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How does the Internet work?
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How does the Internet work?

gsrdgrdghdgsrdgrdghd Member
edited October 2011 in General

Hey
I'm trying to understand how the internet works (protocols, routing, etc).
Can someone recommend me a good book that explains it in detail? I don't wanna learn how to configure that and that router, just get a theoretical understanding of how it works.
I already have a decent understanding of BGP and TCP/IP but im stuck on the organization stuff (RIPE etc) and some "advanced" topics like Nullrouting etc.
Does anyone happen to know a book that covers all these topics?

Comments

  • +1 I want to understand that n_n

  • series of tubes with trucks going through them

  • LOL, I know that video n_n

  • kiloservekiloserve Member
    edited October 2011

    I haven't read one of those books in years but you can ask questions if you'd like. I think most of the providers and developers probably know their networks well.

    ABOUT RIPE

    IANA is the governing body for IP address management and they sub-delegate regions out to different organizations which then provide IP's for use.
    
    These delegated organizations are:
    RIPE is for Europe
    ARIN is North America
    LAC (something like that) is South America
    APNIC does Asia
    South Africa has one but I forgot the name.

    ABOUT NULL-ROUTING

    VPS and Dedicated Providers face this quite often. Basically if you are getting a DDoS attack, the quickest way to stop it is to "null route" that IP address that is getting attacked. Routers are instructed to drop (throw in the trash) the packets going to that IP rather than forwarding them and causing the DDoS congestion.

  • LACNIC for Latin America

  • RIPE is the only main one left that still has IPs.

  • FranciscoFrancisco Top Host, Host Rep, Veteran

    Daniel said: RIPE is the only main one left that still has IPs.

    Hardly, ARIN still has a ton.

    Granted, ARIN is likely the most anal about giving out allocations :)

    Francisco

  • diffradiffra Member
    edited October 2011

    Steve Gibson is doing a cool series on this on Security Now, starting with IP and so far has covered ICMP, UDP, and TCP. I imagine next would be DNS and HTTP/S. ARP is also pretty critical, as is BGP, though less so to a mainstream audience.

    IP: http://twit.tv/show/security-now/309
    ICMP/UDP: http://twit.tv/show/security-now/313
    TCP Part 1: http://twit.tv/show/security-now/317

    EDIT: next time I promise to actually read the post before responding. Organizationally it's pretty simple, each region of the world has an org responsible for doling out IPs. IANA is the central organization(like ICANN for IPs), but it's only responsibility is(was) handing blocks of IPs to the regional NICs and letting them deal with them from there.

  • Francisco said: Hardly, ARIN still has a ton.

    Granted, ARIN is likely the most anal about giving out allocations :)

    Francisco

    My bad, IANA and APNIC have run dry.

    RIPE has 7 /8s including reserves left,

  • FranciscoFrancisco Top Host, Host Rep, Veteran

    Daniel said: My bad, IANA and APNIC have run dry.

    RIPE has 7 /8s including reserves left,

    AFRINIC is going to empty out real fast which is surprising considering how few ISP's are over there. I'm assuming some spammers were able to get their hands on full /16's with minimal issue.

    Francisco

  • Francisco said: Daniel said: My bad, IANA and APNIC have run dry.

    RIPE has 7 /8s including reserves left,

    AFRINIC is going to empty out real fast which is surprising considering how few ISP's are over there. I'm assuming some spammers were able to get their hands on full /16's with minimal issue.

    Francisco

    Wouldn't surprise me if the ISPs gave a spammer group a /8

  • FranciscoFrancisco Top Host, Host Rep, Veteran

    Daniel said: Wouldn't surprise me if the ISPs gave a spammer group a /8

    There's a really interesting group on twitter:

    http://twitter.com/#!/IPv4Countdown/

    They keep records based off HE's tracking service. You can see AFRINIC burning through their reserves with only 60% left (that sounds like a lot but for a region like Africa to be chewing that much space something interesting is going on).

    Francisco

  • Francisco said: There's a really interesting group on twitter:

    http://twitter.com/#!/IPv4Countdown/

    They keep records based off HE's tracking service. You can see AFRINIC burning through their reserves with only 60% left (that sounds like a lot but for a region like Africa to be chewing that much space something interesting is going on).

    Francisco

    Probably due to the amount of spam etc that comes out of that continent its really not surprising, and the goverments and ISPs don't care much about it.

  • We get very little spam out of Africa. Either email or web based. (ie blog/forum/wiki)

  • Thanks for the replies guys!
    But please back to topic: Can someone recommend me a book like i described?

  • gsrdgrdghd said: Thanks for the replies guys! But please back to topic: Can someone recommend me a book like i described?

    in Simple Terms, the Internet works like a Phone Book, and when you enter that URL you dial that phone, but the information that comes back down is a bit more complex.

  • READ: albert hofmann: lsd-my problem child

  • Despite the sometime poor appearance, this website gives a very good overview of the internet including all the organizations involved: http://www.metamorphosite.com/who-owns-internet-how-it-works-domain-registration

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