David:
"I thought the source of traffic jams is bandwidth/speed on the internet
backbone and overtaxed routers, and not the copper wires going to our
homes."
I believe you are correct, David. However, when I talk to "backbone" companies, they assure me that there is plenty of surplus bandwidth on the backbone. The problem, in my opinion, is in the nature of the internet itself. It is an esoteric (patchwork) network with no real global standardization or governing body to force minimum performance standards. WIth some exceptions, my experience has been that I may be unable to get decent bandwidth from a server, then, upon going to another URL, bandwidth is suddenly excellent. Either the first server was slow, or its connection to the net was full, etc. In any event, from my own experience I formulate the biased subjective opinion that there isn't one big problem to be solved with a big solution, but many smaller problems needing individual attention; many sites must improve the overall system performance from their site into the internet before the whole system works more efficiently. With the rate at which it is growing, however, that may be too much to ask until growth slows down. All in all, I am amazed the thing works at all, as complex as it is! I don't think I remember a time when it was "down". I wonder if the fear of the 'net going down is a factual expression of approaching forseeable failure, or simply the expression of fear that it might happen.
Larry |
