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Ask HN: If the Internet were redesigned today, what changes would you make?

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Re: Ask HN: If the Internet were redesigned today, what changes would you make?

#51

Post by londgine »

p1mrx wrote: post #48
londgine wrote: post #44

I'm not sure how this can be done, but remove location association from IP. It annoys me to no end that google changes the language based on my location rather than my preference (sometimes with no obvious way to fix it). It would also stop the annoying country restrictions on websites.

There is no inherent location information in an IP address, but those packets have to physically go somewhere at 2/3 light speed. We could design a network like Tor where the routing is geographically oblivious, but then everywhere on Earth would have the same (very slow) ping time. It is saner to make a fast network, and then layer an anonymous one on top of it.

starlink is the current solution that I am hoping for

Re: Ask HN: If the Internet were redesigned today, what changes would you make?

#52

Post by reilly3000 »

Canonical User Identity. I know this is massively controversial but if we were starting at the beginning, an internet without anonymity would be a kinder, safer internet. One where data asymmetry and it’s enterprises wouldn’t have a toehold. A place that extends reality rather than contorts it. Privacy and anonymity have a place, and should be a right for consumption but never for creation.

Re: Ask HN: If the Internet were redesigned today, what changes would you make?

#53

Post by soheil »

I'd make it less transactional and more realtime. No http request, tcp packets instead more like old tv broadcasts where there is a continuous signal always being sent.

If it was possible to have infinite radio frequencies to use. Then you could load every possible webpage of every website continuously broadcast on a different frequency. To load a page all you have to do is tune in to that frequency. You will then get an instant latest version of that site without having to wait. This gets more complicated for signed in websites. There is no reason you couldn't implement the same thing just add more frequencies for more users. This wouldn't work for POST requests, but I think any GET request would work fine.

Re: Ask HN: If the Internet were redesigned today, what changes would you make?

#54

Post by salawat »

reilly3000 wrote: post #52

Canonical User Identity. I know this is massively controversial but if we were starting at the beginning, an internet without anonymity would be a kinder, safer internet. One where data asymmetry and it’s enterprises wouldn’t have a toehold. A place that extends reality rather than contorts it. Privacy and anonymity have a place, and should be a right for consumption but never for creation.

Hard nope from me. No thanks. I want nothing to do with your system. Literally the only reason anyone wants to know who anyone is at all is to throw men with guns in their general direction. That is the one and only thing that the internet doesn't allow, and to be honest, I think that's for the best.

Re: Ask HN: If the Internet were redesigned today, what changes would you make?

#55

Post by p1mrx »

londgine wrote: post #51
p1mrx wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no inherent location information in an IP address, but those packets have to physically go somewhere at 2/3 light speed. We could design a network like Tor where the routing is geographically oblivious, but then everywhere on Earth would have the same (very slow) ping time. It is saner to make a fast network, and then layer an anonymous one on top of it.

starlink is the current solution that I am hoping for

Starlink raises the speed from 2/3*c to 1*c, but IP addresses are still anchored to a location... otherwise the latency would suck.

You can geolocate any fast internet connection by measuring its latency to various points on Earth.

Re: Ask HN: If the Internet were redesigned today, what changes would you make?

#56

Post by Kim_Bruning »

reilly3000 wrote: post #52

Canonical User Identity. I know this is massively controversial but if we were starting at the beginning, an internet without anonymity would be a kinder, safer internet. One where data asymmetry and it’s enterprises wouldn’t have a toehold. A place that extends reality rather than contorts it. Privacy and anonymity have a place, and should be a right for consumption but never for creation.

The opposite is true. Privacy and anonymity are the best protection for the weak and marginalized. They are very closely correlated to the concept of free speech. And it is the ability to think and speak freely and work through matters that differentiates a civilized free society from the barbarians.

Certainly, things like free speech, the right to a fair trial, privacy and anonymity also somewhat benefit "bad people". But unless you live a very boring life indeed, from time to time perhaps you will be the one who is going against the grain of society. (Or some small but significant segment thereof). And then you'll be glad that you have a safe harbor to fall back on.

Re: Ask HN: If the Internet were redesigned today, what changes would you make?

#57

Post by salawat »

londgine wrote: post #44

I'm not sure how this can be done, but remove location association from IP. It annoys me to no end that google changes the language based on my location rather than my preference (sometimes with no obvious way to fix it). It would also stop the annoying country restrictions on websites.

Geolocation of IP blocks is basically all Google et al's fault. Once you go around wardriving to map all the infrastructure.... Well.. you get what they paid for.

Re: Ask HN: If the Internet were redesigned today, what changes would you make?

#58

Post by feisuzhu »

flerovium wrote: post #4
wmf wrote: post #3

Maybe make the DNS less US-centric (e.g. .com vs. .co.uk) and replace the PKI with DANE. We should have had DHCP prefix delegation for IPv4 so people wouldn't need NAT.

What is DHCP prefix delegation?

In DHCP-PD you get a subnet instead of a single IP.

Re: Ask HN: If the Internet were redesigned today, what changes would you make?

#59

Post by josh_today »

nickysielicki wrote: post #9

IPv6 dates back to 1997 and it really should have been adopted more urgently. IPv4 isn’t a huge issue but it sucks that so much of the internet is dependent on cloud providers because it’s the simplest way to get a public IP address. The decentralized web didn’t happen, in part, because of this. Facebook was famously started and hosted in a dorm room. But this was only possible due to the history of Harvard within th…

“ But this was only possible due to the history of Harvard within the advent of the internet and the fact that they had such an excess of addresses that Zuck could bind to a public IP address.”

This sounds interesting. Can you ELI5?

Re: Ask HN: If the Internet were redesigned today, what changes would you make?

#60

Post by salawat »

TheRealNGenius wrote: post #46

Native payments, video, and search

You'll never get frictionless money transfers. Stop asking.

Not trying to be glib, but it's a political and law enforcement necessity that not every Tom, Dick, Harry, and Jane be entry points to the financial system.

I'm not saying I agree with the justification for it, but as someone who has seen how it works... It is alas, an incompatible outcome.

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