5% of the Net is Unreachable

dasheiff writes "A BBC Story says US researchers reveal that up to 5% of the internet is completely unreachable. However the most interesting part is that they reported that many of the lost net sites flare into life briefly when being used to send spam or to launch attacks on other parts of the net."

Comments

Unreachable?

[WinstonSmith]

If it is unreachable, is it really part of the Internet?

When I turn off my router, I don't really consider my home machines part of the Internet even though they are running and connected by a physicall wire.

Re:Unreachable?

[d5w]

If it is unreachable, is it really part of the Internet?

Check out the Arbor Networks presentation the BBC is referring to. Their definition of "dark address spaces" is

"The range of topology accessible from one provider, but unreachable via one or more competitor networks"

So, yes, these addresses are reachable by someone, just not by everyone.

Re:Content-free article

[satch89450]

What worries me is that it took someone three years to figure this out...

I think you may have jumped to a wrong conclusion here. It didn't take three years to figure out that spammers play around with unsecured routers. It took three years to prove via experiment and measurement the extent of the problem, and to quantify the extent of the problem.

When the little boy has cried "Wolf!" often enough, the lone cry is quickly ignored. When the little boy then yells "Wolf, range 600, bearing 219" the cry takes on a bit more significance, don't you think?

If you can't measure it, it's opinion not science. (No, I can't find who said it first -- it's not original with me.)

Re:ummmm

[billn]

Yes, this is a reprint of an older story, found here.