| MadSci Network: Computer Science |
Amy --
In response to your questions..
* What is the origin of internet?
The internet originated from the Arpanet, something devised by the US Department of Defense to keep the US government running in the event of a global nuclear attack.
* Where is the central server for the internet?
The beauty of the internet it that it has no central server. The internet consist of individual sites that connect to one another via phone lines, cables and optical fibers laid around the world. The closest analogy I can think to it is the establishment of the Italian city-states in the period of the Renaissance, in which each city state functioned individually within the whole of Italy -- so individual sites function to make up the entire entity known as the 'internet.'
* How large is the disk-space of the central server?
There being no central server, there is no central disk space (bad for a world-wide crash..) Our site probably takes up 100MB+ of space with all the documents, images, and software that comprise our site. Other places such as SunSite, or Art Net probably comsume gigabytes of space. Multiply this by the thousands of sites around the world, and you have quite a lot of space.
* What will happen, if one day the central server breaks down?
Mass pandemonium.. well certainly if the entire system were to crash worldwide. Some of the same lines that are used for maintaining the active connections within the internet are also used for phone conversations, keeping the numbers running on the various stock exchanges around the world, relaying information between governments and government agencies.. see what I mean? Some have argued that such a crash might go a long way in de-gluing us from cathode-ray tubes, but certainly only after some time, effort and appreciable levels of pain.
* Will all the sites be gone? .... and we have to re-create all the things again?
Only if we have come to exist in a world in which sysadmins are banned by law from making backups. For all the sites to be gone, you'd have to sever every connection between one computer and another.
-N. Bourbaki