Orchid XP v8 wrote:
>>> My point is that ISDN is a point-to-point system, so it doesn't have 
>>> a concept of network addresses.
>>
>> WTF?  What are you smoking?  And can I have some?
>>
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISDN
> 
> So... it's a large page of jargon that I don't really understand. What 
> specifically am I looking at?

The part that describes ISDN as a global network?

>>> Having a global network without addresses doesn't really work.
>> You *have* heard of phone numbers, haven't you?
> Relevance?

 > Having a global network without addresses doesn't really work.

That's the relevance. Do you even *know* what ISDN is? Do you understand 
that it's a global network? Do you understand how everyone *except* IP 
addresses global networks, specifically because of the sorts of problems you 
see with IPv4 address spaces, NATs, routing table overflows, etc etc etc?

>>> And that's kind of my point: All the other network systems were 
>>> designed for networks that are "small", where it's feasible to keep 
>>> track of all the addresses by hand. None of them really supported 
>>> having several networks connected together, managed independently.
>>
>> So, when you make a phone call to someone in the USA, you think 
>> there's one group of people managing the undersea cable, the wire 
>> going into your building, and the cell phone towers talking to the 
>> cell phone in the USA?
> 
> All of the other *computer* network systems were designed for small 
> networks. Sheesh...

Uh, no. Really, not.  X.25.  ATM.  ISDN.  SONET.  They're all world-wide 
networks-of-networks, just like IP. Indeed, IP runs over top of all these 
networks once you get outside your own building. (Granted, X.25 is probably 
not much used any more, but it was basically what IP wound up replacing, and 
again was the substrate carrier for a lot of IP data before SONET got cheap 
enough to dedicate a fiber to something as trickling slow as IP traffic.)

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
    Ada - the programming language trying to avoid
    you literally shooting yourself in the foot.

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