The disparate nature of the Internet makes it difficult to tell for sure whether networks are Y2K ready, but that structure also is its greatest protection from glitches caused by the 2000 date change, said the White House's Y2K chief John Koskinen Tuesday.
"The basic core of the Internet appears likely, extremely likely, to function without problems," said Koskinen, who chairs the President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion.
Koskinen added that since there are thousands of Internet service providers (ISPs) in the United States, it's difficult to determine whether they are all prepared. But redundancy in the system will allow data to bypass areas that face temporary breakdowns. Koskinen recently convened a meeting with ISP representatives to determine the Internet's Y2K readiness.
Because of the newness of the Internet, its systems aren't plagued by older programming methods that created the potential for Y2K breakdowns, said Barbara Dooley, president of the Commercial Internet eXchange.
"Because it was developed in the '80s and '90s, it is not saddled with legacy mainframe problems," she said.
Donald Heath, president and CEO of the Internet Society, said standardized procedures, developed relatively recently, should insulate the system from any major Y2K breakdowns. "The Internet should bend, not break," he said.
Jason Zigmont, board member of the Internet Service Providers Consortium, said ISPs are flexible and face downed phone lines and power outages regardless of the 2000 date change.
"These interruptions can happen any day on the Internet, even on Jan. 1, 2000," he said.
ISPs are voluntarily posting the state of their Y2K readiness on a NetY2K.org, Zigmont said.
Koskinen warned that individuals could find the Internet slower if everyone logs on to see if the system is working. He has issued similar warnings about the telephone and 911 emergency systems.
"If everybody decides for fun to log on, you're likely to find some problems," he said. "That's not a Y2K problem, that's a millennium celebration problem."
Heath said that standard Internet protocols should ensure that international Internet servers shouldn't face any major breakdowns. But the systems are susceptible to other non-network problems, such as telephone and power outages.
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