Dramatic Internet Growth Continues

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Dramatic Internet Growth Continues
by James Glave
12:11pm  16.Feb.98.PST

http://www.wired.com/news/news/technology/story/10323.html

The Internet is now growing at a rate of about 40 to 50 percent,
according to the latest data from the longest-running survey of
Internet hosts, or machines physically connected to the network.

According to the survey, conducted by Mark Lotter of hardware and
software developer Network Wizards, there are now 29,670,000
"advertised" connected computers in 240 countries and territories.

"The results clearly show that the Internet, as measured by hosts,
continues to grow pretty dramatically," said Tony Rutkowski of NGI
Associates, who graphs Lotter's raw data in a series of slides on his
Web site. The host count does not correspond to the total number of
end users.

Lotter has released his Internet Domain Survey twice each year since
1988. His latest version uses a new methodology to more accurately
count hosts - which have, for reasons of security and confidentiality,
increasingly blocked the "zone transfer" data Lotter had previously
relied on to compile the data. While Lotter's old method counted the
number of domain names that had IP addresses, his new approach
queries the domain system for the name assigned to every possible IP
address.

Projecting out with the current trend, there will likely be 90
million hosts on the Net by the turn of the century.

The survey reveals that, unsurprisingly, the .com domain is still the
largest by far. With 8.2 million hosts, .com constitutes 28 percent
of all machines on the Net. Further, though 23 new country domains
have appeared since the last survey, most of the Net's hosts continue
to be based in the United States.

"One of the more enduring phenomena is that still roughly half, to 50
to 60 percent, of all the machines are in the United States," said
Rutkowski. But he also noted that the growth curve within the US is
roughly the same across all country domains.

"The growth in China or Indonesia or some remote Third World country
is as great, or in some cases greater, than that in the US,"
Rutkowski said.

"Where the growth tends to be less steep is often in areas affected
by regulatory policy or for cultural reasons," he said.

The data also seemed to suggest that more schools are getting on the
Net. Rutkowski noted a dramatic increase in hosts in the .us country
domain, which is heavily used by elementary schools and community
colleges that are not eligible for the .edu domain. Lotter found
1,076,583 hosts within the .us country domain, as compared to 587,175
in the January 1997 survey.

Mark Lotter could not be reached for comment.

Internet Domain Survey, January 1998:
http://www.nw.com/zone/WWW/report.html

Internet Trends:
http://www.ngi.org/trends.htm

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Also in this issue:

- Internet Caucus ready for 1998
    WASHINGTON -- The congressional Internet Caucus has laid out an
    "ambitious agenda" for the first half of 1998 that includes briefing
    Congress on Internet taxation, encryption, bandwidth, access to
    government information and privacy, according to a planning memo
    obtained by MSNBC.
- Dwyer suicide lives on
    Sex isn't all that parents should monitor on the Web
- Dramatic Internet Growth Continues
    The Internet is now growing at a rate of about 40 to 50 percent,
    according to the latest data from the longest-running survey of
    Internet hosts, or machines physically connected to the network.
- Critics slam new NSI domain policy
    audio Critics of Network Solutions' (NSI) domain name dispute policy
    say its new plan, quietly posted last month, is even worse than the
    old one.
- Wiring Schools, in Fits and Starts
    The wiring of America's classrooms could pick up a little speed
    thanks to the recent premiere of the Schools and Libraries Corp. Web
    site, where eligible institutions - particularly those that serve
    economically disadvantaged kids - can score deep discounts on
    everything from phone service to network routers. But it faces some
    challenges - including a few senators who aren't sure the entity
    should even exist.
- New Lists and Journals
    * BotSpot (tm) - New Newsletter on Bots and Intelligent Agents
    * MAGAZINE - Health Advocate Magazine Announcements
    * lifeline - THE LIFELINE - Spiritual hope for the terminally ill,
      oppressed or depressed
    * secondwives - second wives / Remarried List


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