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75% of Network Connections Not From Browsers

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the move-over-www dept.

Trailwalker writes "An article at BigBlueBall.com states that 75% of web connections do not use a browser. IM and P2P applications are used instead." While surprising, this is probably more indicative of how instant messaging has been able to complement and/or replace email in recent times.

29 of 397 comments (clear)

  1. SPAM and Worms by Moderator · · Score: 4, Insightful

    One would think that spam and email worms constitutes a significant portion of that 75%.

    --
    The World is Yours.
  2. msblast by jbplou · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I would think that msblast makes up a larger amount of the applications with network connections. I work for an ISP and there a still many customers who are afflicted with that virus.

    1. Re:msblast by AndroidCat · · Score: 5, Funny

      That probably gets balanced a bit by the HTTP connections from people still infected with Code Red.

      --
      One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
    2. Re:msblast by mrhaleon · · Score: 5, Informative

      Scanning for traffic for worm-infected customers is one of the things I do at the ISP I work at, and I can tell you, it is often NOT as simple as telling them to clean it up. Half the time, the customer doesn't believe us, as if we'd bother to make something like this up, just to annoy them. When they actually do look, much of the time, they claim to find nothing, or to have "fixed it", but we still see the worm traffic. And of course there are those wonderful customers who shut the infected machine down for the day, claim to have "fixed it" and then turn it back on again the next day... And, to top it off, one out of every three of the ones that actually DO resolve it end up getting reinfected days later, because they didn't bother to do all the patches after removing the infection (despite explicit suggestions to do just that on our part). It's a fun job, let me tell ya...

    3. Re:msblast by harmonica · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I think that it is our work as computer-scientists and tecnitians to educate everyone we can

      Most people don't want to know. It has nothing to do with laziness, but there's only so much time that they're willing to spend on computers.

      I'm not sure if there's a solution unless the program / OS part of a computer is more or less read-only (some pre-installed applications, and that's it).

    4. Re:msblast by chunkwhite86 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I would think that msblast makes up a larger amount of the applications with network connections. I work for an ISP and there a still many customers who are afflicted with that virus.

      Agreed. You should see the incoming access logs from my firewall. There are hundreds of attempts per week from random IP's which are hitting ports like 17300, 901, 35xxx, 6129, etc. which are known ports that viruses/worms use. It amazes me the number of unpatched Windoze systems out there. How does the buyer of a new PC get it online at home without catching 3 worms in the first 10 seconds??

      --
      I'd rather be a conservative nutjob than a liberal with no nuts and no job.
    5. Re:msblast by irc.goatse.cx+troll · · Score: 4, Interesting

      "How does the buyer of a new PC get it online at home without catching 3 worms in the first 10 seconds??"

      Maybe mirosoft needs to add a quick windows update check to the bootprocess? Ping home giving a list of installed updates, if theres any more critical than prompt the user to install now before anything else loads.

      --
      Pain lasts, kid. Its how you know you're alive. Sometimes I think this growing up thing is just pain management-TheMaxx
    6. Re:msblast by Compenguin · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Sometimes people get blaster while they are doing updates. I reinstalled on a box for a legit reason (hard drive went bad) and there were tons of updates and as I was updating I got hit by msblast.

  3. Damm I knew I'd get caught by MajorDick · · Score: 4, Funny

    Well,

    My 4000 song lawrence welk collection just got found out....

    I thought I was doing the music world a favor, renaming song , and artists like shaggy with welk tunes behind em...
    Guess Ill have to go back to spam for a living....

  4. Email is on the way out.... by 403Forbidden · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Serously, the second AIM puts ICQ-like away messaging in, email is dead.

    It's much more convenient to just start up a program, punch a few numbers, and see who is on for real-time conversations and get all the messeges they sent while you were away. Further, with the increased use of Webmail based email servers, it is becoming more and more inconvenient to check it... It's become rare to have a non-isp provided email account be POP3 by default.

    Is AIM ready for the spotlight? Not quite... AIM, the popular one with teens, i'd say, still needs to work on privacy, logging, and message ability while someone isn't logged on. ICQ is a more perfected clinet, but the settings and UI are much too complicated for a novice.

    Until recently, I only checked my email every couple weeks.. i'm on AIM almost constantly.

    1. Re:Email is on the way out.... by TiMac · · Score: 4, Insightful

      AIM isn't very formal either....I wouldn't dream of IMing someone regarding a job interview, or a professional deal, etc...but I agree for informal communication, for the most part. Email's paper trail also has niceness about it though, but I suppose if MS has its way, Emails will be DRMed too. :)

      --

    2. Re:Email is on the way out.... by globalar · · Score: 5, Insightful
      "email is dead"

      It might be broken, exploited, less sophisticated, and maybe even not as convenient as IM, but it's still at least as ubiquitous. Also, IM has a lot of conventions which make it often times (not all times) less professional or even communicative. For example, IM stresses ways to shorten words but not necessarily make things anymore clear (or more developed). It's a lot like a phone in many ways. And sure we use the phone a lot - to varying degrees of success.

      Email is just becoming a mainstay of many people's life. And it is very accessible - it really is like electronic mail (it has many mail conventions) and people seem to respond to its simplicity well. Also, the art of writing a coherent sentence, proof reading it, and then choosing a better word or phrase is much more suited to email.

      I just hope I didn't prove my ignorance of these things in this post ;)

    3. Re:Email is on the way out.... by prockcore · · Score: 4, Funny

      I'd say that email was UnDead... it's like an evil zombie that wants to eat your brains.. and increase your penis size.

  5. 76% of something else by tepples · · Score: 4, Informative

    The article states that "76 percent of active Web surfers access the Internet using a non-browser based Internet application." I take this to mean not that only 24 percent of traffic is HTTP traffic but that 76 percent of people who use the Web use something else as well.

  6. How the hell would they know? by Weaselmancer · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Seriously - how do they come up with this number? Are they packet sniffing the entire internet?

    I'd like to know their method before I would worry about their conculsion.

    Weaselmancer

    --
    Weaselmancer
    rediculous.
  7. Subject line is misleading by Rick+Richardson · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The article states that 75% of users use non-browser applications to access the internet.

    It DOES NOT say that 75% of the connections are made by non-browser applications.

    There is a difference, and I blame the lack of any sober editors at Slashdot today for this getting through.

  8. Nielsen by tepples · · Score: 4, Insightful

    how do they come up with this number?

    From the article: "Source: Nielsen//NetRatings, December 2003". More information on Nielsen's products may interest you.

    If Nielsen's net ratings work anything like their TV ratings, then lucky families get paid to put a spybox between the cable modem and the home router, with full knowledge and consent of what's going on. I'd expect an airtight privacy policy; Nielsen has provided TV ratings for over a decade.

  9. What about e-mail by yehim1 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Putting statistics in terms of connections from unique users doesn't quickly mean the importance of these applications, and also usage patterns of internet users in general.

    Also, Windows Media Player and Realplayer establish browser connections to their media homepages anyway; does it count as a browser connection? In most cases, it is not even initiated by the user (the user might be wanting to play MP3's).

    What about e-mail? It is very important and widely used by everyone; but it doesn't even make the list!

  10. What are people using Windows Media Player for? by Aens · · Score: 4, Insightful

    After reading the article, I noted that Windows Media Player is the #1 application accessing the internet. All I can ask is, why?

    Why does a media player need to connect to a server so frequently? What information is it sending out? What good does Windows Media Player provide the end user, that it is taking up 34.43% of the web connections?

    --
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  11. Re:Less spam by cbreaker · · Score: 4, Interesting

    You can differ, but I only on small occation get an ICQ spam; I've never gotten a spam on MSN, Yahoo, or AIM. And I've posted my ID's on various forums for the users to contact me.

    On the other hand, I recieve many, MANY spam e-mails. I think anyone with an e-mail address has experienced lots of spam.

    I run my own mail server, and I've got about 5 active users that have used the e-mail address for things. Friends, family.

    Since 12/12/2003, my amavis-new/spamassassin/postfix machine has filtered out 7012 messages. That's 350 spam messages each day, for 6 mailboxes. It's insane.

    So, it's cool. I'll let you differ all you wish, but I beg to differ your difference.

    --
    - It's not the Macs I hate. It's Digg users. -
  12. Re:surprising? by Zalgon+26+McGee · · Score: 4, Funny

    And what's with this HTTP nonsense? Why would anyone use anything but Gopher?

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    Book(n): Utensil used to pass time while waiting for the TV repairman

  13. With the advent of VPNs... by Trolling4Dollars · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...for the common man like STunnel, FreeSWAN, or OpenVPN, how long can it be before people are just using private networks between family and friends at home to do IM, P2P or even Windows File Sharing? I've moved in this direction already with my family and friends. All it took was a little of my time to set up SSH clients with Local and Remote forwards that my family and friends initiate connection to my server with. Then they just access the Jabber server I run or, the internal mail server using IMAP, or the recipe database I've created, etc... Since some of my friends and family are Windows bound, I've been able to get them to use the Exodus client for Jabber with cygwin SSH to communicate with me. We even share RDP and VNC sessions. So... what does this have to do with the article? I would argue that there are a good number of people out there doing more than just IM, P2P or web browsing and they are probably doing it via tunneling. It can't be long before this becomes a part of the OS (even for Windows) to allow people to share data in new and very secure/private ways. It's done wonders for the support I offer my friends and family too...

    --
    Un-news
  14. Re:Gaming..? by m3j00 · · Score: 4, Informative

    actually most games are UDP

  15. The article says nothing like that by ericspinder · · Score: 4, Insightful
    76 percent of active Web surfers, access the Internet using a non-browser based Internet application.
    I am taking that to mean in addition to using a web browser. Basicly what Big Blue Ball (a site on IM)is saying that 75% of people on the net use IM.
    --
    The grass is only greener, if you don't take care of your own lawn.
    1. Re:The article says nothing like that by kfg · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Yes, it would seem that's what they're trying to say. So what I feel really interested in is the apparent fact that 24% of people on the net do not use any sort of web application at all.

      I don't use IM, but I've certainly had occasion to use Media Player.

      They also skip the one piece of data that may have been of real interest to anyone but someone looking for an "emerging trend" to rape and pillage. What percentage of time do these people allocate to their IM client as opposed to their web browser. The simple fact that they use an IM client is pretty meaningless without knowing this.

      The article also seems to be a bit rife with clueless confussion between the net and the web, using the words interchangably even when the distinction matters to their own point. A remarkable feat given how short the article is.

      Which may be why there was no discussion about email, usenet and irc. Perhaps they consider these as normal browser functions or something? Their language certainly supports the conclusion that they think the browser is the standard net tool, as opposed to web tool. I can go a week or so using the net pretty heavily without ever accessing the web at all, and yet not using any of the "net" tools that have attracted their interest either. I get the feeling that this is even possible would surprise them.

      Which may be why they seem to have trouble distinguishing the difference between things that originate locally and those that originate from the net, because to them if you don't have a browser loaded the implication is that it didn't come from the net.

      Well, what can I say? If you're in London and you get an IM from someone in Pretoria and you don't realize that you're on the frickin' net you must think the other person is a little pixie who lives inside your monitor and is writing messages to you by scrawling on the backside of the screen with his little magic crayon or something.

      My experience is that if there is any cause for confusion it works the other way around. Grandma thinks of the computer as an internet device and assumes everything is net.

      "No grandma, you don't need an internet account to look at your pictures. They're inside your own computer (the little pixie takes care of them). You only need an internet account to look at the pictures on other people's computers. That's right. That means you don't have to be afraid to miss any calls while you're playing solitaire either."

      KFG

  16. Re:Less spam by mskfisher · · Score: 5, Funny
    I used to get AIM spam all the time from porno bots. I have no idea how they got my screen name, but I would entertain myself by making snide remarks back, or by making them fail the Turing test. :)
    I've still got the logs on my machine, and I'm thinking about putting them up in a section on my web page.
    Here's an excerpt from a good one:
    snuglybaer493 (1:39:10 AM): hi :) wanna chat?
    kwabla78 (1:39:24 AM): a/S/l?!!??!
    snuglybaer493 (1:39:29 AM): asl (age sex location)?
    snuglybaer493 (1:39:38 AM): 24/f/new york
    kwabla78 (1:39:59 AM): i'm a taco from mitsubishi, and i'm older than the hills
    snuglybaer493 (1:40:07 AM): so what are you up to kwabla78?
    snuglybaer493 (1:40:12 AM): cool. i was just hangin out. kinda bord.. kinda horny :)
    kwabla78 (1:40:27 AM): are you horny like a rosebush?
    snuglybaer493 (1:40:33 AM): should i take that as a yes?
    kwabla78 (1:40:34 AM): or wait... was that "thorny"
    snuglybaer493 (1:40:38 AM): feel like cybering with me ? please please...
    snuglybaer493 (1:40:43 AM): :)
    kwabla78 (1:41:00 AM): what is this that you speak of? is it like cyber-warfare? if so, then by all means.
    snuglybaer493 (1:41:18 AM): hold on. lets get a simple yes or no answer. you are of age and you want to cyber with me?
    kwabla78 (1:42:15 AM): um... yes, i am older than the hills, and i wish to engage in cyber-warfare. i want to help the Department of Defense against those cyber-Taliban!
    kwabla78 (1:43:02 AM): do you also?
    Or this one...
    Tonadzift559 (6:36:14 AM): Hey kwabla78, what's going on , monday-monday, I wish someone would answer my IMs. Do you wanna chat with me :) I have a cam. and My 2 best friends just showed up.
    kwabla78 (6:36:38 AM): PLEASE MAKE IT STOP
    OH THE PAIN
    Thankfully, it's stopped... but it was entertaining for a while. :)
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    0x0D 0x0A
  17. Re:Less spam by mskfisher · · Score: 4, Informative

    Get DeadAIM. It addresses nearly all of your complaints.
    Except for the sounds, and you can turn those off by yourself. :P

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    0x0D 0x0A
  18. Re:Less spam by irc.goatse.cx+troll · · Score: 4, Insightful

    My views on deadaim are pretty simple: When a program sucks so massively bad that theres a market in creating addon programs ot make it suck less, you shouldn't use the program at all. I'd rather just use irc, or gaim if I need contact with aim members.

    --
    Pain lasts, kid. Its how you know you're alive. Sometimes I think this growing up thing is just pain management-TheMaxx
  19. The other 75% by mcc · · Score: 4, Funny

    The other 75% of the people are telnetting to port 80 and entering the GET and POST commands by hand.

    Well, maybe not ALL of those people are doing that, but the cool ones are ;)

    --
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