ISP

Google's announcement Wednesday that it will roll out a high-speed fiber trial in select U.S. locations unleashed a flurry of comments ranging from Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski to the telecoms and cable industries to network-neutrality advocates.

Google is asking cities, counties and states to indicate interest in having Google-built one-gigabit-per-second fiber service. The company emphasized it is not entering the Internet service provider business but rather is conducting an experiment to see what happens when truly high bandwidth is available.

Google on Wednesday announced plans to experiment with ultrafast Internet access -- more than 100 times faster than most Americans have access to today with one-gigabit-per-second connections. Google expects to offer the fiber service at a competitive price to between 50,000 and 500,000 people in several cities.

As it struggles to reinvent itself, the struggling former America Online has the savvy, technology and assets to succeed, but may not have the time, according to a former executive of the company. "AOL has quite a number of hidden gems and Internet properties that many users don't even know are part of the brand," says Jules Polonetsky, who was AOL's chief privacy officer and a senior vice president from 2002 to 2008. "That includes dozens of the most highly visited blogs, like the leading technology blog Engadget, that draw substantial advertising revenue."

As it struggles to reinvent itself, AOL has the savvy, technology and assets to succeed, but may not have the time, according to a former executive of the company. "AOL has quite a number of hidden gems and Internet properties that many users don't even know are part of the brand," says Jules Polonetsky, who was AOL's chief privacy officer and a senior vice president from 2002 to 2008. "That includes dozens of the most highly visited blogs, like the leading technology blog Engadget, that draw substantial advertising revenue."

As it struggles to reinvent itself, the former America Online has the savvy, technology and assets to succeed, but may not have the time, according to a former executive of the company. "AOL has quite a number of hidden gems and Internet properties that many users don't even know are part of the brand," says Jules Polonetsky, who was AOL's chief privacy officer and a senior vice president from 2002 to 2008. "That includes dozens of the most highly visited blogs, like the leading technology blog Engadget, that draw substantial advertising revenue."

Britain's business secretary, Lord Mandelson, says he will press for controversial legislation that would kick off the Internet -- at least temporarily -- persistent downloaders of copyrighted material. If the so-called three-strikes law is passed by Parliament, people who flaunt repeated warnings will see their Internet access "suspended" for short periods.

One individual may have been the target of the distributed denial-of-service attack that crippled a handful of social-networking Web sites, including LiveJournal, Facebook and micro-blogging site Twitter.

The attack, which left Twitter down for more than four hours and degraded Facebook's service, was reportedly aimed at a Georgian blogger who uses the screen name Cyxymu, Facebook told the BBC.

It wasn't all that long ago that the humble router led an uneventful existence. Its task was to distribute incoming data packets to attached computers. It was also entrusted with blocking the occasional packet off the Internet if it hadn't been ordered by one of the PCs.

But in recent years the diminutive network boxes have morphed into tidy little communication hubs combining network connectivity, a WLAN access point, and often even a telephone system as well. "That saves a lot of electricity and jumble of cables," says Johannes Endres from Hanover-based computer magazine c't.

The Federal Trade Commission on Thursday shut down a rogue Internet service provider that recruited, knowingly hosted, and actively broke laws. With the crackdown, the FTC also took down one of the most notorious botnets.

According to the FTC, Pricewert LLC participated in the distribution of spam, child pornography, and "other harmful electronic content." A U.S. District Court judge shut down Pricewert and the businesses it operates, including 3FN and APS Telecom, at the FTC's request. The ISP's upstream providers and data centers have disconnected its servers from the Internet.

Minnesota officials are trying a novel tactic to block online gambling sites -- using a federal law that enables restrictions on phone calls used for wagering.

The state's Department of Public Safety said Wednesday it had asked 11 Internet service providers to block access to 200 online gambling sites.

The state is citing a federal law that requires "common carriers," a term that mainly applies to phone companies, to comply with requests that they block telecommunications services used for gambling.