All,
About problems getting into a site, etc:
A single server should be able to handle 80,000 users. Not all will be using the system at the same time. Further, the site can be built to allow multiple servers all accessing the same data. If they use a little trick with the DNS server (Domain Name Service) to feed out the IP addresses, each contact could get a different IP to contact on a rotating basis. Our corporate site gets upward of 300,000 hits a day, has (at last count) 3 Web servers, and multiple T1 lines. It has had no problems handling the load.
As to what the 'Internet Backbone' is. This is a series of high speed, probably DS3 or OS3 (both run at some 45Mbit), circuits connecting the primary nodes. While I have not seen a physical map, my experience indicates that it is multi-homed. That means multiple circuits between the various primary nodes. This allows redundency and alternate pathing.
When a site has trouble with their Internet Service Provider, it means that there is a problem between the site & the Internet Backbone.
There is a whole lot more to this, but I hope this primer is of some use to those who were asking.
dmg |
