Can The Internet Be Shutdown ? Can some one bring the internet down.

[longtimeago 0]

In Todays world , the Biggest network which we all witness is The Internet ! Internet can be said in simple terms as "Network of Networks : That is many ( Billions ) of networks are put together to form the internet. Now we do witness something like a Small network is down at times, and at certain times even a large network is down. Eg : Google Mail ( gmail ) was down few months back for few hrs. There are several reasons why a network can be down, So is it possible to bring the entire network down ?? By entire network i mean "The Internet" . If the internet is down what will be the consequences ? Is there any Backup plan available if the entire Internet is brought down ? According to my Knowledge i think the entire Internet may come to a stand still ( Partially ) If the Domain Naming System is hacked badly, If the root Domain Name Servers gets hacked then there may be a partial shut down of the internet.

[Nameless_ 1]

Well, ever since I got to this site I have discovered that the internet is more than it is.Each website (even the crappiest ones) still have work behind them, and there are many things hidden behind a website that we can't see.I think it possible to shut down the internet, if something happens. Maybe the wires and all that get severed, or maybe the satellite orbiting the Earth got somehow pushed out of orbit and cannot transmit information anymore. Nobody knows.In my opinion, EVERYTHING is possible, so if this thread was about whether it was possible to have aliens come and abduct the whole population on Earth it will still be a yes from me...And sometimes I really wonder...Does anyone OWN the internet?

[longtimeago 0]

Well if you ever wonder that if anyone owns the internet then it is you, i and the person whomsoever uses it becomes the owner i would say if it is seen in the broader sense. But some may interpret that the ISP's own the internet , and my answer will be No way the ISP's own the internet, because they themselves get it from the government and sell it to us, ISP's are like distributors. So pondering over who owns the internet its quite tricky if we think in a narrow sense. W3C they have certain rights and they can bring changes to the internet i guess, but can they be termed as the owners ? Nope they cant be .So my conclusion about your doubt is no one owns it completely , its a technology and the one who can harness it can be the owner of it till the time he is able to harness it.

[Nameless_ 1]

Well if you ever wonder that if anyone owns the internet then it is you, i and the person whomsoever uses it becomes the owner i would say if it is seen in the broader sense. But some may interpret that the ISP's own the internet , and my answer will be No way the ISP's own the internet, because they themselves get it from the government and sell it to us, ISP's are like distributors. So pondering over who owns the internet its quite tricky if we think in a narrow sense. W3C they have certain rights and they can bring changes to the internet i guess, but can they be termed as the owners ? Nope they cant be .So my conclusion about your doubt is no one owns it completely , its a technology and the one who can harness it can be the owner of it till the time he is able to harness it.

Ah... OK...

I don't know... when I say own, I mean, owned by one person. Someone like Bill Gates. The whole society might not know that the internet is owned by one person, but any money transfered over the internet (which is a lot) will have a portion that is given to this person.

And no one knows! (Apart from the government and all that). I mean, the internet isn't a free service. We have to pay for it. It's different to other public facilities where you don't have to pay (like public libraries, public toilets, etc) so where does the money go to?

OK, lets say it goes to taxes, electric companies, and so on (I don't really know who we pay to, so let's assume my list is right). Is there a third party that we don't know of?

A third party that is CRUCIAL to the World Wide Web, that if that party is taken down, everyone else on the online community will too...
And all our work will be wasted...

And that party will the the person or organization that owns the internet, with a database of all the websites in the whole wide world...

[-Sky- 0]

I agree. I also sometimes wonder if the Internet is owned by someone, I mean...how else would it be available? What if the whole Internet got messed up, what if all Satellites got destroyed?? How would we ever get the Internet back? Personally I somehow doubt the Internet will ever be shutdown. I believe the Internet will be here forever, unless all servers around the globe was to overheat or something very bad happened, for example all of our Power Stations cut out? Nuclear Power Stations core generators and reactors where to just suddenly blow up, causing a Nuclear meltdown explosion or something? It makes me wonder and very scared even thinking of what could ever eventually happen to our world.I think I'm going to stop thinking about this now. On to posting this, then go look at something else, this is a very scary thought.

[longtimeago 0]

@ -Sky- But remember one thing, if something happens, it can just bring down the channel which is responsible for promoting the internet , these issues cannot bring down the internet itself . But i have a doubt now, what is that "internet itself" . ah ha .. how is the internet to be viewed ? Is it to be viewed as an Object? or if it is viewed as a Technology, some one do make it clear about it . Ahh.. i am confused now !

[TheDisturbedOne 1]

I'm quite sure it can, especially for just one country. Look at North Korea, the internet is completely off for them. Although it would be hard to do in a democratic nation.

[Idolon 0]

If someone were to sever each and every connection that constitutes the Internet, yes it is possible, and by possible, I mean nearly impossible. ?Since the Internet is not much more than a gigantic network of computers, to truly shut down the entire internet, one would have to either shut down all of the computers responsible for handling network traffic, or cut all the connections between them.If each and every satellite in space were destroyed, the Internet would barely be affected (except for you people with satellite Internet). ?I believe most Internet connections are physical cables. ?GPS, however, would cease to function. ?Most connections in the Internet are redundant. ?If the cable from point A to point B is cut, there are still many other paths from A to B. ?The data might have to go through points G, R, and Q first, but it will still reach point B.Even if DNS servers were to stop working entirely, the Internet would still exist and be usable, though it would be a little more difficult to use. ?If you wanted to go to google, you would have type in 74.125.45.100 instead of google.com.

[Nameless_ 1]

If someone were to sever each and every connection that constitutes the Internet, yes it is possible, and by possible, I mean nearly impossible.  Since the Internet is not much more than a gigantic network of computers, to truly shut down the entire internet, one would have to either shut down all of the computers responsible for handling network traffic, or cut all the connections between them.
If each and every satellite in space were destroyed, the Internet would barely be affected (except for you people with satellite Internet).  I believe most Internet connections are physical cables.  GPS, however, would cease to function.  Most connections in the Internet are redundant.  If the cable from point A to point B is cut, there are still many other paths from A to B.  The data might have to go through points G, R, and Q first, but it will still reach point B.

Even if DNS servers were to stop working entirely, the Internet would still exist and be usable, though it would be a little more difficult to use.  If you wanted to go to google, you would have type in 74.125.45.100 instead of google.com.

And how do you know that? What is the internet anyway?

If the internet is very accessible and all that... why do we have to pay mobile phone companies and all that to link us to the World Wide Web? Where does the money go to, to them? Then can't we just link it ourselves?

Why do we have to pay for online services (not including businesses and companies making money) if the internet is accessible? Why do many people on Earth do not have Internet connection?

How does the internet connect us anyway? Yes, I know... by satellite and mobile phone/telephone lines... but really? Is that true? Also, why do we have to pay for hosting services to host our own website? And who are THEY hosted by? Can't we just make our own host and host it on our own, giving all the privileges to ourselves? Where does the money go to?

These are just a few questions flying around and running around in my head... And of course, the ULTIMATE.

Does anyone own the internet?

[Alex Cicala 0]

I guess if all the ISP's shutdown yes the internet would fail. Or mabye if there was no power or something. We'd all be doomed...

[Nameless_ 1]

And that means that all the hardwork webmasters and owners that have put in their sites will get lost and be wasted!!!But it's a gamble that's worth the risk.... or is it a risk that's worth the gamble?Anyhow, whether the internet will be shut down or not, I will continue to make my website, and the chances of it happening are slim and I don't see it happening anytime soon...

[inverse_bloom 0]

@post 10 Yes doomed in a very bad way, what no internet..... argh no Xisto, gawd...... Wasnt the internet always developed as a community initiative, i mean initially it belonged to researchers and the military but was quickly put in the hands of governments to use as they wish. So it gradually spanned out to a wider audience so everyone hooked up with infrastructure and had partial ownership (not just one person or organisation)? Ive always wondered if a set of global viruses were strategically released, could that bring down the internet. I reckon that could be quite possible.

Edited August 15, 2009 by inverse_bloom (see edit history)

[networker 0]

You can't possibly shut down the entire internet, The internet is nothing but a large collection of much smaller networks.The Domino theory just doesn't apply either.With all of the provisions that could be included, including wireless, a completeshut down is a ridiculously impossible idea.It might do us all some good to get a break from it for awhile but that is besides the point.

[Nameless_ 1]

@post 10
Yes doomed in a very bad way, what no internet..... argh no Xisto, gawd...... Wasnt the internet always developed as a community initiative, i mean initially it belonged to researchers and the military but was quickly put in the hands of governments to use as they wish. So it gradually spanned out to a wider audience so everyone hooked up with infrastructure and had partial ownership (not just one person or organisation)?

Ive always wondered if a set of global viruses were strategically released, could that bring down the internet. I reckon that could be quite possible.

I think it is too... I didn't know the internet was used to be a community intiative and belonged to researchers and the military, but a global virus released to shut down the internet is quite possible, though I don't know why anyone to do that... global viruses used to take personal information and bank account details, maybe, but to shut down in internet?

If the internet was shut down there won't be any purpose in developing anymore viruses... and people won't benefit from anything too...
The world of the internet (and the world of hacking and virus programming) will be over... together...

[inverse_bloom 0]

@ post 14For sure the internet as a "whole" couldnt be brought down by any means, but what about a set of aggressive viruses that hunted down isp's? That would knock out a huge chunk. @ post 13It would seem to be a rather pointless activity, but you never no the motivations behind people out there, people can surprise you (maybe radical terrorists for instance).