Thought I would keep you all up to date on where those lost emails might be going, check out the link to the map of internet blackholes but first the article.
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/041008-internet-black-holes.html
This is an archived forum and the content is probably no longer relevant, but is provided here for posterity.
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February 12, 2009 3:48am
Subscribe [3]#1 / Feb 12, 2009 3:48am
Thought I would keep you all up to date on where those lost emails might be going, check out the link to the map of internet blackholes but first the article.
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/041008-internet-black-holes.html
#2 / Feb 12, 2009 4:08am
Am I missing the point here? Email doesn’t just disappear anywhere. if it fails to be delivered there’s a reason. A 404 error isn’t a black hole. It’s a response saying it can’t find the page. it could be from your ISP, a handoff to a peer along the route, or the destination network, server, etc etc. If you drill down far enough, you will find the problem.
FYI i think this page is a fantastic idea. But there’s no reason to come up with buzzwords. They already have names. This whole project is in it’s most simplistic terminology trace routing.
#3 / Feb 12, 2009 6:29am
I thought it was totally interesting too but like you said it’s tracerouting at the core. Somebody got bored and decided to make up something that sounded mind blowing. I think the idea could be real but the blackhole would have to be human made, like a program that zaps emails it attracts via certain keywords. Like anything containing the keyword light would be rerouted to the blackhole and deleted or held forever on a massive server. It’s pretty insane but someone could be doing it if they had the storage space for a billion emails.
#4 / Feb 12, 2009 8:33am
Well I thing the problem is ‘Tracerouting’ is a technical term that most people aren’t going to know, and the relatively few that may look it up will possible end up on the Wikipedia entry and their eyes will glaze over, before their mind can even process, hey I might understand at least part of this. Tons of people feel like their email or web access gets lost in the same great big black hole of lost sock pairs, and extra keys that can’t be found. Calling it a blackhole with the use of the ‘Hubble’ project name, makes the entire concept easier for the average person.
Personally, I think they could make the first Google Map bubble a bit easier to read as well. The:
Prefix 206.220.240.223/32
Total Probes 16
Probes reaching Origin AS 13
Probes reaching prefix 13
Duration of Event 1.2 hrs.
Could be changed to
Location: Chicago Area (206.220.240.223/32)
Tested: 16 Times
Successful Tests: 13 ( ISP Group also 13)
Duration of Problem: 1.2hrs
Even that language could be better, but goes a long way to making the info more accessible.