A map of the Internet in August 1998 showing more than 88,000 routers.
(click for image gallery)

The mapping project isn't attempting to map every computer that connects to the Internet. Rather, the project gathers routing data to all backbone routers hosted by ISPs. The company didn't scan all the way down to individual hosts on purpose. "That would just be like a big huge blob," says Michael Markulec, Chief Operating Officer of Lumeta. Thus, each node represented on a map may be connected to a handful of computers, or may have a large corporate network behind it.

The map shows only the shortest path to each router. Lumeta says these paths can change over time as routers are reconfigured. Maps can be constructed based on a variety of data points, including IP address blocks, geography, Top Level Domains (TLDs) and service providers.

The images in this gallery were created using Lumeta's IPsonar software. They include images from 1998, when the project was launched, to recent images of IPv6 nodes. Between 1998 and 2003, the number of nodes on the Internet doubled, and by 2008 nodes had increased five times.

Images of note include maps of geographic regions such as the Middle East, where countries that may be light-years apart in terms of politics and government are just a few hops away from each other on a backbone network. Another image shows the affects of NATO bombing in Yugoslavia in 1999, as routers go offline and traffic re-routes itself.