On Mon, 19 Jan 2004, Keith Moore wrote: > >>> The residential users don't need to have a globaly unique IP address. > >> > >> That's like saying residential telephone users don't need to have a > >> phone number at which they can be reached. (after all, the purpose of > >> their residential phones is to call businesses for the purpose of > >> obtaining services, right?) > > > > No, its not at all like saying that. Its like saying that residential > > phone users don't need a globally unique circuit facilities assignment > > (CFA) number. Indeed, most residential telephone users aren't aware of > > that number, even though they have one. The globably unique telephone > > number is more comparable to the email address, or the instant message > > id. > > only if you want to insist that every application that someone might > want to run at home should require an expensive external > infrastructure. (there are no polite words to describe people with > that attitude) As Kazaa, Napster, Groove, and other protocols have demonstrated, its quite easy to create peer-to-peer applications without either expensive external infrastructure or fixed, unique IP addresses. The scalability of these protocols has threatened the Music and Movie Industries--and thats really something. I wouldn't have thought such a thing possible ten years ago. --Dean