collection of materials on infrastructure development, protocols and retrotechnologies

We have collected a compact selection of materials prepared by VAS Experts. We discuss old and new network protocols – from X.25 and Frame Relay to IPFS and IPv6 – information security and specialized literature.

Market regulation

Post in p2p format — what protocols decentralized social networks are built on. Over the past months, several of these sites have significantly expanded their audience. In the material we discuss the protocols on which they are built – nostr, ActivityPub And Scuttlebutt — and whether they have a future. Spoiler: the prospects are hazy. Regulators are increasingly paying attention to sites, and developers have to urgently resolve moderation issues.

Take it and switch to IPv6 – regulators are starting to make recommendations. The transition to IPv6 is gradually accelerating. A number of countries already support the implementation of the protocol at the state level. Government organizations publish migration guidelines for their engineers. One of the latest documents was released by the US National Security Agency. We discuss what information security specialists advise.

How new legislative initiatives (and not only) are shaping the global Internet landscape. A compact overview of the processes taking place in the Chinese, European and American markets. There is an opinion that new legislative acts and private initiatives of telecoms will lead to the division of the worldwide network into regions and the formation of a “splinternet”. To what extent such a prospect is real and what does 3G networks have to do with it – in our article.

Gigabit Internet in every home – what Western regulators offer. Gigabit infrastructure is becoming a mandatory component of new buildings. The advising norms are already in force in Great Britain and France. But what about the housing of the old fund? In the article we talk about several projects that, in theory, will allow us to avoid a global reworking of the cable infrastructure.

Traffic tax – is it possible to force corporations to pay for the use of the network. The largest online services generate half of the world’s traffic, as well as huge profits. At the same time, telecom operators’ expenses for infrastructure maintenance are also growing. Therefore, European and American regulators are discussing the introduction of a “traffic tax”. In the material, we tell what implementation options are being considered by legislators, and what consequences a similar experiment in South Korea led to.

Internet infrastructure

What can slow down the implementation of IPFS. This is a promising open source protocol that allows you to store data on several devices at once without being tied to a central server. It is already finding its first practical applications, but there is no talk of mass implementation. We tell how this fact was influenced by the IPFS development process and the peculiarities of inter-network interaction using AJAX and REST API.

Don’t boil the pot – isn’t it time to stop laying fiber optic networks. While some telecoms promise to connect the world with the help of satellite communications and 5G, others continue to invest in the development of fiber optic infrastructure. However, there is an opinion that they overestimated consumer demand and now a “bubble” is forming in the market – by analogy with the dot-com bubble. We tell what is happening and analyze possible scenarios for getting out of the situation.

How to use QoS to ensure the quality of Internet access. Our material is about the QoS tool and what network problems it helps to solve – packet loss, delays, jitter. They also told how to activate QoS on a home router.

Retrotech

The technologies of the past today are the X.25 standard. This is a classic packet data standard straight out of the 1970s. Even before 2005, it was used by the developers of the SWIFT banking payment system, and also used in commercial networks for a long time. We analyzed how the standard distinguished itself in its time, and in what areas it is still used.

Frame Relay – a brief overview and what’s with the protocol today. We continue the topic of retroprotocols and talk about the Frame Relay standard. In the 1980s, it gained popularity as a successful solution for networks of large corporations, banks and government organizations. Now it has been replaced by modern alternatives, but knowledge of Frame Relay is still required to pass a number of certifications in IT. Therefore, we picked up several books on the topic.

Technologies of the past – discussing ARCnet. We are talking about one of the first solutions for building a LAN. ARCnet technology allowed computers with a lack of resources to turn to other servers on the network for help, but the standard failed to capture the market – the low bandwidth (about 2.5 Mbps) was to blame.

Information Security

Potential vulnerability of DHCP and rDNS – what you need to know. The combination of these two technologies makes it possible to map host names on a network. At first glance, this is not very dangerous, but the threat to privacy still arises. How this happens and what can be done – we explain in our material.

Cyber ​​Threat Tracker is a solution from Kaspersky Lab and VAS Experts. On average, 360,000 new cyber threats emerge every day. It is impossible to keep track of everyone without automation systems. We talk about the tool that will solve this problem – the composition of the solution, how to use it, and perspectives.

What is there with DDoS – we are discussing how the situation in the world is changing. In 2022, DDoS attacks set records for frequency and duration. The methods of attackers are also changing – more and more often, their targets are the “wallets” of users and companies (especially those that use cloud infrastructure).

What else to read

Profile literature – books about networks, algorithms and development. We have collected the most interesting from the thematic threads on Hacker News – with detailed descriptions. The list includes Concrete Mathematics, dedicated to the mathematical foundations of computer science, and The Linux Programming Interface, with a list of five hundred system calls.

How the Internet developed – a compact selection of literature where you can read about it. This material included literature and posts about how the Internet developed during the “war of protocols” (1970-1990). What models were considered and rejected during the development of the modern global network. What concepts determined the trends of its development and not only.