>> What IP does is provide a single language for networking. 
> 
> So does every network. And the IP stack doesn't support all sorts of 
> stuff that other networks do.  You're just expressing a tautology.
> 
>> Any networking technology that has a standardised way of carrying IP 
>> can potentially be interconnected with any other such technology.
> 
> And any networking technology that has a standardized way of carrying 
> SONET can be interconnected with any other such technology. Any 
> networking technology that has a standardized way of carrying ISDN can 
> be interconnected with any other such technology. Any networking ... 
> X.25 ... Etc etc etc.

Take token ring, for example. Token ring is inherantly designed around 
the idea that you will only be connecting, say, maybe 100 nodes 
together. Nodes are referred to by their position in the ring; add a new 
node and all the addresses change. You can't even connect a token ring 
to another token ring, never mind any other type of technology. It 
doesn't work.

IP is different. It's designed to work for large networks.

>> So if the post office hadn't been a monopoly, and there had been a 
>> dozen different postal companies all start at the same time, they 
>> would have all used the same postcodes?
> 
> No. But over a fairly short time, that would have sorted itself out.

Oh yeah? You recon??

>>> Why would post codes need a monopoly if phone numbers, IP addresses, 
>>> and MAC addresses don't?
>>
>> Are you telling me that IP addresses don't involve a monopoly?
> 
> Yes.  Who served the IP address to your machine?  Time Warner San Diego? 
> I doubt it.

AFAIK, IP addresses are assigned by a central allocation agency.

Sure, you don't usually talk to them directly; usually you use one of 
the IP addresses from the block assigned to your ISP. But my point is, 
you can't just pick a random number out of the air and try to use that 
as your IP address. It won't work.

Post a reply to this message