How does the internet work? This is really a two-part question. First, is there some sort of central computer from which all other computers connect? Second, who manages the internet? I heard in class that the US government has ultimate regulative control over the internet, (possibly in conjunction with an organization called icann (www.icann.org)). This seems plausible in the same way that the US government regulates the airwaves.
ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: There have been many large books and millions of technical papers written about how the Internet works, so I invite you to come to the library, and we’ll help you do a literature search. I’ll bet some of the folks in Duke’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering are pretty knowledgeable on the subject, too. A good background might be the classic book *The Whole Internet* from O’Reilly. I don’t think it’s been updated in a few years, and is probably out of print, but it provides a good overview of the history. O’Reilly also had one entitled *Internet in a Nutshell*. Redundency is important in the Internet’s success, to keep it from being dependent on a single computer or single routing between computers. There are a number of boards, agencies, councils, authorities, and the like that deal with technical standards and protocols.
ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) is responsible for the domain names and IP addresses. Their website says they handle these responsibilities under contract from the US Commerce Dept., and there’s all sorts of stuff about it on the web. A critical view can be found from http://en.wikipedia.com (search ICANN) – a critical view as expected, since this online encyclopedia has been developed by open sourcy people who are wary of organizational control. Here’s a page on Internet management, whatever that is, courtesy of BellSouth: http://bellsouthpwp.net/c/c/ccpdlover/internet%20management.htm . Anyway, it’s a major research project (for those of us not intimately involved in the process) to determine the technical, administrative, and legal story behind the Internet.