Internet.mdwn (1262B)
1 The **Internet** is the global network of computer networks that use the 2 [[TCP]]/[[IP]] protocol suite to communicate. Sometimes, even wider 3 definitions have been used; for example, any computer that is reachable by 4 Internet [[email]] could be said to be "on the Internet" even without an IP 5 address. 6 7 The Internet routing technology was originally based on military 8 requirements, i.e. nuclear attack survivability. The possibility for 9 non-hierarchical and decentralized routing makes the network quite 10 resilient. 11 12 However, many other key aspects of the Internet are somewhat centralized 13 (e.g. the tree-like way of dividing the global IP address space or 14 coordinating the DNS hostnames). The currently dominant resource access 15 technology, the [[WWW]], is particularly oriented around centralized servers 16 and thus lacks the resilience of the underlying network. 17 18 ## Matter and energy 19 20 The energy and material requirements of the Internet-related infrastructure 21 are of particular concern to permacomputing. 22 23 TODO: Include information about research on the energy requirements of data 24 transmission etc. 25 26 ## Other aspects of the Internet 27 28 * [[history]] and culture 29 * services and [[protocols]] 30 * alternative ways of [[networking]], both historical and current