On Mon, 19 Jan 2004, Keith Moore wrote:
> >>> The residential users don't need to have a globaly unique IP address.
> >>
> >> That's like saying residential telephone users don't need to have a
> >> phone number at which they can be reached. (after all, the purpose of
> >> their residential phones is to call businesses for the purpose of
> >> obtaining services, right?)
> >
> > No, its not at all like saying that. Its like saying that residential
> > phone users don't need a globally unique circuit facilities assignment
> > (CFA) number. Indeed, most residential telephone users aren't aware of
> > that number, even though they have one. The globably unique telephone
> > number is more comparable to the email address, or the instant message
> > id.
>
> only if you want to insist that every application that someone might
> want to run at home should require an expensive external
> infrastructure. (there are no polite words to describe people with
> that attitude)
As Kazaa, Napster, Groove, and other protocols have demonstrated, its
quite easy to create peer-to-peer applications without either expensive
external infrastructure or fixed, unique IP addresses. The scalability of
these protocols has threatened the Music and Movie Industries--and thats
really something. I wouldn't have thought such a thing possible ten years
ago.
--Dean
