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The most important technological achievement
of the twentieth century continues to play
a crucial role in business, entertainment,
politics, and the dark world of Running
alike. This, of course, begs the question;
what is the NET? |
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TECHNOLOGY OF THE NET |
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The NET is not an operating system (OS),
a programming language, or a type of Computer;
it is essentially millions of Computers
installed with software that support a shared
connection protocol allowing them to communicate
with one another by receiving and transmitting
neurally-parseable data. To access the NET
a person needs access to a Terminal that
is connected to the physical network of
the NET, and one of a variety of interfacing
options.
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GLOBAL CONNECTIVITY |
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The backbone of the NET is a collection
of interconnected servers scattered across
the globe. Though the NET backbone originated
with and was primarily controlled by the
scientific juggernaut that is CERN for a
long time, the NET Protocol is an open standard
and thus privately owned servers soon proliferated
to the point that no one controls the backbone
any longer, and it would take a massive
failure of hundreds of unrelated servers
around the globe to disrupt overall connectivity
for any length of time. |
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PROTOCOL |
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The basic NET protocol is Neural Translation
/ Transmission Protocol (NTTP) and it was
created specifically to enable Neural Enquiry
Technology to transmit and receive the data
that it uses to create a "virtual reality"
session accessible by multiple users at
once. The protocol saw a lot of revision
and improvement in the first decade of its
use, but has not been massively altered
in over three decades. |
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Though the NET is not proprietary and NTTP
is an open protocol, CERN has retained the
rights to its development and maintenance.
The NTTP Protocol has been periodically
upgraded and rolled out by the WorldNET
Committee, a nonprofit organization largely
sponsored and staffed by CERN, and is currently
at version "23.21.1b". The last
upgrade was released four years ago in 2029,
and was a relatively minor patch to a low-risk
security flaw introduced in the previous
version a few months prior. In other words,
the technology is pretty static and sweeping
innovations are a thing of the distant past. |
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PUBLIC TERMINALS |
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The NET is accessed either from a Terminal
or an actual server that forms part of the
backbone of the NET. Since servers are expensive,
controlled, and typically well secured and
/ or hidden, most NET access occurs from
Terminals. Most are quite old, and Terminal
technology hasn't really changed since the
2010's. They are effectively the equivalent
of phones, ATM's, and high-bandwidth network
ports rolled in to one.
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There are public Terminals located in kiosks,
businesses, and often seemingly randomly
placed alcoves in business parks and commercial
areas. Most middle-class homes and up have
one, and often branch multiple ports or
a wireless hub off a single line drop to
allow NET based entertainments to be enjoyed
in many rooms of a house. People living
in condos, townhouses, and apartments usually
have to settle for a stripped down version
that shares bandwidth among several units.
The rich usually have satellite enabled
versions for security and locality reasons,
but while the presentation of the Terminals
physical footprint might be upscaled, the
functionality is the same. The NET is a
great leveler of social status. |
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INTERFACE AND PORT |
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The technology of a Terminal is reasonably
simple; they consist of a simple firmware
Computer with minimal (but useful) functionality
hardwired into them, and one or more Ports
that allow a physical connection to the
NET for other Computers. |
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FEATURES |
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The following list represents the basic
features of the NET that are usable from
just about any public Terminal without the
need for a Computer, Computer Programming
usage, a Brainjack or VR Visor, or any real
skill at all: |
- BASIC FEATURES
- Access Hosted personal EMail
- Access other Hosted Accounts
- Upload / Download data to / from Hosted
Accounts
- Access public databanks and private databanks
they have credentials for
- Play Hosted Immersive / Interactive Games
- Participate in Hosted Virtual Chats
- ADVANCED FEATURES
- Place / Accept Trivid calls
- Cable Trivid Features
- Bank Teller Features
- Media Download Features
- File Input / Output
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NOTE: Hosted means that some other
Computer elsewhere is running the software
necessary enable and or store the data needed
for a particular feature. The Terminals
themselves lack the capability to store
data or run software other than what they
are hardwired with. Thus to access EMail,
one must first have an agreement with a
third-party EMail provider and an account
on one of their EMail servers. |
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INTERFACE |
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On the upside Terminals are a massively
enabling tool for businesses and people
seeking entertainment or communication.
Without the need for any level of real computing
skill or knowledge on the part of the user,
Terminals provide a useful service and are
sufficient to meet the computing needs of
the general public. On the downside its
such a safe and controlled interface that
it is almost impossible to get a Terminal
to do anything illegal or out of the ordinary
as they are simply physically incapable
of it. |
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PORT ONLY |
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Many Terminals completely lack the firmware
interface and are just a Port; they merely
provide a means to connect to the NET. A
person with a VR visor or Brainjack can
walk up to any unsecured Port and just plug
in, accessing most of the same basic features
. This would allow them to access the Basic
Features of the NET listed above. |
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More typically though, a user would connect
a Personal Computer or Workstation to the
Port and use the Software and functionality
of that Computer. If the connected Computer
has the necessary physical and software
components needed, they can also access
the Advanced Features listed above. |
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Port-only Terminals are favored by many
businesses for office use, but are also
used in places where a connection to the
NET is sometimes needed but a full blown
Terminal would either take up too much space
or be an eyesore.
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NETSENSE |
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Fortunately for the NET technology, early
in the burgeoning corporatization of the
NET, a spin off of Luxent called NetSense
Laboratories was incorporated in 1993 to
handle the design, sales, installation,
and maintenance of public and private NET
Terminals intended to bring access to the
NET to the masses. |
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Selling to municipalities, other corporations,
domestic developers, shoping centers...basically
anyone that wanted to install one or more
public Terminals, NetSense had installed
over 1,500,000 public NET Terminals worldwide
from 1994 to 1998, in a variety of configurations
ranging from "Teller" style walkups
to "Kiosk" style sit-downs, and
custom models as well. Well written maintenance
contracts ensured that NetSense was not
only solvent, but financially durable to
such a degree that even though the parent
company Luxent folded during the tech collapse
in 1999, NetSense was largely unaffected.
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NetSense continues to design, manufacture,
and sell Terminals into the modern day,
with currently active installations in the
six figure range. Due to NetSense's market
strength and longevity their Terminals are
the defacto standard means to interface
with the NET for the masses.
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HACKING |
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The vast majority of people use the NET
as it was intended to be used, as a means
of sharing knowledge and communicating with
other users and networked computers to carry
out productive and lawful transactions.
Most users just use Terminals, not needing
any greater functionality than what is provided
by default. Even those who have specialize
computing needs tend to use Computers with
fairly pedestrian Software installed, such
as word processors, Computer Aided Design
applications, Accounting Software, and similar
practical utilities. |
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Using the NET "creatively" is
where Hackers come in. A skilled Hacker
maintains one or more Personal Computers
(PC); almost always a Portable one; loaded
with custom Software that they have either
designed themselves, or acquired from others,
with less mundane uses than a spreadsheet
or database or document editor that are
designed to do things that range from the
relatively harmless to the outright malignant.
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Hackers can do a lot of amazing things with
a good Computer and a few minutes of open
NET connectivity, particularly if they have
had time to write tailor-made custom applications
in advance and just need to upload them
and let them run asynchronously. |
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PHYSICAL SECURITY |
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Fortunately for Hackers there are numerous
commercially valid reasons to connect another
Computer to the NET via a Terminal and in
general public Terminals lack much in the
way of physical security. |
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Businesses on the other hand typically have
defacto physical security in the way of
whatever security their office buildings
have. Further some go so far as to semi-permanently
secure all Ports to the specific Computer
that uses it on a day to day basis, and
a few go so far as to disconnect all Computers
from their terminals each night and lock
a faceplate over the Terminals to frustrate
potential after-hours abusers. |
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Regardless, the security of the NET is primarily
to be found in the NET rather than around
how one accesses the NET. |
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SECURITY MONITORING |
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Each Terminal has a unique ID, and further
all Computers that can connect to the NET
via Terminal also have a unique ID, which
theoretically allows NET access and traffic
to be logged and monitored by Software specifically
designed to handle such tasks. |
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Thus if Joe User uses their PC to plug into
a NET Terminal and then access a hosted
EMail server and run a specialized EMail
client from their PC, a piece of security
Software on the EMail server running in
the background could ascertain the Terminal
Joe User is plugged into and the ID associated
with the PC that Joe User is using, in addition
to whatever information is used to authenticate
and access Joe User's EMail account on the
server.
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Of course, one of the first and most crucial
things all Hackers must learn to do is to
defeat the Unique ID'ing of their PC. More
sophisticated Hackers also learn ways to
disguise or obfuscate what Terminal they
are using as well. Thus, this sort of security
is akin to the locks on a house -- they'll
deter the casual miscreant, but they will
barely slow down a professional worth the
name. |
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SOFTWARE SECURITY |
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Due to the lack of physical security and
inablity of monitoring to prevent serious
Hackers, the primary means of security found
on the NET is software based. |
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{UNDER CONSTRUCTION} |
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