|
Comment: |
It's bad enough thinking about noncompliant aspects of Unix. But then there is the question of terrorism or good, old fashioned foul-ups. This article lays it out: the Net is vulnerable now, pre-2000. Are we willing to bet our survival on it, "when all else fails"?
This story appears in DATA COMMUNICATIONS (Sept. 21).
* * * * * * * * *
MAE (metropolitan area exchange) East, which handles at least one-third of all Internet traffic worldwide, is located in an underground parking garage in McLean, Va. "All it needs is some senior citizen in a Suburban to hit the gas instead of the brake, and there goes the NAP [network access point]," says Rodney Joffe, chief technical officer for Genuity Inc. (San Francisco), an Internet service provider (ISP).
MAE West, one of the busiest connecting points between ISP backbones, is so crowded with routers, servers, and other gear that the air conditioning can't keep up. It's not uncommon to see windows propped open with fans in an effort to keep things from melting down.
|