I saw a map of undersea internet cables the other day and it’s crazy how many branches there are. It got me wondering - if I’m (based in the UK) playing an online game from someone in Japan for example, how is the route worked out? Does my ISP know that to get to place X, the data has to be routed via cable 1, cable 2 etc. but to get to place Z it needs to go via cable 3, 4?

      • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        2·
        9 months ago

        we’re on lemmy which is a federated service, essentially the tl;dr is decentralized. Root federation in this context refers to the instance that hosts your account. In my case dbzer0, in your case pawb.

        Personally i’ve found it really interesting seeing the sub niche interactions between different federated platforms. It’s a weird look into how humans tend to associate.

        • OmegaMouse@pawb.socialOP
          2·
          9 months ago

          Ah gotcha! Yeah it’s pretty neat seeing the ways in which the instances intermingle. Some communities stay pretty niche and used only by local users with the same interests, whereas others are melting pots of every instance. I guess it’s a bit like a society with little towns and bigger cities.

          • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
            2·
            9 months ago

            yeah, it’s interesting to see in comments and other communities as well.

            The vast majority of accounts seem to be on lemmy world though. Which is interesting.