TITLE: How much $\beta \mathbb{N}$ is homogenous?
QUESTION [6 upvotes]: Let $p,q\in \beta \mathbb{N}\setminus \mathbb{N}$. Must always the spaces $\beta \mathbb{N}\setminus \{p\}$ and $\beta \mathbb{N}\setminus \{q\}$ be homeomorphic? If no, can we for each point $p\in \beta \mathbb{N}\setminus \mathbb{N}$ find $q\in \beta \mathbb{N}\setminus \mathbb{N}$ ($q\neq p$) such that $$\beta \mathbb{N}\setminus \{p\}\approx \beta \mathbb{N}\setminus \{q\}?$$
Or maybe there exists an uncountable family $F\subset \beta \mathbb{N}\setminus \mathbb{N}$ such that the spaces corresponding to points in $F$ are mutually non-homeomorphic?

REPLY [5 votes]: As Emil pointed out in his comment, there is a correspondence between permutations of $\mathbb{N}$ and self-homeomorphisms of $\beta\mathbb{N}$, and that pretty much answers the OP´s original questions.
If we restrict ourselves to $\mathbb{N}^\ast=\beta\mathbb{N} \setminus \mathbb{N}$ the questions get more interesting (although the answers remain the same): When you mod out $\mathbb{N}^\ast$ by its group of self-homeomorphisms you get $2^\mathfrak{c}$ many orbits. This follows from Frolik´s theory of types of ultrafilters.