Will the world wide web ever crash?

Question

I currently have 3 A-Level ICT teachers, 1 claims that in a few years so many websites will have been created that the world wide web will crash which explains the new www2.example.com but the other says that the world wide web crashing is an imposibility and that certain parts can crash for a short time but the whole thing will never go down.

Does anyone know the truth and have proof or a source of it?

Answer 1

I have no proof I am afraid, but I seriously doubt it is possible for the WWW to crash and I agree with your 2nd teacher.

Answer 2

yeah its quite possible. look at code red, it did a pretty decent job and it didnt even attack the infrastructure.

First though you have to see that there is a difference between the web and the internet. The web is the application layer, ie what we see. the Internet is the underlying infrastructure (like looking at roads vs cars i guess). you could kill either or both but most likely you would have to attack the infrastructure to kill the web even though the servers (application layer) are easier to mess with.

After code red and a few of the other microsoft specific viruses came to be if you let a web server go up within seconds of it coming online it would be infected. It is possible that some kind of trosan could make all nodes of the internet infected and as such generate so much traffic on the infrastructure that no matter how much bandwidth is available machines just grind to a halt.

about the www2 this has nothing to do with the total number of "websites" available". You can bind millions of domain names to one server and you can share an IP address among an almost unlimited number of webservers given enough bandwidth. Yes there is a limit of IP addresses in any architecture (IP version 4 having a theoretical total of 4,294,967,296 tho many of these are reserved for private use) but migrating to IPv6 would allow 3.4×10*38 which is more than enough for the forseeable future. this is irrelevant though as it all comes down to bandwidth. Personally I dont think its too likely that we could have the entire internet destroyed but its possible.

forgot to add the www2 and www3 is just a method of load balancing servers and clusters that get a lot of hits. By doing this you can split the calls to 2 completely seperate nodes of the network meaning that you can handle more requests with astonishing speed. some load balancing hides this behind the one url however this has its limits as it cannot split to two or more completely seperate nodes which means you cant handle as much.

Answer 3

at the beginning no one could predict that web will have a such success. for an example it is not enough of the static IP addresses. the web will experience some difficulties at some point when even not static IP addresses will be in the great demand.I cannot predict the crash of the whole thing as it is a web so the beauty is that when you have a trouble at one part it doesn't affect all the structure. the pricing at some point will go up but not for the the surfing

Answer 4

The PRINCIPLE behind the web make it "impossible" to "crash". It has been designed to that effect!
The word "web" is what it means: an intricate mesh of links, connecting every point on Earth together.
Break a link, and the "message" use another path.
Break MANY links, and there will always be another path available. You can cut many "wires" of a spider web, but the web still there, unless you cut some anchors... Since the www is "spherical", it has no anchors. Even if you were to "remove" a whole country, or continent, the web will still be there.
It is because of this particularity that the web is "self-regulating": it is regulated by ALL users. Make a virus, and 10,000 programmers will write code to kill it. Try to regulate it (through government), and 1,000,000 programmers will instantly write code to eliminate the government attempt to control it.
Great, really!
A piece invented by governments that governments cannot control anymore!!
EDIT: to the one above: even an E-BOMB won't do it, unless you fry ALL electronic equipment of the whole world... But, then, who would need the web? Since what controls electricity distribution are computers, no electricity would be available either... And no water: the pumps are electric...

Answer 5

Has the US highway system ever completely and totally shut down? No. Why not? Since it is a system of many individually operating pieces. They all function in the same overall system, but are independent of each other. So, even though parts of the system may get congested, and pieces may not be functioning properly at times, overall it will always be functioning. Just like traffic may slow down or even stop in one section of roadway, but there's always a route available at some point around the problem area. Some might say, if it gets too bogged down to a standstill, it isn't working, but it still is, just not in a user friendly way.

Answer 6

Parts might crash but they will be localised. A few years ago there was a fire in Birmingham (if I remember rightly) and a lot of internet users lost their connection throughout the South West of England.
I really can't remember the details but it was only a temporary loss.

Answer 7

maybe..it's possible.. maybe someday, all world wibe will crash because of too many people creaty soOoOoOo many websites..it already had happened one tym..when eathquake striked italy and almost all websites had crashed..successfully, people had think of a quick plan 2 solve the problem.. your lucky if you're using smart broadband.. globelines are a bit slow because of the big earthquake..

Answer 8

If the Sun exploded. However, there are certain very thick fiber optic cables that, if cut, would seriously disrupt internet access for entire regions, countries, or even continents.

Answer 9

the investment to the www. age is so great that i'm sure a crash is never going to happen.

Answer 10

I think it is impossible, but I wish it would, I might get some work done or even some clothes on would do, I'm freezing