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The Internet Archive is back online

arstechnica.com

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Re: The Internet Archive is back online

#3

Post by dusted »

seestem wrote: post #2

It would be better if the Internet Archive was decentralized without a central point of failure, maybe run on something like bittorent.

I kind of agree, but the way the internet is going, with everyone being behind carrier-grade nat, it's not much of a decentralized network of computers anymore, not to mention all the kids with their laptops and tablets not even hosting anything :(

Re: The Internet Archive is back online

#4

Post by Kuinox »

dusted wrote: post #3
seestem wrote: post #2

It would be better if the Internet Archive was decentralized without a central point of failure, maybe run on something like bittorent.

I kind of agree, but the way the internet is going, with everyone being behind carrier-grade nat, it's not much of a decentralized network of computers anymore, not to mention all the kids with their laptops and tablets not even hosting anything :(

UPnP exists and allow devices to ask the router to open a port to them.

Re: The Internet Archive is back online

#5

Post by uniqueuid »

seestem wrote: post #2

It would be better if the Internet Archive was decentralized without a central point of failure, maybe run on something like bittorent.

The problem is that it's hard to do this in a way that ensures good archival of ALL resources.

Bittorrent works well for popular things but fails for marginal content (unless some really dedicated individuals step in.)

What the internet archive provides is a way to have access to many many resources which you didn't know you needed in advance.

Re: The Internet Archive is back online

#8

Post by maire »

seestem wrote: post #2

It would be better if the Internet Archive was decentralized without a central point of failure, maybe run on something like bittorent.

I don't know if bittorrent has improved - but 20 years ago I had a personal issue with it.

At that time our son was using it for games. He goes away to college and came home for the first school break. I get a phone call from our internet provider asking if our son was home. I was so shocked and handed the phone to our son.

Apparently at that time bittorrent was optimizing for the most efficient path to a host. Since we had relatively good connection, the mighty weight of the internet was funnelling through our tiny internet provider to our son's computer. The provider (without our knowing it) had made a deal with our son that he would only turn on bittorrent between midnight and 6 AM. I doubt other providers would be so generous.

I have been sceptical of bittorrent since that day.

Re: The Internet Archive is back online

#9

Post by Cheer2171 »

seestem wrote: post #2

It would be better if the Internet Archive was decentralized without a central point of failure, maybe run on something like bittorent.

You say this as if it is an original idea. Of course the IA is working on this and have been for over 6 years. There already is a DWeb version. They have been advancing DWeb infrastructure. The IA hosts all kinds of DWeb developer events.

But it is over 50 petabytes and the IA gets a huge amount of traffic through the regular web that they need to serve quickly and efficiently to their users.

Guess what has happened over 6 years of decentralization of 50 TB? People only seed what they want or care about and there aren't enough seeders to host. They set all this up and nobody volunteers. You're a DWeb advocate and you haven't been seeding. That's a recipe for disaster if they rely on the goodness of volunteer seeders. The IA's mission is broader. DWeb will ever only compliment the IAs mission.

https://blog.archive.org/2021/02/18/behind-the-scenes-of-the...

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/technology/archiveorg-...

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