While New York and London may be cities that never sleep, in large parts of the world, the internet rests like a living creature each night. A new animated map by US researchers reveals how large parts of Africa, Russia and Australia follow a 'diurnal usage' pattern. This means that internet usage peaks as the day progresses and then almost stops as the sun goes down. Scroll down for video . In the map, the pink and red blocks show higher internet usage, while blue blocks suggest lower than average web activity . In contrast, the UK, US, India, and East Asia are active throughout the night, according to a recent study by the University of Southern California. Over the course of two months, researchers pinged 3.7 million IP address blocks - representing almost one billion of the world's four billion IPv4 addresses - every 11 minutes. 'The internet is important in our lives and businesses, from streaming movies to buying online,' said Professor John Heidemann from the University of Southern California. 'Measuring network outages is a first step to improving Internet reliability.' In the map, the pink and red blocks show higher internet usage, while blue blocks suggest lower than average web activity. Tthe UK, US, India, and East Asia are active through the night, according to recent data collected in California . The internet has revolutionised the way we communicate and a third of the world’s population use it to stay connected. Now, Texas-based internet cartographer and computer scientist John Matherly has used software to ‘ping’ all of these global web devices and create a map demonstrating the technology’s global reach. In the majority of cases, this signal was sent to routers rather than individual gadgets, but Mr Matherly said iPhone and Android devices have appeared previously. The cartographer said it took around five hours to ping all IP addresses on August 2. The map then took more than 12 hours to create. 'Pinging' an IP address involves sending a signal to the device from a server, which causes the connection to 'light up' - albeit not physically. Mr Matherly is founder of Shodan, a search engine for connected devices.  Different colours represent the density of devices in that region, and unsurprisingly, the world’s largest cities in developed countries glow the brightest. Red areas contain a lot of web-enabled devices, while green areas contain fewer. Black areas are regions where no signal was received. While it may be no surprise that there seem to be less internet-connected devices in parts of Africa, Mr Matherly explained his map is not precise because some organisations block ping requests. It is thought that areas of China should be coloured bright red on the map, but the country’s ‘Great Firewall’ explains why most of the country looks dark. Connected: Texas-based internet cartographer and computer scientist John Matherly has used software to ‘ping’ global web devices to build a map (pictured) demonstrating the technology’s global reach . The researchers say the diurnal usage seems to be correlated with countries than use dial-up links which could be shut down during the night, or with those who want to conserve electricity. The finding could help scientists and policymakers develop better systems to measure and track internet outages, such as those that struck the New York area after Hurricane Sandy. Understanding how the Internet sleeps may help them avoid confusing a sleeping internet with an internet outage. 'This work is one of the first to explore how networking policies affect how the network is used,' Professor Heidemann said. 'This data helps us establish a baseline for the internet — to understand how it functions, so that we have a better idea of how resilient it is as a whole, and can spot problems quicker . The team's work is ongoing. 'We have grown our coverage to four million blocks [more than one billion addresses] as internet use grows,' Professor Heidemann added. A firm called IVPN recently created a map of internet freedom around the world (pictured) based on a Freedom House report in 2013. Regions marked in white have the freedom to roam, as opposed to those marked red . In separate research, a firm called IVPN recently created a map of internet freedom around the world based on a Freedom House report in 2013. In the report, countries were reviewed on limits placed on online content, obstacles to internet access, and violations of user rights. They were then graded as free, partly free or not free and marked on a map in white, pink and red respectively. Countries marked in grey were not included in the report. China, Iran and Syria were found to be the top three user rights violators when it comes to online freedom.
US researchers pinged 3.7 million IP address blocks over two months .
They found the UK, US, India, and East Asia are active through the night .
Large parts of Africa, Russia and Australia only log on during the day .
Pink shows high internet usage, while blue suggests low web activity .
Finding could help develop better systems to track internet outages .
While New York and London may be cities that never sleep, in large parts of the world, the internet rests like a living creature each night. A new animated map by US researchers reveals how large parts of Africa, Russia and Australia follow a 'diurnal usage' pattern. This means that internet usage peaks as the day progresses and then almost stops as the sun goes down. Scroll down for video . In the map, the pink and red blocks show higher internet usage, while blue blocks suggest lower than average web activity . In contrast, the UK, US, India, and East Asia are active throughout the night, according to a recent study by the University of Southern California. Over the course of two months, researchers pinged 3.7 million IP address blocks - representing almost one billion of the world's four billion IPv4 addresses - every 11 minutes. 'The internet is important in our lives and businesses, from streaming movies to buying online,' said Professor John Heidemann from the University of Southern California. 'Measuring network outages is a first step to improving Internet reliability.' In the map, the pink and red blocks show higher internet usage, while blue blocks suggest lower than average web activity. Tthe UK, US, India, and East Asia are active through the night, according to recent data collected in California . The internet has revolutionised the way we communicate and a third of the world’s population use it to stay connected. Now, Texas-based internet cartographer and computer scientist John Matherly has used software to ‘ping’ all of these global web devices and create a map demonstrating the technology’s global reach. In the majority of cases, this signal was sent to routers rather than individual gadgets, but Mr Matherly said iPhone and Android devices have appeared previously. The cartographer said it took around five hours to ping all IP addresses on August 2. The map then took more than 12 hours to create. 'Pinging' an IP address involves sending a signal to the device from a server, which causes the connection to 'light up' - albeit not physically. Mr Matherly is founder of Shodan, a search engine for connected devices. Different colours represent the density of devices in that region, and unsurprisingly, the world’s largest cities in developed countries glow the brightest. Red areas contain a lot of web-enabled devices, while green areas contain fewer. Black areas are regions where no signal was received. While it may be no surprise that there seem to be less internet-connected devices in parts of Africa, Mr Matherly explained his map is not precise because some organisations block ping requests. It is thought that areas of China should be coloured bright red on the map, but the country’s ‘Great Firewall’ explains why most of the country looks dark. Connected: Texas-based internet cartographer and computer scientist John Matherly has used software to ‘ping’ global web devices to build a map (pictured) demonstrating the technology’s global reach . The researchers say the diurnal usage seems to be correlated with countries than use dial-up links which could be shut down during the night, or with those who want to conserve electricity. The finding could help scientists and policymakers develop better systems to measure and track internet outages, such as those that struck the New York area after Hurricane Sandy. Understanding how the Internet sleeps may help them avoid confusing a sleeping internet with an internet outage. 'This work is one of the first to explore how networking policies affect how the network is used,' Professor Heidemann said. 'This data helps us establish a baseline for the internet — to understand how it functions, so that we have a better idea of how resilient it is as a whole, and can spot problems quicker . The team's work is ongoing. 'We have grown our coverage to four million blocks [more than one billion addresses] as internet use grows,' Professor Heidemann added. A firm called IVPN recently created a map of internet freedom around the world (pictured) based on a Freedom House report in 2013. Regions marked in white have the freedom to roam, as opposed to those marked red . In separate research, a firm called IVPN recently created a map of internet freedom around the world based on a Freedom House report in 2013. In the report, countries were reviewed on limits placed on online content, obstacles to internet access, and violations of user rights. They were then graded as free, partly free or not free and marked on a map in white, pink and red respectively. Countries marked in grey were not included in the report. China, Iran and Syria were found to be the top three user rights violators when it comes to online freedom.
parts of Africa, Russia and Australia follow a internet usage, while blue blocks suggest lower than average web activity . In contrast, the UK, course of two months, researchers pinged 3.7 million IP address blocks - representing almost US, India, and East Asia are active through the help scientists and policymakers develop better systems to measure and track internet outages,