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Communications United States

Outage Knocks Out All Major Phone Providers On the East Coast (dailydot.com) 121

Posted by msmash from the outage-report dept.
Every major phone carrier experience outages on United States' east coast this morning at around 11am local time. The outage lasted for about 45 minutes. DownDetector, which monitors outages of services, confirmed AT&T, Verizon, Charter Spectrum, Comcast, Sprint, Time Warner Cable, US Cellular, and Vonage among others were affected. From a DailyDot report: T-Mobile CEO John Legere tweeted about the incident, pointing to issues with Level 3, a major internet backbone. Other tech firms quickly pointed to a Level 3 outage as well. No specific information has been released on potential causes of the outage or consequences that may result from it. Business VoIP providers (Resource: https://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/VOIP+Service+Providers+Business) were unaffected as they run over internet connections.
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Outage Knocks Out All Major Phone Providers On the East Coast More

Outage Knocks Out All Major Phone Providers On the East Coast

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  • they should really plan for this (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 04, 2016 @02:24PM (#53012395)

    The really should think of some sort of system of interconnected networks that is so redundant and widespread that even a nuclear war couldn't take out!

    • Re:they should really plan for this (Score:5, Funny)

      by xxxJonBoyxxx ( 565205 ) on Tuesday October 04, 2016 @02:27PM (#53012423)
      >> think of some sort of system of interconnected networks

      Talk to Al Gore. I heard he has an idea.

      • Closer to true than you might think (Score:5, Insightful)

        by dcooper_db9 ( 1044858 ) on Tuesday October 04, 2016 @03:02PM (#53012727)

        What Al Gore actually said was "I took the initiative in creating the internet". In context his statement is true. No, he did not invent the internet. But he was the first politician to recognize that interconnecting computers could have benefits far beyond improvements in science. He realized that the network should opened up to everyone. As far back as the 1970's Gore was involved in legislation involving technology and he worked tirelessly to educate other politicians about technology. He wrote bills that funded research in robotics, magnetic leviation, biotech, image recognition, speech recognition just to name a few. He wrote the bill that funded Mosaic and also wrote the bill that essentially privatized the Internet.

        If you want to know more about how Gore "invented the internet" take the initiative and find a book. It's a fascinating story.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Anonymous Coward

          So in other words, Al Gore funded the internet.

          With other people's money.

          • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

            by Anonymous Coward

            So in other words, Al Gore funded the internet.

            That isn't in "other words", that is precisely what he claimed to have done.

            And it is still true. Before Gore passed legislation to allow private telecoms in the mix, the name Internet wasn't used until after his funding to publicize the Arpanet.

            On the Arpanet, an ISP wasn't something you could call up and get connected with as a normal pleb.
            You could only get access from a university and then only as a student there in some class that needed it, although access wasn't always revoked after said class, but

            • Re: (Score:1)

              by Hylandr ( 813770 )

              You could only get access from a university and then only as a student there in some class that needed it,

              Or you knew someone with the right number to call. Some universities used department level login credentials that would get you all the Archie, Gopher, or WAIS you wanted.

              Finding things was a lot like exploring a new HDD you found in the closet with no *real* search functions. Finding neat and interesting stuff could be a real challenge sometimes.

            • Re: (Score:1)

              by Anonymous Coward

              "...the name Internet wasn't used until after his funding to publicize the Arpanet."
              "On the Arpanet, an ISP wasn't something you could call up and get connected with as a normal pleb."
              Um, you won't win any bets with that... knowledge.

              "The Internet", capitalized, existed at least since the late seventies; the Arpanet was _one_ of the networks within it. CompuServe was another network that normal plebs could actually dial into, and connect up. (Just Email initially; then UUCP.) Those overseas had their own ne

          • What he did was legalize Spam. (Score:5, Interesting)

            by Ungrounded Lightning ( 62228 ) on Tuesday October 04, 2016 @05:39PM (#53013875) Journal

            So in other words, Al Gore funded the internet.

            As I understand it, what he did was sponsor legislation to open the Internet / ARPANet, to general use, including commercial use, removing the limitations on who could connect and what they could say. Prior to that the connections and traffic had to have some connection to education, the military, or dealings with them.

            So on one hand he helped give the general Internet a great boost, enabling it to become the public utility we know, love, and use.

            But on the other hand he effectively legalized Spam, because going from very limited business uses to any business use is OK took away the main tool for suppressing unsolicited commercial email and network newsgroup postings.

          • So in other words, Al Gore funded the internet.

            With other people's money.

            beats the hell out of funding an invasion of iraq with other people's money.

          • So in other words, $POLITICIAN$ funded $PROJECT$.
            With other people's money.

            Errr, isn't that precisely what politicians in a representative system are meant to do?

            You personally may not like it - in which case you're free to leave. If anywhere else would accept you and people like you (not very likely).

        • I was on the Internet in 1986 and watched Al Gore invent it from within.

        • Did he also invent global warming?

    • Quite so. I understand DARPA long ago funded an effort to design such a network. It is a pity that it was, apparently, never actually deployed.

    • In this case, the Internet was the problem. Level 3.

  • I didn't notice any outage. (Score:3)

    by Oswald McWeany ( 2428506 ) on Tuesday October 04, 2016 @02:25PM (#53012403)

    I'm on the East Coast and didn't notice any outage. Are we sure it was the entire East coast?

  • Looks like I'm getting 2nd post... Must have knocked a lot of slash dotters off line!

  • No? Well carry on..

    This is when Ham Radio shines... 73's to my fellow 0.2%

    • Yes, I can the see the lines queuing up to pass traffic via ham radio. Business calls, tech support requests, assignations with the mistress, etc.

      Oh, wait, it's just gas station lines. nvm.

      • Getting emergency services when you cannot call 911?

        Yep, Ham Radio does that.... The rest of your list, is not going to be legal third party traffic, except for the messages of a personal nature. You want to meet her where exactly?

        • I just have to laugh some times when I see my fellow hamateurs spout off about how much ham radio helps. When your little Baofeng 1/2 Watt portable can't hit the repeater because it has no electrical power then there won't be much you can do.

          • Re: (Score:3)

            by Jawnn ( 445279 )

            I just have to laugh some times when I see my fellow hamateurs spout off about how much ham radio helps. When your little Baofeng 1/2 Watt portable can't hit the repeater because it has no electrical power then there won't be much you can do.

            First of all, lots of repeaters are provisioned with backup power. Not all of them, but enough to serve in a pinch. Next, not all of us have only a 500 mw HT at our disposal. A 4-5 watt 2-meter transceiver, with the right antenna, can reach a very long way. We're making note of you and will make sure that you go to the back of the line when your iPhone has been off-line for 10 days or so.

            • Re: (Score:1)

              by R4D4R ( 3548635 )
              Don't forget that HF is also an option, not requiring repeaters at all for long distance communication.

          • Re:Can you hear me now? (Score:5, Informative)

            by bobbied ( 2522392 ) on Tuesday October 04, 2016 @04:20PM (#53013355)

            I just have to laugh some times when I see my fellow hamateurs spout off about how much ham radio helps. When your little Baofeng 1/2 Watt portable can't hit the repeater because it has no electrical power then there won't be much you can do.

            I know of at least two repeaters which have battery backup (one which I help maintain) and I'm sure there are plenty more within the range of my Baofeng with spare batteries and the large mobile antenna I can hook up to. Then there is the mobile rig in the car, that's good for as long as I have gasoline to keep the battery charged. The repeater I help to maintain has an on site contingency plan to provide power from a portable generator should the need arise from an extended power outage so it could be on the air for days. SOME of us have plans for such things...

            Heck, some of us even practice these plans doing that yearly contest called "Field Day" perhaps you've heard of it?

      • Yes, I can the see the lines queuing up to pass traffic via ham radio. Business calls, tech support requests, assignations with the mistress, etc.

        Oh, wait, it's just gas station lines. nvm.

        "I'm sorry young lady, but there's no way for me to broadcast a picture of what you're eating right now' "Can you broadcast a description, then?"

    • W9ABC this is K6XYZ (Score:5, Funny)

      by argee ( 1327877 ) on Tuesday October 04, 2016 @02:48PM (#53012629)

      W9ABC this is K6XYZ, over ....
      (no answer)
      W9ABC this is K6XYZ, over
      no answer
      Dial up on cell.
      "Hey, Harry, turn on your damned radio!"
      "OK"
      W9ABC, this is K6XYZ, over
      K6XYZ this is W6ABC, I hear you 5 by 5 now!

      Lesson: This is a fine example of communications redundancy ... errrr ...

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Guyle ( 79593 )

      This is why I maintain my license, mobile gear and some semblance of emergency power. I'm hardly ever on the air these days (was way more active when I had a long commute and used to travel a lot) but if the proverbial shit hits the fan I'll be able to do something.

  • any external calls weren't coming in. sound like they're starting to get it moving again.

  • Meh, (analog) ham radio is still working fine...

  • Just a test... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    brought to you by your favorite 3-letter govt agency.

  • At least it wasn't a missing semicolon at the end of a line of source code in the SS7 Signal Transfer Point. That was all it took about 25 years ago.

  • systemd (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    testing systemd in the wild?

  • One day after DDoS source code release. (Score:3)

    by nuckfuts ( 690967 ) on Tuesday October 04, 2016 @03:18PM (#53012871)
    Hmmm. Major Internet outage reported the day after source code for enormous DDoS attacks is released [slashdot.org].

  • We were impacted by this at my Denver, CO office... a long way from the east coast.
    At least I had something to blame the outage on this time :)

  • Can you hear me now? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by niftymitch ( 1625721 ) on Tuesday October 04, 2016 @04:34PM (#53013471)

    OK networking is designed to be routable and redundant.
    Now if all traffic must pass through a fort that used to have no signs
    or a bit of Utah so hot and far from anyplace that only Octopussy could
    think of ...

    In all fairness for phones to go down because an Internet backbone failed
    tells me that all our phone company laws need revision at all levels.
    At one time a POT had obligations of reliability and redundancy that
    seem to have flipped to a binary work or is broken.

    I recall mothers day calls where you got all signals busy because of
    the surge. At least the management was not Uber imposing hidden
    surge pricing.

    This is an opportunity for good questions at the VP thing tonight.

  • Isn't it great how blame can be forwarded... (Score:3)

    by ffkom ( 3519199 ) on Tuesday October 04, 2016 @05:41PM (#53013891)
    ... these days to some company else? Gone are the days when any kind of service was provided by just one company, who was then undoubtly responsible for however good or bad a service was. Today, there is an endless chain of suppliers, sub-contractors, infrastructure providers, whom to assign blame to, so ultimately no one feels responsible, everybody has an excuse, and whatever SLA exists, it's not worth the paper it's written on.

  • Unless it becomes criminal to be so negligent, nothing will change.

  • The NSA is just live-testing to make sure they can turn the internet off and on again at will - in case Snowden has more to say, or Assange spills the beans!

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