Networks

Seattle Restores ISP Privacy Rules. Could be First of Many Cities to Defeat FCC’s Privacy Roll Back

The city of Seattle this week will move forward with its own plan to restore broadband user privacy rules despite the recent law passed by U.S. Congress, signed by President Trump in April, which gave ISPs the green light to collect customer data. more

Internet Service Quality Measured from Thousands of Locations

RIPE Atlas, the new active measurements network maintained by the RIPE NCC, gives you a way to easily measure the quality of your Internet services. RIPE Atlas is designed in such a way that it can collect data for analysis from a great number of locations on the Internet. The actual measurement devices, or "probes", are so small that they can be easily deployed in a home environment. more

DDoS Awareness Day - Oct 23, Register Today for Live Virtual Event

In support of National Cyber Security Awareness Month, DDoS Awareness Day is a virtual, global event focused on raising awareness and education around the threat of DDoS attacks. Hosted by Neustar with and exclusive media partner CSO, DDoS Awareness Day brings together top experts in global security to share their views, technical tips and from-the-trenches experience. Attendees will also be given access to a wealth of DDoS materials: white papers, surveys, presentations, best practices and more. more

Critical Role for R&E Networks+Commercial Clouds in US Government “Big Data” Initiative

It is great to see US and European governments undertake initiatives to promote the development of research into Big Data utilizing commercial clouds. Many cloud providers are offering free resources to support these initiatives. R&E networks will play a critical role in linking researchers to the commercial clouds and developing collaboration platforms and portals. more

Google’s Acquisition of Nest and Smart Homes

Google's $3.2 billion acquisition of high-tech thermostat and smoke-detector maker Nest Labs will allow the company to further infiltrate people's lives, not just via their smartphones but now also via a range of home appliances. It is a logical development for the digital media giant and based on their record of innovation we can expect a range of interesting products and services, also known as machine-to-machine (M2M) communication and the Internet of Things (IoT), to enter this market. more

Internet Visionaries Honored with Postel Service Award

The Internet Society has announced the 2024 Jonathan B. Postel Service Award recipients, honoring Steve Crocker and Xing Li for their pioneering work in advancing the global Internet infrastructure. more

Renesys Chronicles Today’s Internet Blackout in the Sudan (Now Restored)

The team over at Renesys has once again provided a great analysis of an Internet outage in a country, this time in Sudan. In the article simply titled "Internet Blackout in Sudan", Doug Madory writes: A few hours ago, we observed a total Internet blackout in Sudan and, as we publish this blog, the Internet remains largely unavailable. By count of impacted networks, it is the largest national blackout since Egypt disconnected itself in January 2011..." more

A Closer Look at the AIP Internet Draft Proposal

Just in time for ICANN's 44th meeting next week, a new Internet Draft has turned up, purporting to fix the centralization of the DNS. The draft has received some attention, including an article in PC World. It isn't entirely clear what the real purpose of the draft is, but it is hard to credit the notion that it is solving any technical problem. Without examining the reasons why the draft exists, I want to debunk a claim in it. more

The Christmas Goat and IPv6 (Year 11)

This is the fourth year now with almost no snow during the Christmas Goat event here in Sweden, and so once again, you get a photo without any snow. Because of Covid-19 and 99.99% people working for home, I have not even seen the Goat live this year... What a crazy year it has been! more

Know Someone Who Has Made the Internet Better? Postel Service Award Nominations Deadline May 15

Do you know of someone who has made the Internet better in some way who deserves more recognition? Maybe someone who has helped extend Internet access to a large region? Or wrote widely-used programs that make the Internet more secure? Or maybe someone who has been actively working for open standards and open processes for the Internet? more

China Closing the Door to New Technologies

2013 may be a promising year for global trade in technology with the kick-off of the International Technology Agreement expansion discussions, the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, and as the Trade in Services Agreement gets going. But China calls its own tune, and is now threatening to restrict its market for Internet-enabled technologies through a clever device that could cost its trading partners billions. more

Do-It-Yourself Rural Fiber

Necessity has led Cubans to become do-it yourself (DIY) inventors -- keeping old cars running, building strange, motorized bicycles, etc. They've also created DIY information technology like software, El Paquete Semanal, street nets and WiFi hotspot workarounds. Last June the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) adopted a standard for "low-cost sustainable telecommunications infrastructure for rural communications in developing countries," L.1700. L.1700 cable should be of interest to both DIY technologists and ETECSA. more

Can Mobile Operators Afford a Mobile-Only Strategy?

With 4G rollouts in many developed mobile markets reaching completion, it might be time to check the balance of the state of the mobile industry. Looking at campaigns around the world it is clear that what you see are 'me too' strategies. The advertising campaigns and the marketing hyperbole around them might suggest that a particular operator has now done something unique or very special, but if one looks beyond the advertising blurb it is clear that the campaign is nothing new and/or that what is on offer can be very easily matched by their competitors in the market. more

The Lean and Antifragile Data Centre

Cloud is a new technology domain, and data centre engineering is still a developing discipline. I have interviewed a top expert in cloud infrastructure, Pete Cladingbowl. He has a vision of the 'lean' data centre and a better kind of Internet for users to reach it. He also has a roadmap for how these can be practically realised. The key is to apply established theories of value flow from more mature industries. more

M2M Hype and Reality

There are many predictions that the next big wave in telecoms is M2M and that this will be the next growth market for the telecoms industry. There is no doubt that M2M is a revolutionary development, but we need to separate the hype from the reality. In order to do this it is best to divide the major developments into two main areas, although there is no doubt that others will emerge over time. One area is the sensors that are being installed in networks such as electricity, the environment, roads and other infrastructure. more