Who owns the internet's backbone routers?

[ElFenix]

Is it the companies that own the backbone pipes?

 

[rh71]

Skynet

 

[Aves]

Which ones?

Major ISPs own most of them like MCI.

 

[Ime]

I do!

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: aves2k
Which ones?

Major ISPs own most of them like MCI.

the really large internet routers, that route all the traffic on the internet... there aren't very many of them, think i read something like 15 of them

 

[Ynog]

Originally posted by: ElFenix
Is it the companies that own the backbone pipes?

Yes private companies control the backbones.

Some of the big players are (were not sure anymore) AT&T, MCI (WorldCom), Sprint, UUNET, and
various other telecommunication companies.

 

[maziwanka]

Originally posted by: rh71
Skynet

hahahahahahahhaa

 

[Train]

from the ones ive seen, it seems like Sprint and AT&T have a pretty good amount of the big ones.

 

[Rufio]

AOL

and AL Gore

 

[Amorphus]

I wanna see a picture of these things.

 

[Rainsford]

If you really want to find out, just run trace routes (tracert under Windows) on various systems located on the other side of the country from you. I've got Level 3 and AT&T so far.

 

[Trygve]

Originally posted by: ElFenix

Originally posted by: aves2k
Which ones?

Major ISPs own most of them like MCI.

the really large internet routers, that route all the traffic on the internet... there aren't very many of them, think i read something like 15 of them

Sure you're not thinking of the root servers? I don't think there's anything like just fifteen "really large routers"; traffic isn't handled like that.

 

[Homerboy]

There is no one "internet" per se...
its piles and piles of privately and publically peered networks.

The people "own" the routers (likely they are leased anyways form cisco, juniper, big iron etc ) are the specifc telecommuniatiosn company.

There are a FEW absolute true teir1 backbones sucha as UUNet, MCI, Level3 (RIP: Genuity/BBN) Sprint etc... and many many smaller players to say the least.

IF you want to see pictures just do itnernet searches for images. Cisco 12000's and the like.

They are nothing special to look at. Just large grey boxes with a few lights and ports on them.

 

[Aves]

I feel it necessary to point out that MCI = UUNET

 

[spidey07]

like others have said the internet "backbone" is made up of the large carriers networks.

These networks are conneted in various places called network access points (NAPs). I don't know how many there are now but there were three originals.

At the exchange points the carriers exchange routing and reachibility information and route policy in what is called a "peering" agreement. And now they are connected.

juniper and cisco own the internet routing space from a manufacturer standpoint.

hope this helps.

 

[nageov3t]

the big Level 3 North-East routers are 2 floors up

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: Trygve

Originally posted by: ElFenix

Originally posted by: aves2k
Which ones?

Major ISPs own most of them like MCI.

the really large internet routers, that route all the traffic on the internet... there aren't very many of them, think i read something like 15 of them

Sure you're not thinking of the root servers? I don't think there's anything like just fifteen "really large routers"; traffic isn't handled like that.

yeah i'm thinking of the root servers

 

[Trygve]

Originally posted by: ElFenix

Originally posted by: Trygve

Sure you're not thinking of the root servers? I don't think there's anything like just fifteen "really large routers"; traffic isn't handled like that.

yeah i'm thinking of the root servers

There's information on their ownership and control at http://www.root-servers.org/ Looks like the biggest players are Verisign and the US Government.

It's not easy hosting a root server; you have to be prepared to handle regular DDoS attacks and constant levels of garbage traffic that would bring down most systems out there.