[robertgraham]

It's wrong to think of them as different functions of the same network. Instead, they are differnet networks.

Ethernet and the Internet both provide the function of forwarding packets through a network to the target destination address. The MAC protocol and IP protocol provide the same theoretical function.

Where they differ is that Ethernet was designed to a be a local network, whereas the Internet is designed to be an internetwork. All it demand from local networks is that they get packets from one hop to the other. Ethernet does this for the Internet, but so do carrier pigeons.

The same is true for HTTP. Instead of thinking of it as a component of the network, think of it as something that rides independently on top of the network. In a hypothetical future whe we've replaced the Internet with some other technology, the web would still function.

[KirillPanov]

> Where they differ is that Ethernet was designed to a be a local network, whereas the Internet is designed to be an internetwork.

Then your criticism of the first three OSI layers is merely that they should be named "point-to-point", "local", and "inter".

I can agree with that criticism. But I can't agree with needing 239 pages to convey it.