How many people use the Internet?
There is no way to determine how many users are on the net, besides making guesses and estimates. Our list of related documents at other sites includes pointers to other companies that do surveys to estimate the number of users on the Internet.
How big is the Internet?
We consider the numbers presented in the domain survey to be fairly good estimates of the minimum size of the Internet. We can not tell if there are hosts or domains we could not locate.
In summary, it is not possible to determine the exact size of the Internet, where hosts are located, or how many users there are.
How do I figure out the breakdown of hosts per country from your data?
You can't. There is not necessarily any correlation between a host's domain name and where it is actually located. A host with a .NL domain name could easily be located in the U.S. or any other country. In addition, hosts under domains EDU/ORG/NET/COM/INT could be located anywhere. There is no way to determine where a host is without asking its administrator.
How did you compute the adjusted host count figures?
We start with the figure we published for each old domain survey (on the distribution by domain name charts), in the column named "Percent Domains Missed". If for example it says "20%" domains missed, this means we got 80% of the domains, or 0.80. We then take the total host count and divide it by this number. For example if the hostcount was 800 and we missed 20% of the domains, we would divide 800 by 0.80 to arrive at an adjusted host count of 1000.
What is a host?
A host used to be a single machine on the net. However, the definitions of a host has changed in recent years due to virtual hosting, where a single machine acts like multiple systems (and has multiple domain names and IP addresses). Ideally, a virtual host will act and look exactly like a regular host, so we count them equally.
What is the relation between a host and a network number?
There is not necessarily any correlation between a network number and a domain name. A single network number could span many countries, and a single domain may have hosts on multiple network numbers.
Can I have permission to reproduce your data or charts?
You have permission to reproduce our data provided that you mention the source as "Source: Internet Systems Consortium, Inc. (http://www.isc.org/)". However you must ask our permission to publish derivative works based on our data. In those cases you must say your data or charts are "Based on data from the Internet Systems Consortium, Inc. (http://www.isc.org/)"
Is the raw data available?
The raw data from the surveys can be purchased from ISC. The datasets are on DVD. The raw data is IP address and corresponding hostname, i.e:
204.152.184.72 clock.isc.org
204.152.184.103 sources.isc.org
204.152.184.101 www.isc.org
In a recent survey, we found more than 72 million hosts. Therefore, the corresponding datasets, especially for the .com, .net, .edu, and .org TLDs, are quite large. For example, the .com file is more than 170MB zipped. Please assure you have the appropriate tools for managing large files.
For more information, please contact survey@isc.org.
What if I order the raw data, and it isn't the information I need?
Please read the License Terms carefully before ordering the data, as we can not offer refunds.
Do you have a mailing list for survey annoucements?
The survey is currently done in late January and July and usually published the first week of the following month. If you would like to be notified when the latest survey is published, please click here.
How much does the survey cost?
Each Domain survey is available for US$2,500 if purchased individually. An annual subscription, which includes 4 surveys, is available for US$7,500.