networks, called intranets. At the very least, it will help clear up confusion to SOME people. Corrupt one 03:03, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

There is now a page on Internets. It is predominantly about the George W Bush gaffes at the 2000 and 2004 presidential debates but also mentions the earlier use of the term. In modern useage, interconnected networks are still just "a network" (never an internet), since most networks require some level of interconnection anyway. 60.241.193.143 06:12, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

I understand that. I was merely pointing out OFFICAL useaged as used by the makers of the Internet who mentioned the difference. I can understand confusion causing the change in terms. Corrupt one 23:41, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

Adding a Link

Hello group. I had added a link to this article's resources and it was removed. I received a message that I should first propose the addition here before attempting to re-post it. I felt it was relevant and appropriate so I'm a bit confused as to why it was rejected. I've added links in the past without having issues, and I'm not trying to spam this excellent resource so perhaps I can get group approval or a clearer explanation as to what I did wrong.

Thanks. Respectfully, Mike Cherim 18:13, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia already has a good history of the Internet article. Internal links are always preferred to external ones, and generally external links cover material that is out of the scope for inclusion in Wikipedia. In this case, I don't think that the blog posting covers any ground that isn't already covered on Wikipedia. -- mattb @ 2007-04-02T17:20Z

Fair enough. Thanks for the fast response. -- Mike Cherim 18:13, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

I would add it! X M ReBor* Neopetslovette 00:18, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

Protection for 72 hours starting 6th of April 2007

Please if you can, review the article a little so we know its correct due to recent vandalisms. Avalean 17:00, 6 April 2007 (UTC)

WP:BETTER#Size

I just happened to be looking at this article, and thought that I would mention WP:BETTER#Size. Also, I took a look at some of the subtopic articles which this article wikilinks to, and noticed some cases where info included here is more detailed than the information in the subtopic article. I've got too much on my plate right now to participate in any large way in improving this apparently suboptimal situation, but I thought that I would at least mention it here. -- Boracay Bill 06:07, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

The End of the Internet

I had once read on a newspaper, I think, that the Internet would run out of space around the year 2008... Is this true? If so, shouldn´t it be mentioned at the article? ♠Tom@sBat 21:57, 24 May 2007 (UTC)

The Internet actually ran out of space in 1997 and we're just cramming pop-up ads into it to cover it up. JuJube 22:04, 24 May 2007 (UTC)

Heavily covered in IP address starvation. Escape to IPv6 while there's still time! :-) --Alvestrand 23:34, 24 May 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the link! :) ♠Tom@sBat 20:00, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

What is this space you are talking about? Maybe you should explain in the article? What is the Internet made up of anyway. Neopetslovette 00:17, 2 June 2007 (UTC), PS, if you know, leave it on my talk page?

Since the internet has no actual physical size, then there is no way for it run out of room that way. If you are referring to IP addresses, then there MAY be a limit to that, since there IS a limit to numbers for the addresses. Web Addresses are just word translation of the IP addresses, which are in numbers. That MAY be what he was talking about.

It would be theoretically possible to keep going indeffinatly using what there is as HOST sites, but how many people would want to share their site with THOUSANDS of others in this compeditive world? Corrupt one 00:59, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

if Al gore is not mentioned ONCE in this article, then we know we have a problem

Wasn't his a leading force behind the internet? 71.182.73.134 05:48, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

Even i who hate al gore, knows that al gore deserves to be in this article. his name is synonymous with the internet, after all he did invent the internet. You wikipedia moderators are a funny breed. Whatevers. Manic Hispanic 06:04, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

If you look at the discusion page here, you will notice this matter is addressed earlier. He did NOT invent the internet, only helped fund DARPA which in turn funded most of the research which went into making the Internet protocals, not even all. Corrupt one 00:04, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

Paul Otlet and Internet.

Paul Otlet in 1934 had a similar idea about creating the internet itself. this is a short documentary about his idea:: http://youtube.com/watch?v=qwRN5m64I7Y. this is part of this film:: m L'homme qui voulait http://user.online.be/sofidoc/lhomme.htm. and this other article about him. http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/forgotten_forefather_paul_otlet --208.104.151.215 15:21, 13 July 2007 (UTC)

No professional scholar of the history of technology takes seriously the proposition that Otlet proposed anything like the Internet in 1934. His monographic principle certainly bears a striking resemblance to some aspects of hypertext, but even then, his role in the creation of that technology is considered to be a minor footnote. It was Vannevar Bush who independently conceived similar ideas in 1945 that directly inspired Ted Nelson and Douglas Engelbart to create hypertext in the early 1960s. Please do some reading on this difficult and complex field (I have over 24 binders of photocopies which will go into my long-planned book) before making such silly statements. --Coolcaesar 19:23, 14 July 2007 (UTC)

According to the book When Wizards Stay Up Late, made with the collaberation of the people who MADE the internet to start with, it was made up out of simple fustration with all the different network systems. Hypertext only got on the internet with the World Wide Web, (See Weaving The Web by Tim Burner-Lee)

Also, I would not consider youtube to be a very reliable research resource, thus violating the critera required for Wikipedia. Corrupt one 23:58, 15 July 2007 (UTC)

Something I think is important...

I think there ought to be a short section, quite near the top of the article, explaining very explicitly that the Internet is NOT the World Wide Web. It seems a common misconception that these are synonyms, which is patently wrong.81.151.88.192 14:32, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Well, there used to be a good section dealing with that. I just investigated the article history to figure out what happened (I haven't paid close attention to this article for several months). Take a look at this version on 2 April 2007 which had a good terminology section on Internet v. Web. [2] It was subsequently lost at this edit a few hours later during a barrage of vandalism by anonymous user 167.135.25.41 [3]. Eagle 101 clamped down with semi-protection at this edit a few hours later [4] but failed to notice that a large portion of the article was missing and no one else noticed (this is not one of the high-priority articles that I personally monitor closely).

Do we have any objections to restoring the lost section? If not, I'm putting it back in a couple of days.--Coolcaesar 19:24, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

No response. I am putting it back. If anyone deletes that section again, I will definitely try to get an admin to block them, or drag them before ArbCom as needed.--Coolcaesar 08:03, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

VoIP bias

The article states that VoIP is especially popular with "those with always-on ADSL or DSL Internet connections." Why do we need to mention one or two specific forms of always-on Internet connections? Why is there no mention of VoIP use with a cable internet connection?

I think it should be changed to just say that VOIP is especially popular with "those with always-on Internet connections." or "those with broadband connections."

141.158.94.198 21:40, 24 July 2007 (UTC) Walrii

Do you have referance material that STATES they are especially popular with those people? In not, then you can't make that change. Corrupt one 23:37, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

Is there reference material stating that is true with ADSL/DSL specifically? I think he has a valid point. It should be changed to always-on Internet connections or removed. Jack53 05:45, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

It is self-evident that people who have to pay by the minute for dial-up internet access won't get much benefit from VoIP - their system will mostly be offline so people can't place calls to them, and they will be paying for a local dial-up call even during outgoing calls. You don't need citations of scientific research for "water is wet" kind of statements. Just a moment's thought once it's been pointed out. Cable connections were not meant to be excluded - ADSL was given as an example and someone else added CSL, I think. Rather than add a definitive list of all the always-on technologies, I hope the new sentence structure makes it clear that these are just a few examples for the non-techie reader. --Nigelj 21:54, 22 August 2007 (UTC)

Self evident does not mean true. Unless there is referances then it can;t be added as it would be OR. (Also, water may be frozen solid or turned into a gass, in which cases it would not be wet.) Corrupt one (talk) 23:06, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

Mention of EVDO in the article.

Under Internet Access in the article it says "..., Wi-Fi, satellite and technology 3G (EVDO) cell phones." Should the word technology even be in there? The inclusion of EVDO but not other internet capable mobile networks (Like EDGE) seems odd. Is internet usage truly limited to 3G networks? I think the part regarding internet access from mobile phones/over mobile phone networks needs to be made either much more specific or simplified so it does not name specific protocols.

Jack53 02:20, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Overseas...

I think there should be mention of how the internet reaches overseas, from USA to Europe and so on. I'm not too sure how exactly that functions... Gumdropster 14:04, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

I think its mentioned in When Wizards stay up late. Originally a satalite was put in orbit just to make it reach Europe, but as when people started to use the improving phone systems, it moved to that. Corrupt one 23:44, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

Future of the internet

This page should contain some sort of reference to the idea that the internet will be restructured and a new internet might prevail; a future internet. Madskile 04:39, 21 August 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia is not a crystal ball or a publisher of original research. See official policy Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not. --Coolcaesar 16:57, 21 August 2007 (UTC)

If you can add referances to that, you might add a segment for how people percive what will happen. This can be important since people think things will happen, and take messures to accomidate those things. That can actually make them happen. Just add the referancable information, though. Corrupt one 01:18, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

would you say?

I got this bit of trivia about the internet: "The average web page contains 500 words."

Would you say this is true or would you dispute it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.220.109.142 (talk) 09:03, 1 September 2007 (UTC)

Whether it is true or not, can you support it with a reliable source? Splintercellguy 05:08, 3 September 2007 (UTC)

And, if you can, don't forget to go and add it to the World Wide Web article, not to this one, because this one is about the internet, not the web. :-) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Nigelj (talk • contribs) 18:37, 3 September 2007 (UTC)

Announcement of Wikipedia:WikiProject Internet

The formerly inactive Wikipedia:WikiProject Internet fills a highly important role. Category:Internet protocols and Category:Internet standards, orgs like ARIN and the IETF, there is a ton and a half of work to be done, and the vast majority of these articles are not yet being coordinated by any WikiProject. Anyone interested in helping? MrZaius^talk 16:35, 14 September 2007 (UTC)

A question about realms of the internet

On the worldwideweb, what are the contrasts between users of the internet between different languages? May we say that there is a www of portugal, a www of the united states, and a www of Russia? Would it be more appropriate to say that there is an english speaking web, a spanish speaking web, and a mandarin speaking web? What is seperating these different webs? Much else besides language? Is the infrastructure seperating these webs? How are google, yahoo, live, or majestic-12 and other search engines seperating these webs? How are they integrating them?

Where can I find statistics on the amount of users in the English speaking web, or the amount of users of the Icelandic speaking web etc...?

What are the barriers, the technical barriers that is, keeping people seperated on the web?\

What are you talking about. This page is for the Internet, NOT the World Wide Web, which is NOT just one word. Also, the Web is NOT devided into different webs. I have come across links to sites in German, Japaneese, french, Russian, Portugal, and those are one I can recognize.

The web is just a group of interlinked files, mainly documents, but with Flash coming along, then as well. It was designed so that any document can link to any other file. Please read Weaving the Web by Tim Berner Lee, the man who INVENTED the web. Corrupt one 23:41, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

_

more realms... It seems that there should be some sort of sub-web, like p2p? What other sub-webs are there? Are there any other www-like networks running on top, underneath, or alongside of the existing internet structure? I have heard of something like "Tor?" What else is out there? Another question I have is how do the chinese circumvent that firewall? Do they use anything like these "sub-webs"?

IF you know of some resources for me to read will you please post them? Also, if you know of better jargon to use, will you please post that as well. Thank you in advance wikipedians. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.134.134.53 (talk) 16:40, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

Just notices this in 11.3:

Underlying infrastructure

   * Internet Protocol (IP)
   * Internet Service Provider (ISP)
   * Series of tubes

I know I should probably just delete, but its not a bad description of tunneling.... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.11.173.143 (talk) 01:05, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Need to credit Al Gore for invention

A sentence should be put in like "Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore has been reported and, in some cases, ridiculed, for claiming to have invented the internet." http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EKF/is_13_45/ai_54339375

Not a big section, but a sentence. Cam809 22:25, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

You can add that to the part about how it started. A sentence like "Despite the misreported and ridiculed claims that Al Gore invented the internet, it was created by DARPA, which he helped fund." That way you clarify the claim as to what is going on. However, get referanceable material about where the quote is said to of come from. Corrupt one 23:49, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

Tim Berners Lee is the original inventor of the Internet. 76.110.82.251 01:51, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

No. He invented the World Wide Web, which is just PART of the internet. Admittadly a LARGE part, but still just a part. Please read Nerds 2.1 or when Wizards stay up late. Both of these books deal with the creation of the internet. Weaving the Web by Tim Berners Lee is about how he created the Web. Corrupt one 23:36, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

Goverance of the Internet

I agree that segment should of been removed. Not only was it unsourced, but it was WRONG! I believe someone should get a book on the internet and look at what goverance there is. The book "Virtual Nation: the Internet in Australia" springs to mind. Corrupt one 23:53, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

This Page is Very Possibly Conflict of Interest

I believe that this page is indeed a Conflict of Interest per anyone who edits the Internet article is indeed using the Internet. I saw this policy on Wikipedia that states this at WP:COI. It seems that there is no way that this article would abide by this policy on here. I didn't add the COI tag on this page as it would probally be removed anyway. I will be also discussing this over at the WP:COI talk page also to see about it. Sawblade05 ^{(talk to me | my wiki life)} 10:13, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

As long as it is neutral, unbiased, verifiable and not promoting anything, it is NOT conflict of interest. The editing is NOT COI, and using the internet to edit this does not count. Here is the fikrst paragraph of the COI page

A Wikipedia conflict of interest (COI) is an incompatibility between the purpose of Wikipedia to produce a neutral, verifiable encyclopedia, and the potential motivations of an individual editor. COI editing often involves contributing to Wikipedia in order to promote yourself or the interests of other individuals, companies, or groups. When an editor disregards the aims of Wikipedia to advance outside interests, they stand in a conflict.

If you can tell us HOW this page violates that, we shall reconsider the COI matter Corrupt one 23:59, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

If you read on past that part it goes on to stat that you shouldn't edit articles about your intrest per WP:COI#Editors_who_may_have_a_conflict_of_interest and WP:COI#Consequences_of_ignoring_this_guideline. As I said everyone is using the internet here and yes that can be used against you per what is stated in the WP:COI#Editors_who_may_have_a_conflict_of_interest. So therefore does not follow with these parts below what you stated. Sawblade05 ^{(talk to me | my wiki life)} 02:01, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

I agree. Therefore, in stating my conflict of interest, I freely admit that I use the Internet, the English language, chairs, clothing, food and water, and my contributions to these articles may therefore be biased. In order to counter systemic bias, I encourage those who have never used the items listed above to contribute to these articles. GUllman 03:08, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

I am goonna go with what GUllman says here even though on WP:COI is kinda screwed up right now anyway per this edit at http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Conflict_of_interest&diff=next&oldid=167501188 Which make this page sound less like a COI. Seems like a case closed, I hope. Sawblade05 ^{(talk to me | my wiki life)} 09:07, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

You can't be serious. JuJube 05:18, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

As the COI page states, there is NO FIXED STANDARD of what is COI. Also, it is a CONFLICT of interest. Unless you can tell us how using the internet is in CONFLICT with this page being fair and unbiased, it is not COI.

If you consider just USING the internet to be COI, then you in all fairness CAN'T edit the article. I would like to state that I believe Sawblade05 is just trying to stir up a debate, which I think MAY be in violation of OTHER rules. I may be in error as to his motivations, but this entire segment is pretty stupid. Corrupt one 22:41, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

The motivation for the Internets invention

Would it be proper to mention the main motivation for the invetion of the internet, which according to When Wizards Stay Up Late was because the people in charge were annoyed with having to access each network in their building via a different terminal, having to know the computer enviroment for each, and the command languages for them?

That was in addition to people all over the place demanding more computers from ARPA, and having to set up different things in different ways to work, and NOT being able to easy share data.

Corrupt one 00:23, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

Previous event -- bad .com redirects

I remember a few years ago, when you visited a non-existing .com domain (net and org too I believe), it would redirect you to some company's website. This only lasted a day or so. Is there an article on this event somewhere? dearly 04:16, 5 November 2007 (UTC)

You still sometimes get redirected to company sites if you use some links that have gone long ago. You might want to look at link rot since this concerns that. Also, link rot is on the Web, while this is the page for talking about the Internet, so you might want to check out that page. Probably under the heading of Link rot, which I THINK has its own article, (I'm not too sure about it) More specifically on handling link rot. It may also be under advertising on the Web. Corrupt one (talk) 22:28, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, I heard of link rot. What I'm referring to, is some event that happened a few years back and only lasted for a couple days, and had many people in an uproar. Any non-registered domain that you tried to reach would bring you to a specific company website (so all .com addresses were revolvable to an IP) dearly (talk) 19:58, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

Found what I was looking for. Site Finder dearly (talk) 20:02, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

Marketing as sub-section

I suggest taking the small section Marketing and adding it as a subsection of the Common Uses section. Any thoughts?UrsaLinguaBWD (talk) 21:21, 13 December 2007 (UTC)

I agree. It may even be a good idea to rename it E-commerce, since marketing IS part of e-commerce. I also dislike the part about personal pages like Facebook being there as it should belong in a section about socialising, instead of something business orientated like marketing. Corrupt one (talk) 02:06, 17 December 2007 (UTC)

Does anyone else think that it should be mentioned that some companies while also gathering information about a persons self-advertised likes and dislikes they also moniter your internet activity to bring you product specific advertising? I refer to Section 4 of the Itunes License Agreement. I'd also advise people to check closely their account settings in Ebay.--Wiltthoulearn (talk) 16:42, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

Once you find something that states they do that, you can put in there something along the lines of "Some companies gain information on people for costomising their advertising for them. They do this by a varity of different methods, including online surveys, peoples home pages, and other methods."

Remember, you can include only those you have a reliable referance to them using. It may also come under Privacy, since this does deal with a customers privacy as well. Corrupt one (talk) 22:40, 10 January 2008 (UTC)

Altering the Timeline/60s/70s

Hello, folks. I've just made a few edits to the article as there seemed to be several inappropriate mentions of university students and the 1960s/70s. These seemed to be emotional rather than rational, based on some kind of subjective reading of university life in those decades as being dominated by freedom loving liberals, and painting a rather too highly coloured pictured of the impact of computer/communications technology on university life in the 1960s and 1970s. The text I edited was in the "Growth" section, and cited several "early university internet communities" - the inference clearly being that these communities came into being in the 1960s/70s (!) The only one to carry a link, Blacksburg Electronic Village, was actually established in 1993.

I have only made a few alterations, but the 60s/70s references did read as subjective and inaccurate - and rather out of place in a factual piece.

I recently read a blog article which accused Wikipedia of "70s hype". I have not encountered it so far, but the "Growth" section of this piece did seem a little close to it.

(Dorgan65 (talk) 03:55, 1 January 2008 (UTC))

I concur. Well stated. Whomever inserted those crazy edits is rather ignorant and not too bright (probably an intellectually immature preteen). Someone needs to trace the history of those edits and either block or at least warn off the person responsible. --Coolcaesar (talk) 08:04, 15 January 2008 (UTC)

YOU CANNOT JUST CHANGE TIME YOU FOOLS!!! 134.84.51.3 (talk) 01:20, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Section on Leisure contains unsourced, and inaccurate claim

"Over 6 million people use blogs or message boards as a means of communication and for the sharing of ideas." -- this is misleading (real figure is much higher) and unsourced. Should be changed. 80.169.89.162 (talk) 12:09, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

Is Wiki Owned by Brits??

No where in this article does it mention the US military, which is the actually developer of the Internet. Wiki has lost all validity and cannot be considered a reliable source of information if it used as nothing but propaganda either for or against someone or something--in this case a blatent and obvious ommision of the US military. It is common knowledge among people in the sciences that the US military is the original developer of the Internet. CERN came up with the WWW, which is not the Internet. I am completely shocked this article is allowed to stay as it is, completely void of factual information. To be honest, almost everything one reads on wiki these days claims Brits invented it, or originated it. I have yet to search for "rock n roll" but I wouldn't be surprised if the article says Britain came up with it. The reason why the United States controls Internet protocol is because it was first developed by the US military. I am completey and utterly shocked this article is allowed to stay as is. Wiki cannot be regarded as a accurate source of information any longer. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Guidosdad (talk • contribs)

YOU FOOOLS! THE INTERNET IS NOT YOUR AMERICAN PLAYGROUND! COLOUR IS THE BETTER SPEELING! 134.84.51.3 (talk) 01:21, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

It was only FUNDED by DARPA, the Defence Avanced Research Projects Agency. It was not directed by the military at all. As to wiki being POV, I recommend you write to the person in charge of Wikipedia. You segment here looks a LOT like the following segment, making some of it redundent. Corrupt one (talk) 01:43, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

Anti-American nature of article

It's shocking to find that the only mentioning of the United States in this article, despite America's huge role in the Internet's development, is done either derogatorily or hapenstance. Note the following quotes which are the only mentioning of the United States:

"It may also be related to the poor capability of early computers, largely originating in the United States, to handle characters other than those in the English variant of the Latin alphabet."

The smug statement suggesting that the United States, being so "backward" and "xenophobic" could not foresee the Internet's huge international appeal is unnecessary.

"New findings in the field of communications during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s were quickly adopted by universities across the United States....Examples of early university Internet communities are Cleveland FreeNet, Blacksburg Electronic Village and NSTN in Nova Scotia"

They were "adopted" by universities across the United States, but none were instrumental in originating them? No mention anywhere in the article that they were. But we are given an example of an Internet "village"--in Nova Scotia!

The article cannot circumvent the fact that ICANN is created by the United States. But basd on the article, one would have to ask why? If the United States had NOTHING to do with the Interent's development, as the article insinuates, then why would the US control its protocol?

"Many countries, including the United States, have enacted laws making the possession or distribution of certain material, such as child pornography, illegal, but do not use filtering software."

Again, why are we singling out the United States here?? In actuality, thanks to the First Amendment, pornography laws in the US are less stringent than in Canada.

More and more of the articles I read on Wiki are completely devoid of facts merely because the writers refuse to mention key roles played by Americans and the United States, especially its military.

—Preceding unsigned comment added by Guidosdad (talk • contribs) 04:33, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

Dude, what the hell are you taking? The fact in the first quote you mentioned was that most of the computers were MADE in America, and the American programmers, for American customers BEFORE the internet as even proposed! As such they had no reason to include variation that are paticular to different languages. There was nothing backwards in it, or xenophobic. Only an totally paranoid moron would think that.

In the second quote, you are presuming that the universities helped make the advances in communication technology, but unless you can find any information that states that, you must accept the fact it is possible they did not. They did however, adopt the technology quickly, and were the main backbone of the Internet when it started. The other thing I noticed was you said the only example of an Internet village offered was in Nova Scotia, which, by the way, is in Canada. You failed to notice that it listed THREE examples of internet communities, and the "village" mentioned was in Blacksburg, which IS in America.

The third thing was about ICANN. There was no real reason for it to be based in America, other then the fact that America was the main home of the internet when ICANN was made, and they figured why not make it there close to the other people involved in the Internet. As far as anyone is concerned, it could be based in an island in the south pacific, as long as people could easily get to it. Also, the government can only APPROVE changes to the root zone file. It can't do anything else.

In the part about the censorship laws, I can think of a good reason for America to be mentioned. For a long time there was arguement over whether or not America was allowed to censor the Internet. Not just stuff put up by Americans, but what Americans can view from overseas. In the end it was settled, but a debate still rages of the range of their authorities powers. In america the debate is fiercest, thanks to the First Amendment.

If you find articles that fail to give due respect to America, you can make changes to fix it, ON THE CONDITION THAT IT IS ALL VERIFIABLE AND NPOV! Find the referance matierals that mention the American contributions, and reffer to them. Unless you can find stuff that tells what the Americans did, you can't add it!

Also, the American Military FUNDED the Internets creation. That was their main contribution. They did not tell some scientists to create a network to withstand nuclear attack as I have read in some books about the history of the Internet. No, it was developed out of fustration of the person in charge of DARPA having to go to all these different networks and being expert in them just to get some work done!

If you want to talk about a country not getting due respect for their help in making the Internet, try England. The Packet switching technology used was thought up and well developed there inpedendently after the American telephone company refused to try testing the American version. Only after it was partly developed in England was America eager to get it going.

I also believe you are Trolling, which is against policy. Your segment here is stupid and you must be crazy. You also appear to lack the guts to admit to who you are. Corrupt one (talk) 01:36, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

contradiction

As of September 30, 2007, 1.244 billion people use the Internet according to Internet World Stats. Writing in the Harvard International Review, philosopher N.J.Slabbert, a writer on policy issues for the Washington DC-based Urban Land Institute, has asserted that the Internet is fast becoming a basic feature of global civilization, so that what has traditionally been called "civil society" is now becoming identical with information technology society as defined by Internet use. Some suggest that as low as 2% of the World's population regularly accesses the internet.[2] "http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/quiz/quiz_key.pdf"

Something wrong here.65.9.169.125 (talk) 03:37, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

I agree. I just noticed that while reading the article and came here. I don't see that listed in either of the sites they listed as references. I Googled around but can't find a credible source for that information. Everything seems to suggest its just nonsense. I just went and erased it nowDream Focus (talk) 20:43, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

Navigational box

There is good information here and in related articles. Hard to peruse them all or understand what is there. I suggest that a navigational box is needed, but how to order (classify articles) it and what articles to include (and, much worse, not include!) is a real problem. Right now, a naive researcher (me, except I was trained in the industry) has to blunder about a lot of links, and see alsos to find information. Student7 (talk) 13:31, 30 January 2008 (UTC) the internet is cool —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.253.66.1 (talk) 20:08, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia pages should follow the one main form. In fact, ALL wiki's I have come across follow the same formate this one does, even privatly owned ones. It is to make it easier to learn how to use. Corrupt one (talk) 23:01, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

"International network

The second paragraph seems to be trying to equate "Internet" (short for internetwork, see the article of the same name) with "International Network". The article is locked, thus I can't fix that right away. But so far as I can tell it's just a false etymology, which is particularly silly when Wikipedia already lists the true etymology elsewhere. Would someone who can fix it, please do so, perhaps opening with the much shorter sentence "The Internet and the World Wide Web are not synonymous." or perhaps reconsidering this paragraph entirely (defining things by what they are not is usually poor style). 82.69.171.90 (talk) 09:29, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

I fixed the problem, but we really need to find out who keeps making that damn change, and tell them to stop. I think they will keep making the change, again and again. Corrupt one (talk) 00:32, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

I have also noticed that problem over the past year; thanks for catching it again. If we can't identify and lock down that clown's IP addresses (e.g. if he's on a dial-up or mobile wireless link) then we might need to keep this article under semi or even full protection indefinitely. --Coolcaesar (talk) 07:13, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

Correct date for first ARPANET link?

This involves a minor edit, but the date for the connection between UCLA and SRI should be consistent with the ARPANET page, which lists November 21, 1969, not October 29, 1969, as the date of the first link. I'm not sure which of these is the actual date, but it seems like it should be consistent across Wikipedia pages. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Elainecs (talk • contribs) 03:46, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

Thank you for your suggestion. When you feel an article needs improvement, please feel free to make those changes. Wikipedia is a wiki, so anyone can edit almost any article by simply following the Edit this page link at the top. The Wikipedia community encourages you to be bold in updating pages. Don't worry too much about making honest mistakes — they're likely to be found and corrected quickly. If you're not sure how editing works, check out how to edit a page, or use the sandbox to try out your editing skills. New contributors are always welcome. You don't even need to log in (although there are many reasons why you might want to). ffm 16:13, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

ISO's Internet

-- The International Standards Office had its own version of the internet made, and tied to get the already established internet removed. This failed, but it greatly affected the expansion of the internet as people were unsure of which proticals to make. Some people used both. I think we should have a segment in the article about that.

Corrupt one (talk) 00:00, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

Citation please? ffm 16:09, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

I think it was when "Wizards stayed up late." A book writen with the help of the people who created the Internet. I will have to check. Corrupt one (talk) 02:10, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

Huh? If you're talking about Open Systems Interconnection, at most, it's worthy of only a single one-sentence mention and a link, but not a whole section. Keep in mind that while OSI was initially conceived of as a complete networking package, and certain government bureaucrats backing it in many countries, including in the U.S., did attempt to displace various protocols in the TCP/IP family with OSI equivalents by fiat, OSI was never completed as a working network protocol stack because the written-by-committee OSI protocols were so badly designed that they could not be implemented in practice. I know that OSI was briefly seen as a major threat to the Internet at one point (from around 1987 to about 1994) but I don't think it warrants much mention in an article about the Internet as it currently exists. We have a separate article on the History of the Internet. And the Internet article is already quite large and rambling. --Coolcaesar (talk) 04:40, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

I'll get the book again, and see what I think is worth adding. Corrupt one (talk) 23:41, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

Coolcaesar, just looking at the article, you may be intersted to note that for the Internet Protocols section, it referse to TCP and IP as part of the OSI stack, not as a stack by themselves. Yes, the stack DOES work. It was made in 1988. However the point of this is that if OSI is not worth much mention, then howcome TCP/IP is not mentioned alone in the Internet Protocols?
I think both should be mentioned, and the difference as well. That should help the article greatly. However, I am not very knowledgable in those areas, so someone else who knows the matter well should do it. Corrupt one (talk) 00:55, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

9/11 conspiracy theories sneaked in

Zeitgeist, Loose Change, Endgame? What do three 9/11 conspiracy theory movies have to do with Collaboration on the Internet? --89.132.107.235 (talk) 00:24, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

Culture?

Hi there hope everyone is having a good day, btw i think the internet has influenced pop culture and even more obviously built up its own culture e.g. Wikipedia and geek talk like lol therefore i kinda think it should have its own section. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.239.37.192 (talk) 09:55, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

Internet users by continent data unclear

Currently on the page the percentage of internet users is broken into these "continents": North America, Latin America and Caribbean, Asia, and Europe. Mexico, however is a part of both Latin America and North America, so it is unclear whether internet users located in Mexico are counted as a part of North America, Latin America, both, or neither. Also, what about Australia? This information seems unreliable to me and should probably be removed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Superflyj (talk • contribs) 16:39, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

Internetwork

Currently the article doesn't mention the term Internetwork which is in my eyes fundamental to explaining the internet -62.172.143.205 (talk) 23:03, 26 May 2008 (UTC)

I agree. It should at least be mentioned in relation to the Name of the Internet. I will fix that. Corrupt one (talk) 03:06, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

Coolceaser, you say that my assertion in the article was wrong in the note about the change you made. Yet from the book Where Wizards say up late, it tells us that THAT is were the name Internet comes from- the internet protocols. Corrupt one (talk) 23:43, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

Internet Protocols

The segemtn on the Internet protocols mentions

At the lower level (OSI layer 3) is IP (Internet Protocol), which

How is this possible, since TCP/IP were around well before OSI? I think someone stuffed up. We need to have that fixed. Corrupt one (talk) 03:09, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

TCP/ IP was established in 1978 OSI emerged in 1988 That is from Where Wizards stay up late pages 237 and 249 respectively.

Also, it mentions TCP and IP as how they were incorperated into OSI, but not on their own. I reacon that needs fixing. Who would like to do it? Corrupt one (talk) 00:50, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

What I recall is that the OSI stack is an abstract description, whereas the TCP/IP stack is a concrete implementation that can be mapped to OSI although it doesn't fit exactly. So nobody "stuffed up". Rp (talk) 15:28, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Subscriptions? The Internet Ends in 2012

Has anybody seen this?

http://ipower.ning.com/netneutrality

The above claims that most internet providers will be changing to content-restricting subscriptions in 2012. This will, according to the video, basically kill the internet. Can this even be done? Aren't there neutrality regulations in place?

Can we verify this, or is this a hoax? If this is legitimate, this could be VERY important. Legianon (talk) 15:27, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

Theer is SOME truth, and some falsehoods in it.
From what I can tell big business is trying to take over the next, but mainly at the ISP levels. Things like you have to be on a certain plan with a certain telecommunication company with certain harware (modem) and other such things.
I have also come across things like big business buying out smaller sites and forcing them to tow the company line, and link mainly to related sites owned by the business. One example in Hotmail, which is now owned by Microsoft, and according to a book I read, are now mainly an email providing gateway to the microsoft own NSM group.
However, there are MANY sites out there, and if large comapnies try to take over, and restrict what we can view, smaller sites will always pop up, so the danger is not that great.
That article is one of the best types of falsehoods, they mix truth, misleading information, and assumptions to tell falsehoods.
There is no control over the Internet. It is beyond juristictions. Countries can only control what their own people do, but the Internet is global, and the rules regarding it are not firmly in place when it comes to ownership.
Not a reliable referance. Corrupt one (talk) 23:46, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

Excellent. Thanks. Legianon (talk) 20:39, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

Internet Myths, Rumors, and Random Facts

You've all seen them. They float around as spam in you e-mail accounts. Quite a few of the contain viruses. Quite a few of them look harmless. Many contain information saying "Forward this message and <insert whatever bogus idea they have>!"

A common question, sometimes heard on the internet and other places, is that"Did Al Gore create the internet?" The common reason for this is because on an interview with CNN, it is reported that Al Gore said " During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet." Gore, who was elected to Congress in 1976, missed 1969, the year when ARAPANET started and 1974, when the internet use started. However, he can be credited with supporting the internet more than any other elected official

Internet Clean Up Day: this is a hoax saying that there is an annual day that all accumulated e-junk, such as old bookmarks, emails, and files, that supposedly takes place on March 31 (April Fool's Eve).

The first rumored person to have used the internet Charley Kline of UCLA. He was sending the first packets on ARAPANET as he attempted to connect through the Stanford Research Institute October 29, 1969. The system crashed as he reached the letter G in LOGIN —Preceding unsigned comment added by Teh.cursed.one (talk • contribs) 02:19, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

internet vs Internet

This section largely avoids the points, which are that either spelling is completely understandable, that style manual fanatics love to argue about such things that are largely a matter of opinion and local usage. Drawing "hard" distinctions between different senses of the word, the way it's done here, just demonstrates some folks want to believe that words have fixed meanings to everybody. Which any linguist would laugh at.

That published opinions can be quoted is hardly surprising, since everybody working with the early Internet needed to have an opinion. Even wrong, minority, pointless, transitory opinions. The New York Times does not tell the ACM what to do, and vice versa. It's not a contest to see who is right. It's enough to note the word varies widely in meaning.

The whole section could be reduced to little more than the first sentence, and it wouldn't make a wit of difference to what a reader gained from the article.

67.180.48.233 (talk) 11:54, 13 June 2008 (UTC)

I disagree. Many readers will come here with a preconceived idea of what "internet" or "the Internet" means, without being aware of other uses or of their legitimacy; spelling out the differences and relationships between these uses is an essential part of clearing up possible confusion and therefore necessary in Wikipedia articles. Rp (talk) 15:25, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

It was mentioned before, I think, that the distinction is that the "Internet" is an "internet" using TCP/IP. Then there is "internet" meaning interconnected Networks. Basically, since people mainly use TCP/IP linked to the Internet, there is no real main distinction. The only cases where there is a difference would mainly be controlled internets, which are often catigorized as intranets or extronets. (Intronets meaning internat internets used in large companies and extronets being internets just for a few specific companies. They are kept of the Internet for securoty reasons. Militaries use internets as well.) Corrupt one (talk)

End of the free internet

Check all the sources in this article. It's horrible. User:Striver —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.225.210.254 (talk) 08:27, 19 June 2008 (UTC)

Peering agreements

Though admittedly a minor issue, shouldn't the phrase in the section "Today's Internet" that reads "(e.g., peering agreements)" actually be "(i.e., peering agreements)". As far as I am aware, the only "bi- or multi-lateral commercial contracts" that exist, can be reasonably classified as "peering agreements". —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.34.219.64 (talk) 21:57, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

Thailand should be added the list of countries that restrict what people in their countries can access on the Internet.

Thailand should be added to the list of countries that restrict what people in their countries can access on the Internet. please do some research and you will find out. I think we can watch youtube again but that was just one of the many blocked websites (and services) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 125.24.26.207 (talk) 18:05, 3 August 2008 (UTC)

Could anyone pick this up please? I have no idea how this all works, just pointing out a small correction. do you need links or more examples? screenshot maybe? thanks guys 125.24.22.116 (talk) 16:21, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

A link to a reliable source that states that this is so would be useful. It's not that we don't believe you, just that with a cited source, the new information will be accepted by all editors and readers. --Nigelj (talk) 19:04, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

How Internet Work:

Internet is Centralized at W3 Consorcium. This is how everybody comunicate, we are connected by a this center. Every information go true W3 Consorcioum and get copied in cache to be provided to everybody, and then a copy is also guive to the Search Engines of the Center W3 Consorcium. The information is also cached by the Search Engines. Every usuary is connected to W3 Consorcium. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 201.160.6.61 (talk) 13:26, 4 August 2008 (UTC)

You are referring to the World Wide Web, not the Internet. Rp (talk) 13:54, 4 August 2008 (UTC)

... and not a single word of what you have said is true, either about how the web works, TCP/IP connections, the W3C's role, caching, search engines - all tosh. Sorry. Read some of the articles and find out more. --Nigelj (talk) 19:11, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

Errors in 'Terminology' section

Recently, user Kbrose has decided to revert-war with me over some errors that have been introduced into this section, giving the reason, "the old terms were better in context". I'm not sure what that means, but if I read it correctly, we cannot introduce sloppy and erroneous terms into this crucial opening paragraph of the article, even if they sound better to Kbrose's ear.

Specifically, the article said,

The Internet is the global data communications backbone, i.e., the hardware and software infrastructure, that provides connectivity between resources or services and the users of such facilities.

[5]

My changes make this read,

The Internet is a global data communications system. It is a hardware and software infrastructure that provides connectivity between computers.

[6]

1. There is such a thing as the internet backbone - the main "trunk" connections of the internet - so it is just confusing to say that the whole internet is any kind of backbone. The whole internet includes the internet backbone as well as all the other connections, routers, hubs, switches and cables in every other connected area including all the local loops to our homes, the corporate networks that are connected etc etc. Why pick a piece of related but irrelevant technology and introduce its name needlessly into the crucial first definition of what the internet is? Is everyone aware of how many scholars and students will Google 'internet', visit this article and paste the first definition they find into their papers, projects, dissertations and so on? And journalists etc.
2. Using the abbreviation 'i.e.,' in the middle of a crucial definition is clunky English
3. So is using a comma before the relative pronoun that
4. The internet is specifically a physical, hardware thing, even though many of its physical elements, such as routers and switches, are internally implemented using software. Saying that it provides connectivity between "resources or services and the users of such facilities" is unnecessarily abstract and circuitous. Resources and services are abstract concepts that can be implemented in various ways using software, databases, computer files, servers and by other means. Users are typically human beings, who may, and more often may not, be present for, or even aware of, many of the operations of the the internet. The abstractions are all parts of the TCP/IP application layer, which, as the TCP/IP article shows, is two layers above the network layer that is the actual internet. Many data update and access operations that the internet handles every day are at the request of unmanned software clients that are totally unrelated to any current human users such as you and I. There is no need to limit what the internet is by insisting on the provision of things to 'users'. Luckily, the reality is so much simpler: rather than get involved in producing and maintaining a poor and incomplete list of what might be going on several abstraction layers above, and requiring live or abstract users to be present, the items the internet connects can all be called, simply computers.

Lastly, the Terminology paragraph goes on to contrast the internet and the web, as they are often confused. The article said,

... the Web is one of the services communicated via the Internet. It is a collection of interconnected documents and other resources, linked by symbolic hyperlinks and URLs.

[7]

My changes make this read,

... the Web is one of the services communicated via the Internet. It is a collection of interconnected documents and other resources, linked by hyperlinks and URLs.

[8]

1. At last (in the previous version) we got to define resources, which were central to the previous definition of the internet (i.e. more circuitousness). It turns out that resources are part of the definition of the World Wide Web, not the internet itself, as discussed above. However, there is no need to italicise as well as to hyperlink the word - we don't elsewhere for the crucial words, so I remove the italicisation.
2. The real error here is bringing the word symbolic in as a qualifier of hyperlinks. HTML hyperlinks are defined, for the present time, in the W3C spec at [9]. The definition says, "the link (or hyperlink, or Web link) [is] the basic hypertext construct. A link is a connection from one Web resource to another." Nowhere in the whole document is the word 'symbolic' mentioned. Again the word refers to an existing but, in this case, utterly irrelevant technology. As I linked in my edit summary, a symbolic link is a special file-type in Unix (e.g. Linux) operating systems. It provides a reference or link to another file in the filesystem; it is similar to a shortcut in MS Windows. This has nothing to do with the WWW's hyperlinks at all. Mentioning it at this point may sound cool to some ears, but is actually confusing and just plain wrong.

This has taken a surprising amount of time and effort to research and write. I hope it explains why I made these edits. Please read the linked articles and other resources if you have a problem.

Thanks

--Nigelj (talk) 20:42, 13 August 2008 (UTC)

It is really very simple. All languages, natural and computer languages, HTML included, are innately symbolic. Perhaps you need only a dictionary. There is no encumbrance of the word "symbolic" by Unix technologies with which there can hardly be a confusion here. In the general level at which this article is written it makes a lot more sense to a (more novice) reader to classify hyperlink as symbolic links, which they are, and to find a comparison such as "the Internet provides physical links, whereas the Web uses symbolic links between resources.". You referral to symlinks is silly.

As far as the "Internet backbone" is concerned, there never was a mention of "Internet backbone", that's your invention, and it surely has a specific meaning, but is different usage than "someting being a backbone of another feature". Again, backbone is a useful, illustrative term perfectly content being used by itself without confusion. The Internet is indeed the backbone of the World Wide Web, but ignorance can be the backbone of poor judgements.

Lastly, long gone are the days where only "computers" are connected via the Internet. Looking around my desk alone there must be at least a dozen devices connected directly on the public Internet, devices that no one would ever call a "computer". Kbrose (talk) 20:00, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

OK, then let's see some WP:V references for reputable sources where, e.g. students are taught to refer to 'hyperlinks' as 'symbolic links', or where any standards body refers to them as such. Let's see some where any reputable authority refers to the whole internet as a 'backbone' of something in the TCP/IP Application Layer, like the World Wide Web. And lastly, what on earth do you think is inside any electronic box that can interpret and play appropriately within a TCP/IP network? It certainly isn't any set of discreet logic chips or transistors - its a computer. Read the computer article to find out that all computers are not either laptops or beige boxes. --Nigelj (talk) 21:41, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

P.S. Please cut out the personal attacks: I do not need a dictionary, neither is my ignorance the backbone of my poor judgement. --Nigelj (talk) 23:01, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

For once I find myself concurring with Nigelj. Kbrose apparently has not studied computer science at the university level or in any formal academic setting. No properly trained computer science professional would refer to hyperlinks as "symbolic links," misconstrue the nature of a network backbone (which has been hashed out in literally hundreds of papers and books over the years), or limit the definition of a computer to a personal computer! --Coolcaesar (talk) 13:25, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

Confusion in 'Internet protocols' section

There is some very muddy terminology in this section too:

"At the top is the space (Application Layer) of the software application, e.g., a web browser application"

The Application layer includes implementations of HTTP and many other protocols, but this cannot be explained as just 'software application[s] e.g. web browser[s]'. In this case, HTTP defines a client-server request-response protocol, of which web browsers implement only one half (web servers the other), but they also implement a huge amount of other (much more visible) things like HTML, CSS and script interpretation, bookmarks, font, image and multimedia rendering etc etc, that are not helpful in defining the TCP/IP application layer. The TCP/IP application layer defines HTTP as an application layer protocol, not web browsers.

"the Transport Layer which connects applications on different hosts via the network (e.g., client-server model)"

The Transport layer includes implementations of TCP and RDP, and so defines software sockets for virtual connections to be made, but does not include a definition of the client-server model or any other system design patterns

The older version of this section with its three, clear bullet points was potentially much clearer, in my opinion. True the content of those points needn't have laboured the numbering differences between practical TCP/IP and the theoretical OSI model, and in that light there could have been four of them, but the simplicity was much better than the current half-true, unreferenced mud, I feel. --Nigelj (talk) 23:01, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

Internet map?

Seriously, a map of the internet? Is that a joke or something? D: 74.56.36.34 (talk) 05:08, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

BLASTED USER:... because of internment at 17th level quotations, I have been apologised to - write this equation of internet user as a quotations satire - mmm - it is 333=666=999 pi chart versus acelleration table --- becoming diplodocus popularity... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.44.110.251 (talk) 12:04, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Text does not match referenced statistics

Language

. . . By continent, 38% of the world's Internet users are based in Asia, 27% in Europe, 18% in North America, 10% in Latin America and the Caribbean, and 7% in Australia.[6]

I was alerted to a problem when I read that a country of circa 20 million residents (Australia), could represent 7% of the world's Internet users. When I followed the link to the referenced data, I found that most of the statistics were slightly in error (presumably due to rounding), with two notable exceptions. The Middle East which presumably has 2.9% of the world's internet users, was ignored, whilst Australia's 1.4% of internet users was overstated by more than 400%.

If the data in the referenced study is to be accepted, the sentence should be re-written to state:

. . . By continent, the world's Internet users are based in: Asia, 39.5%; Europe, 26.3%; North America, 17.0%; Latin America and the Caribbean, 9.5%; the Middle East, 2.9%; and Australia, 1.4%.[6] —Preceding unsigned comment added by Yank-in-Oz (talk • contribs) 01:48, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

The problem is that the referenced source (Internet World Stats) is not a 'study', but a dynamic site that continually updates its statistics. The figures on our WP page were last updated on March 31, 2008, so are due to be brought up to date. I just tried, but stopped as some of the figures on Internet World Stats suddenly make little sense to me. I started with usage by language, and hit the problem when looking at French: If 94,000,000 Japanese speakers represent 1.9 % of all Internet users, how can 68,152,447 French speakers represent 6.1 %? I took a calculator to some of the other percentages and actually many of them seemed out. So either I don't understand what those figures represent, or Internet World Stats has a software glitch, or maybe they have a jingoistic French speaker locked in competition with the over-enthusiastic Australian who massaged the other figures before we copied them in March? (P.S. The last option was meant as a joke - you can't believe how little sense of humour some people have, so its better to be careful now than sorry later, I find) Either way, the current figures look no more reliable than the March ones now do; the March ones can no longer be verified (as I say, the source updates and doesn't display a complete history): Maybe we need a new source of statistics that we can better depend on; or maybe we just kill the two stats paragraphs - I always thought they muddled the web with the internet, and updating them both every few months is a job for life. --Nigelj (talk) 04:45, 11 September 2008 (UTC)