internet

Pakistan's government appears to have blundered big-time in an attempt to block its citizens viewing videos on YouTube. The state-run Pakistan Telecom attempted to perform what amounted to a hijacking of YouTube's web server addresses. The idea was ... that anyone attempting to access the site through a Pakistani Internet provider would automatically be re-routed to a different address. Unfortunately, it seems the technical detour was mistakenly copied to a Hong Kong server. From there, it was automatically repeated to all connected servers and, given the nature of the Internet, was almost ... (view more)

Finally, the American consumer believes the Internet is a useful and convenient shopping tool and a good way to save time. However, there are still major obstacles between reaching the comfort zone for consumers. Concerns over privacy and credit ... card security remain a large issue to many would-be buyers. At least, this is what the Pew Interent Project Survey for September 2007 has concluded. Among the findings: Shopping on the Internet has become routine. A large majority of Internet users (93%) have done some Internet task related to e-commerce. e.g. they have bought something, researched a ... (view more)

Two congressmen have proposed laws which would enforce the principle of net neutrality. That's the idea that broadband providers should not be allowed to discriminate against particular sites, companies or technologies. The planned law would be ... called the Internet Freedom Preservation Act. It's a joint effort by political rivals Republican Chip Pickering and Democrat Ed Markey, who described the Internet as "the greatest level playing field ever created". Though net neutrality is already widely seen as the basis of America's broadband network, the new law would specifically define US ... (view more)

Firms involved in filesharing technology have protested Comcast's decision to restrict its customers' use of peer-to-peer (P2P) software, such as BitTorrent. P2P is a system of distributing data which involves splitting one file into many pieces. ... Rather than downloading the file directly from a website, users get pieces from a variety of fellow users, with the file reassembled on their computer. This spreads the demand for data and means P2P can be used for files which would be too large for many people to download from a single site. Several firms complained to the Federal Communications ... (view more)

It's now guaranteed that a major part of America's wireless airwaves will be accessible to any device or computer program. That could mean more choice for cell phone owners who want to access the Internet on their phones. The guarantee comes because ... bidding on the relevant part of the airwaves (the C block of the 700 megahertz spectrum to be precise) has passed the $4.64 billion mark. The government has agreed to proposals, championed by Google, ruling that any bidder paying more than this amount would have to follow open-access rules. The airwaves are being freed up by television ... (view more)

Two broken undersea cables have wiped out Internet access for users across Northern Africa and South Asia. The cables, with the unassuming names SEA-ME-WE-4 and FLAG, appear to have broken off the northern coast of Egypt on Wednesday. It's thought ... the cables run between Egypt and Italy, and are part of a chain that carries most Internet traffic between Europe and the Middle East. 95% of Internet data sent across oceans is now carried by undersea cables. The effects have reached across the Arab Gulf states and into India. Egypt's telecommunication minister, speaking at a ceremony to announce a ... (view more)

Get ready to pay for Internet usage by the gigabyte rather than the flat monthly access fee you're accustomed to. At least, that could be the outcome if a new pricing test by Time Warner's RoadRunner broadband service is deemed as worthy. The ... company is the fifth-largest Internet service provider in the U.S., however, its initial test will be constrained to subscribers in Beaumont, Texas. (Sources: ISP Planet and Internetnews.com ) In their new price scheme, a user's monthly fees would depend on how much bandwidth they used during the month. A spokesperson for Time Warner has explained that ... (view more)

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Regulators from the European Union (EU) have begun two investigations to find whether Microsoft is again constructing a tidy monopoly abroad. The first probe examines a complaint by the Norwegian firm Opera, rival Internet browser to Microsoft's ... Internet Explorer. Opera say it's illegal for Microsoft to include Internet Explorer free of charge with Windows, arguing that Microsoft should either include a range of browsers or none at all. A second investigation is currently peering into claims Microsoft didn't give other software firms enough information on how to make their programs compatible ... (view more)

Online video sites are reaping the benefits of the ongoing writer strikes, with television viewers switching to their PCs to find new programming. Nielsen Online, which surveys and measures Internet use, says YouTube's audience has risen 18% since ... the strike began. Rivals DailyMotion and LiveVideo have both seen similar increases, while Crackle, an offshoot of Sony Pictures, has seen traffic double in the same period. Visitor figures across all video sites have gone up by 10% during the strike. Analyst Alex Burmaster says such rapid growth is far higher than normal and suggests the strike is ... (view more)