Hey /g/, I had a quick question for you guys.
What exactly powers the internet? How exactly does it all work? How do individuals start their own ISPs?
>>54764543
It's a bunch of smaller networks connected together and to larger networks, some money is involved and some goodwill.
The larger networks are owned by universities or large corporations that were "in on it" from the start.
If you want to start your own ISP, you must first have in place some infrastructure that you own. Can be radio (WiMAX, whatever), fiber, ASDL over old telephone wires/coax.
>>54764543
Electricity, and enterprise.
>>54764543
>what powers the internet
pretty vague question, but i guess porn is the biggest driving factor of the internet, maybe social networking
>how exactly does it all work
Thats well beyond the scope of one post, but if you can undertand how you can connect one computer to another, all you have to do is imagine all the people in your area connected to an ISP, and all those ISPs are connected together. websites are just computers connected to an ISP
>how to into ISP business
you either buy the infrastructure off of an existing ISP (very expensive) or you build your own (even more expensive)
>>54764570
>>54764597
Hm. I guess I still can't wrap my head around it. I was doing some research about living on an island and was wondering how they would get internet access, came across this article(http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/11/how-a-group-of-neighbors-created-their-own-internet-service/), and I'm still quite baffled; so, the internet, is actually just a bunch of networked computers and the internet we use, for home usage, just allows us to connect to our ISP's network, which is turn, connected to an even bigger network?
>>54764608
>so, the internet, is actually just a bunch of networked computers and the internet we use, for home usage, just allows us to connect to our ISP's network, which is turn, connected to an even bigger network?
Yes, essentially. Of course, there are a bunch of details left out here, but you pay your ISP to be able to use their network to reach "the world", the ISP again pay some upstream network to let their customers traffic go through that. The upstream network is (most likely) peering with other large networks (either for money or for goodwill).
>>54764637
Makes a bit more sense, okay. So, alright.. Like in the article, they built their own internet system for their little community, right? How do they access "the world" with out being networked to an isp or whoever the ISP is networked with?
>>54764673
>The DBIUA paid StarTouch Broadband Services about $11,000 to supply a microwave link from a tower on the mainland to a radio on top of Doe Bay's water tower. The water tank, at about 50 feet, is the only structure that’s high enough to create a point-to-point link to the mainland. It is owned by the Doe Bay Water Users Association, which let DBIUA install the radios and other equipment.
>The monthly fees also cover the $900 a month DBIUA pays StarTouch for bandwidth.
They are operating as a subnetwork of StarTouch Broadband Services.
>>54764712
Ah. So, they have a radio antenna sends and receives a signal from a mainland source. Gotcha. Crazy stuff.
>>54764608
>so, the internet, is actually just a bunch of networked computers
555 come on now
>>54764730
Only 555 computers?
>>54764608
Per your >>54764730 informal request.
