Internet Out

[Zema Bus]

Looks like I'm going to lose work, my ISP has been down in this area for a couple hours, they say they're investigating. I really miss my backup ISP right now.

[Grogan]

Shitty... I hope it's back up soon. You really haven't established how reliable they are going to be yet either.

[Zema Bus]

Still down. They don't post status updates either. In trying to find out anything I came across one of those down detector sites, and I read through the older comments, it looks like they go down quite a bit, and often for days. Maybe I should have gone with Cox fiber, that's what some of the people complaing say they're switching to. Well if I can't do anything online today I guess I'll play some games that don't require an Internet connection.

[Grogan]

Mine doesn't have outages often, but when it does I have many games on GoG now.

e.g. it might go down for a few hours in the middle of the night occasionally when they are replacing equipment. It happened last week and I hardly noticed. Everything was out, Internet and phone, the line was dead. When I quit a game on Steam, the client said No Connection (Steam itself doesn't kick you out of your game, though games themselves might if they maintain connections to their servers). I just went to Lutris after that, like I was doing anyway. It was back by the time I quit that game.

[Zema Bus]

My previous ISP, Spectrum, occasionally went down, and my backup, Frontier FIOS, rarely did. I finally got some communication from AireBeam via text, they're blaming it on a third party, and said they'll send an update when it's restored. I'll probably know when it's working again long before I get their update.

[Grogan]

You might need to get something for backup, as working from home will not be viable with unreliable internet service. Your employers won't have much tolerance for that, regardless of whose fault it is.

[Zema Bus]

That's true. There aren't many other viable options here, there's Cox fiber, but I'm not sure if I could have two fiber connectors (I've gotten different answers to that), but also if they are both on the same infrastructure they could both be subject to the same outages. Otherwise there's Starlink. I had connectivity for a few minutes then it went down again.

[Grogan]

... and you can't just tether a phone because you're not allowed to connect wirelessly. You probably haven't got copper for ADSL either?

[Zema Bus]

Yeah last I heard using WIFI was a no no, it might be the same for cellular. And yeah, no copper. There is a DSL ISP here though, CenturyLink, 3 mbps for $55/month.

The connectivity finally stabilized so I got 3 hours of work in. Oh, and they lied about sending out a text update when service was restored. Maybe they'll send it tomorrow

[Grogan]

At least they didn't say they will email you instructions (that's something that really irks me when some dumb ass ISP tech support says they'll email me)

[Zema Bus]

And it's out again one month later.

[Zema Bus]

Someone said they talked to them and found out all cables were cut and they suspect vandalism, and they are currently splicing them back together, it may take until 8PM.

[Grogan]

That's the problem with fiber, it's vulnerable because it's so difficult and expensive to fix. Probably some butthurt MAGAT.

[Zema Bus]

Service was finally restored mid afternoon and I managed to get 7 hours of work in before running out of steam. From what I was able to find out this affected all the fiber ISPs in the area since they all use the same cable bundles. That's why I want to get a backup ISP that uses a different type of connection. I was up since 7 AM, I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep so I thought I'd go watch a short YT video since that often helps vs just sitting in my recliner hoping to fall asleep. But this time that was a mistake. When I saw there was no Internet I knew I wouldn't be getting back to sleep lol!

[Grogan]

I know, you can't rest until it's back. I won't go to bed if the internet is out

Let's hope there is no more of that horseshit.

[Zema Bus]

And they're down again. No information anywhere, but it's the middle of the night. Yeah I guess it's time to bite the bullet and order Starlink and find someone to install it. Wish there were better options here.

[Grogan]

I hope it's not for long this time.

Starlink though, that would bite the weenie. Elon's weenie

[Grogan]

Was it out long (or still out)?

[Zema Bus]

I woke up to the distant sound of voices lol! It was a video I was watching in the other room when it went out. It was out about 2 hours, I think it was probably for maintenance, I couldn't find anything to verify that, their maintenance notification page is gone, and their Twitter page dedicated to tech support is gone.

[Grogan]

Yeah, you can't rely on always having maintenance events posted. Sometimes they just need to replace something etc.

I'm glad it was just that.

[mlangdn]

I have Spectrum here in Western Ky. Mine went out last night around midnight CST. I went to bed so I don't know how long it was out.....

[Zema Bus]

Yeah they seem to do their maintenance around midnight or later since most people will be asleep. But it's not so good for those of us who are night owls I miss Spectrum, I had them for many years before I had to move. There are no cable ISP's here.

[Grogan]

You got that right, and if it's right before I was going to retire anyway, I don't! Because now I'm mad that my internet is out

[Zema Bus]

I was thinking the other day, watch my ISP go down again while I'm waiting for my Starlink install day next Monday, and so it happens tonight lol! I think it was just another maintenance outage like the last one, it didn't last long. Hopefully they don't have another one before Monday

[Grogan]

It's not an improbable coincidence, as after all, it's the reason you're getting the backup connection in the first place

It sure does feel like we jinx things though, you can see why people believe in shit like that.