The internet.....where is it?

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The internet.....where is it?

Postby coldharvest » Mon Jan 21, 2008 1:38 pm

Where are the actual physical locations of the machines that provide us the Internet?
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Postby Fansy » Mon Jan 21, 2008 6:26 pm

I'd say conceptually, you could think of the internet as consisting of 2 parts, nodes and links. A person's computer would be an end node; webservers that host things like this website would be somewhere in the middle of the web of nodes.

For example, here is a relief sorta deal that shows geographically where the most important links and nodes lay. The peak areas would be high usage. Of course this is just a fiber optic pathway, not the complete internet:

Image

Here are some telecommunications "links" that run under our oceans (submarine cable):

Image

Here is a picture detailing the physical links of an internet "backbone" UUNET. This is one of many of our internet backbones:

Image

Another conceptual picture from the ANS/NSFnet T3 backbone:

Image

One thing, those nodes you see in the center are huge, critical nodes to the internet's functioning, not someone's household computer. Also, there are many nodes not visible here, the ones that you must go through before and after the backbone.

The internet backbones are sorta like taking a ride on the train. You use it because it's fast, but unless you're lucky it doesn't stop right outside your door. First you have to walk to your car, drive to the train station, get on the train (now you're really moving), but then get off at your stop, hop on the bus, take a walk, and you're at your destination. Towards the beginning and ending of your trip, you have to jump through a lot of little geographically specific nodes to get to the train station, but once on, you're moving together with everyone else.

As for the "nodes" I mentioned above, they are just servers and computers spread across the world in government buildings, internet server farms (places where you keep a lot of servers), businesses, universities, and even people's homes. Each node has it's own 4 number, 3 digit address, even ones that are named, like for comebackalive.com its 205.234.206.226.

An example of what a server room in a university or business might look like (wherein there are servers that people can access from the internet):

Image

While a server farm, located inconspicuously in big cities everywhere, looks more like:

Image

and

Image


With most operating systems, you can actually see a textual representation of the path that your data takes as it goes between you and a destination. the command "tracert" will show you the number of nodes, the name of the nodes, and how long it takes to get to each node.

So, if I do a "tracert comebackalive.com", which maps the path from my comp to this website, it returns (starting from the 3rd node for security reasons):

Tracing route to comebackalive.com [205.234.206.226]
over a maximum of 30 hops:


3 20 ms ge-1-1-ur01.ogden.ut.utah.comcast.net [68.87.170.249]
4 20 ms te-9-1-ar01.saltlakecity.ut.utah.comcast.net [68.87.170.21]
5 11 ms te-9-3-ar02.saltlakecity.ut.utah.comcast.net [68.87.170.6]
6 23 ms COMCAST-IP.car2.Denver1.Level3.net [4.79.82.54]
7 24 ms te-3-3.car2.Denver1.Level3.net [4.79.82.53]
8 35 ms ae-32-54.ebr2.Denver1.Level3.net [4.68.107.126]
9 53 ms ae-3.ebr3.Chicago1.Level3.net [4.69.132.62]
10 50 ms ae-78.ebr2.Chicago1.Level3.net [4.69.134.61]
11 51 ms ae-23-56.car3.Chicago1.Level3.net [4.68.101.167]
12 49 ms 261.xe-0-3-0.cr2.ord1.us.scnet.net [4.71.100.26]
13 51 ms 216.246.95.243
14 51 ms 216.246.94.202
15 49 ms 205.234.206.226

Trace complete.

The first number is the sequential node enumeration (or "hop"), the second is the amount of time that trip takes in milliseconds (aka "ping), the third field is the server name. Fortunately, lots of server names have geographical info. So you can see first my data traffic goes to ogden (20 minutes north of me), then it goes to SLC (20 minutes south of me) then it heads to denver, then it heads to chicago. From there, it heads to "scnet.net", which, if you go to the webpages "http://www.scnet.net/", you find out its a datacenter/serverfarm in chicago. It looks like our comebackalive.com would be found within the serverfarm of that company, which might be below their office building or grouped close to other servers of other businesses in a completely different building.

So, well, hope that helps. I learned that comebackalive.com is in chicago!
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Postby Woodsman » Mon Jan 21, 2008 9:13 pm

Fansy wrote:I'd say conceptually, you could think of the internet as consisting of 2 parts, nodes and links. A person's computer would be an end node; webservers that host things like this website would be somewhere in the middle of the web of nodes.


Splendid. Do you think Oprah owns the server company which BFC is hosted on?
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Postby JamesInTheWorld » Mon Jan 21, 2008 9:28 pm

How is that guy NOT wearing a jacket in a server room?

Image

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Postby coldharvest » Mon Jan 21, 2008 9:42 pm

How is that guy NOT wearing a jacket in a server room?

what the fuck does that mean?
a smoking jacket? a winter jacket? a suit jacket?
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Postby shivers » Mon Jan 21, 2008 9:48 pm

Those rooms are cold like a meat locker.
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Postby JamesInTheWorld » Mon Jan 21, 2008 9:50 pm

Server rooms are like refrigerators because the servers put off allot of heat, run faster in very cold rooms*, it prolongs the hardware’s life* and servers will shut off if they get too hot – most network admins or cable monkeys will keep a winter jacket at the office if they have to spend allot of time inside of a server room

Put your computer in a box for an hour and see how hot it gets – X that by 1000 for even a small server room


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Postby Fansy » Mon Jan 21, 2008 11:48 pm

JamesInTheWorld wrote:How is that guy NOT wearing a jacket in a server room?


Because it's not a real server room/data center; most likely it holds switching just for that building, or even just a lab or two.

For Cold:

Image

A room like this you can expect to freeze your ass off. Not because it's really that cold, but because there is constant air flow from the massive AC. Grabbed this from wikipedia on data centers:

Air conditioning is used to keep the room cool; it may also be used for humidity control. Generally, temperature is kept around 20-22 degrees Celsius (about 68-72 degrees Fahrenheit). The primary goal of data center air conditioning systems is to keep the server components at the board level within the manufacturer's specified temperature/humidity range. This is crucial since electronic equipment in a confined space generates much excess heat, and tends to malfunction if not adequately cooled. Air conditioning systems also help keep humidity within acceptable parameters. The humidity parameters are kept between 35% and 65% Relative Humidity. Too much humidity and water may begin to condense on internal components; too little and static electricity may damage components. ASHRAE recommends a temperature range of 20-25 °C and humidity range of 40 - 60% as optimal for data center conditions

Old Data centers typically have raised flooring made up of 60 cm (2 ft) removable square tiles.The trend is towards 80-100cm void to cater for better and uniform air distribution. These provide a plenum for air to circulate below the floor, as part of the air conditioning system, as well as providing space for power cabling. Data cabling is typically routed through overhead cable trays in modern data centers.But some are still recommending under raised floor cabling for security reasons and to consider the addition of cooling systems above the racks in case this enhancement is necessary. Smaller/less expensive data centers without raised flooring may use anti-static tiles for a flooring surface.earthed to a grid system with one end point connection.


If you popped one of those tiles, you'd see a mess of cords (sometimes almost a foot deep) like no other. It's a bitch to actually have to go in there and fix or move something.
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Postby marie-angelique » Tue Jan 22, 2008 2:44 am

pretty fecking cool explanation fansy, thanks for that :)
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Postby el3so » Tue Jan 22, 2008 4:29 pm

Interesting. Geek friend told me Google corporation is buying up all the servers they can get their hands on.

Fansy wrote: Too much humidity and water may begin to condense on internal components; too little and static electricity may damage components.

Reminds me of a question I once asked one of the IT-dudes (previous job) about what 'd happen when their precious server room (basement level) 'd be affected by fire and how this (and esp extinguishing efforts) would impact personal records and whatnot, you know, just for curiosity's sake.

Guy told me the room 'd be automatically pumped full of argon so as to not fry the system yet extinguish the flames.
Never asked how that'd affect non-silicon-based things though...
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Postby Stiv » Tue Jan 22, 2008 4:46 pm

Never asked how that'd affect non-silicon-based things though...


It'll kill them/you very dead pretty darn quick.

Our areas have lots of warnings and at least one last ditch emergency exit button for any humans that may have got stuck in the event of an argon deployment.

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Postby Chimborazo » Tue Jan 22, 2008 6:09 pm

If you popped one of those tiles, you'd see a mess of cords (sometimes almost a foot deep) like no other. It's a bitch to actually have to go in there and fix or move something.


I'm not an anal person for the most part, but that drives me insane and I won't tolerate it. Messy patch panels, racks, and floors/cable trays piss me off. There's just no excuse for it.
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Postby coldharvest » Tue Jan 22, 2008 6:13 pm

I'm not an anal person for the most part

.......uh.........what?
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Postby Chimborazo » Tue Jan 22, 2008 7:00 pm

Let me rephrase. I'm not very "structured" or "uptight". Yeah, I guess that was a poor choice of words.
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Postby Mikethehack » Tue Jan 22, 2008 7:54 pm

JamesInTheWorld wrote:How is that guy NOT wearing a jacket in a server room?~JITW


Because it is in India and what you don't know, shouldn't bother you. That is a corporate photo. Normally he'd be leaning over it with a coffee in one hand and a cig in the other.
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