It should be noted that this entire section is based on my views of the Net. If you don't subscribed to this concept feel free to ignore it.
In the Rache Bartmoss guidebook and indeed in the CP2020 rules there are descriptions of how the different types of data-line are perceived while hooked to the Net. This is an interesting idea, but it does not go far enough.
1) FiberCom:
These are the standard lines of communication in use through out the world, although poorer nations and some regions may be still locked into WireCom systems. The appearance and method of travelling a FiberCom line varies depending on where about it is in the net you are. If you are on line at a Nexus site the FiberCom line will look more or less exactly as described in the published books. There are some refinements however. Fiber optic lines can handle extremely large numbers of callers per fiber pathway, and a fiber optic communication land line will have a few hundred thousand fibers. Therefore there is a simply enormous amount of data travelling along the white bars everyone sees in the city grid. Specialized software is needed to make heads or tails of this stream of data, let alone track it (See File Restricted). Inside the Nexus the netrunner travels as described in CP 2020, floating serenely along the data-line looking for a destination of interest. Outside the nexus however things are very different. Outside the nexus there is no computer to conveniently create the virtual reality effect and the data-line is traveled from the inside. Pardon me? If no computer is available to provide an artificial reality then the data-line functions exactly as its real world counter part does. The runner inputs a destination and then enters the line; travel is very much like the Jump Gates in Babylon 5. The gate opens and you enter, then on the FiberCom line you almost instantly arrive at your destination and step out of the gate.
2) WireCom:
These are the older style wire based phone and cable lines. Inside a nexus site they appear as spikes, sort of like mountains. This is caused by the resistance in the metal lines and has the effect of slowing travel (although the nanosecond difference shouldn't be too noticeable). But more importantly the wire lines cannot carry as much data or as many channels. As a result travel along a WireCom channel can be like being stuck in a traffic jam as signals await transfer. From outside the nexus a WireCom journey is almost exactly the same in appearance to the FiberCom one with one difference. There is a lag before you can exit the far gate, the space inside the line is generally blank gray null space, but it can occasionally be home to random bursts of energy and distortion (caused by overlapping signals).
Since I began looking closely at the net aspects of CP 2020 I have had problems with the limited amount of detail and complexity. The net is an artificial construct with billions of systems and users, at the very least it should be as diverse and complex as a major city. But as I see the rule's interpretation we have a wasteland of misused potential. I think this needs to be corrected.
As with everything else in this page the following is based entirely on my opinion and if you don't like it that's your business, don't read it.
Under the CP 2020 rules we have something like 6 or 7 basic site icons. Ranging from public BBS's to ICE guarded datafortresses, and finally LDL's. Why don't I start by looking at each?
By rights a LDL should be one of the easiest concepts to explain in the 2020 Net terms. Under the rules it is a generally private low use means to jump huge sections of the earth. The purpose is to reduce long distance charges and download times. More unusual are the low number of LDL available, and the cost to use and build one. Pardon? Every single phone company on earth already has the basic LDL, a way to reach any other directory on the planet. LDL's should be available in any city, and any Corp with enough money to buy an uplink dish and rent time on a communications satellite should have it's own LDL. But this is not the case under CP 2020 rules. As far as I can tell the rules describe a hardwired link that jumps from one city to another (okay perhaps it can link to any other LDL). Do you have any idea how expensive such an undertaking would be? The Corp or nation would be required to lay down separate communications lines, often requiring new transoceanic lines to be added. No one could afford this for such a little return in speed and security.
So how do we fix this and make it usable? Firstly you have to examine the nature of current fiber optics based communications lines. Several thousand discrete fibers per line each with thousands of possible frequencies and channels. This allows for virtually unlimited use. Some of the channels are reserved in the extreme wavelength bands for TV and Phone communications. But some of the channels are also open for exploitation by Corps. Buy purchasing the right to a channel the Corp practically guarantees itself a private means of transferring data. Commercial cybermodems are not designed to be frequency agile and so must access the main LDL access site (sort of like the current rules). In order to break into a private LDL channel the runner must customize his deck. By why does a runner need to use LDL's? It takes but a few nanoseconds to transmit a signal anywhere on earth by traditional means, the runner need never use an LDL to reach distant sites. This is in direct contradiction of CP 2020 but look at it this way. This web page is located in North America and anyone on the planet can access it. From the user's point of view there is next to no difference in lag for being in Australia or on the next street. The web extends around the world using the phone companies as connecting points, it doesn't cost extra for me to call Australia, and it takes no more time. Therefore any runner can make intercontinental hops without ever getting near an LDL, and this is good because it is easy to track anyone who enters an LDL (because there are so few users anyone who doesn't belong sticks out). So why do runners need to use LDL's? The reason is download speed. Programs and data can be huge, transmitting them over commercial lines can take time, and time a runner cannot afford. But a LDL is like having three or four channels all clear to use. This cuts the amount of time to download files (this does not affect attack programs at either end as they only transmit pieces of code and not the whole multi-MU program). This would of course be lethal under normal CP 2020 rules, anyone stupid enough to use an LDL lights up flags all over the place. So as I see it the runner has to reverse the normal CP order of operations. Sneak up to the site you wish to hit through the commercial lines (concealed amidst millions of users), once you have the data send it along a LDL to a holding site. What's a holding site? Like sites that offer free email or homepages a holding site is a service offered on the Net. You can either send low priority data to net P.O. boxes (anonymous sites that don't care who can get at or leave data) or you can pay to send your data to a maximum security holding site. Essentially it allows the runner to temporarily divorce himself from his booty (after all if you don't have it Netwatch can't really arrest you, unless of course they just say you did it).
Is this the only type of LDL? No, of course not. The different types of communications can be used to transmit data and each can be used in a sense to create LDL's. Any Corp can pay to route its data through a communications satellite, bypassing the Net entirely. But anyone who has access to the satellite or a downlink system on the right frequency can intercept the data.
Nodes, are the basic directory of travel about the net. CP 2020 proposes a system that would never work. Travelling about the net is fine, but the problem with CP 2020 is the regional VR, who's providing it? No VR of any type is possible without a computer somewhere providing the data needed to set it up. CP 2020 makes no mention of the VR provider. This is what a node does. It is a huge cluster of computers that serve a function that is a cross between Yahoo! (Net search directory) and a VR supplier. The concept of nodes does not in anyway change the appearance of the net, but it does explain the levels of detail used in CP 2020. Each city, each country and each continent will have its own node. The user generally links to the node and gets access to the main routing directory and the appropriate VR data. If he wants to see a larger level he jumps to the next node (or down to lower one to see more local detail). Every large computer system will also have the equivalent of a mini node within it, to allow visitors to move freely about their sites. The interlinking of nodes goes like this: World/LEO Node, National Node, Regional Node, City Node, and then Server Node.
This idea eliminates things like wildspace and empty regions. No VR can occur without a computer to create it. The node will also function as a search engine. After all there are millions of sites in each city alone and no one can just set out and find all the sites they need. The node covers this. All sites are registered with the node, that is all legal sites. Since the IG transformations make no sense they have to go, this is the main reason for having nodes (See Archival data: Ihara-Grubb Transformations). No computer is actually linked to a geographic location and so they can be anywhere in netspace. The node allows you to easily locate and travel to them.
The BBS has been apart of online computing since the dawn of modems. The original BBS's where computers that you had to specifically dial up. In CP 2020 a BBS is a permanently linked system connected to the net. For our purposes it will be a server with a single service (just one web site). I will leave the CP2020 specifications alone. But there are several other types of BBS available.
Cyberspace is a potentially unlimited system. As long as memory and computing power can be provided virtually anything can be created. Almost anything you can do as meat can been done online. You can read the greatest books ever written in nearly any library. You can view almost any video archive available (from recent TV to classic Black & White movies). But VR is capable of providing so much more.
Imagine dance clubs with up to the minute current dance music as well as entirely imaginative settings and themes, where everyone who enters can be anything they want. Cybersex allows people of either sex to enjoy interactive experiences with anyone, anywhere. Gaming parlors that cover all types of video game from arcade style to complete interactive SIM based adventures. VR amusement parks and brothels. Tourism offices that can actually allow a client to visit the site of his trip without ever leaving the air-conditioned office. Imagine online sports and gaming. Traditional sports can be replicated online with all manner of twists. How about VR football in which it is perfectly legal to kill the other team's players. VR is virtual reality, it can create anything and is not limited by real world physics. After all why should a netrunner have to go to the bar for drinks when he can enter a cyberclub and get netdrinks that trigger neurochemical releases in the brain to simulate a wide variety of effects. Doesn't that get you thinking.
Information is plentiful in 2020, very few people have enough storage at home to take advantage of everything they might find. Public storage sites are designed for this purpose. Functioning like a P.O. box in mail terms the user pays for storage by the MU (10 Megs in my games). The system is designed to be anonymous. A runner with a hot score could effectively dump his stolen data into such a site to wait until things cool down. The second mentioned site covers email. By 2020 regular mail is virtually non-existent. Email is the easiest means to send people messages. Every server will have its own unique mail address and each user on the server will get a private sub-address. But there are also public email locations (like hotmail of today). By paying a service charge the user can arrange an anonymous address for potentially damaging messages.