Single person cuts off internet connection for people across three countries

[Gamerlord]

Those things need to get better protection.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/109051-Elderly-Woman-Pokes-Cable-Cuts-Internet-Access-in-Three-Countries

[Haruki-kun]

I think there's precedent for this, too. I read once about a ship dropping an anchor on a fiber optic cable. I can't find the link, though.

[thubby]

there's something very wrong with their infrastructure if 1 wire can do that. especially given how the internet is supposed to work.

[KuReshtin]

In Stockholm, Sweden about 10 years ago, there was an incident where an electrical fire knocked out an entire part of town. The part of town where most of the technology companies are located.
We're talking Microsoft, Nokia, Ericsson, IBM, HP etc, etc... All went down. Power, phones, everything went down for about three days.

When people started asing why the backups didn't work, the answer came back, rather sheepishly, that the backup cables were located in the same cable tunnel as the main cables, so the fire that killed the mains also killed the backups.
Very interesting couple of days, I cen tell you that. :smallwink:

[Erloas]

there's something very wrong with their infrastructure if 1 wire can do that. especially given how the internet is supposed to work.

One wire, of the right type, can carry a huge amount of information. Given the extremely high cost of installation there probably aren't more then a couple running across even the most technologically advanced countries.

As for the fact that everything is designed as a web to avoid this sort of thing... well it is but it could easily take hours, if not days, for all of the routing tables to be updated to find a way around the loss of such a vital link. Which would mean you might get connections to some sites back a lot faster then others. It could mean internet traffic having to travel backwards half way across the world to get to where it needs to go.

[ZombyWoof]

Someone managed to cut off internet to the shopping center where I work. We had no access to our service orders, to the internet, to our phones, to our stock counting system... everything. It was funny trying to explain to customers that we couldn't process exchanges. At all. And by "funny" I mean " a ton of them were pissed off."

[Knaight]

I think there's precedent for this, too. I read once about a ship dropping an anchor on a fiber optic cable. I can't find the link, though.

Do you remember where this was?

[Blisstake]

Apparently the woman is facing jailtime.

That seems... a bit absurd.

[Ikialev]

Silly woman, optical fibers don't have copper in them.

Also what the gell, is that country seriously called "georgia" in english?

[Blisstake]

Silly woman, optical fibers don't have copper in them.

Also what the gell, is that country seriously called "georgia" in english?

I believe it's called Sakartvelo, or something like that, in their tongue.

[DwarvenExodus]

I must say this...

STRIKE THE EARTH!

[Jimorian]

I think there's precedent for this, too. I read once about a ship dropping an anchor on a fiber optic cable. I can't find the link, though.

The wikipedia article on ocean cables (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submarine_communications_cable) has a section on some of the more prominent disruptions. Fascinating article overall as well.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

I must say this...

STRIKE THE EARTH!

I was gonna say something, but I was distracted by win. Thank you, DwarvenExodus.

[Mikhailangelo]

When I read 'single' person, I pictured the subject of the story as being about a person who is not in a relationship getting pissed off at all the dating ads the internet produces and going on an insane rampage against cables everywhere.

I was disappointed.

[Dire Moose]

Speaking of submarine communication cables, I seem to remember learning in college about an incident where a sperm whale got tangled in one in the deep ocean bottom and choked to death.

[Vonriel]

When I read 'single' person, I pictured the subject of the story as being about a person who is not in a relationship getting pissed off at all the dating ads the internet produces and going on an insane rampage against cables everywhere.

I was disappointed.

That would have been infinitely more awesome, true.

As for me, when I saw the picture he decided to use in the article, I was dreadfully hoping that somehow, someone playing Minecraft took out the internet. :smalltongue: That thing is such a mess of code that it honestly wouldn't surprise me.

Fun fact: The fact that its name is Georgia plays havoc with me. I initially forgot about the country, and was like, "How did a cable cut in my state knock out internet for three countries but not myself?" until I read the names of the countries affected. :smallredface:

[Groundhog]

Apparently the woman is facing jailtime.

That seems... a bit absurd.

The reason she's facing jail time is because she was foraging for copper wire, which usually involves destroying things that belong to other people to get the copper out. (aka theft and destruction of property) So she probably meant to cut it, it's just that she didn't know how important it was.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

That would have been infinitely more awesome, true.

As for me, when I saw the picture he decided to use in the article, I was dreadfully hoping that somehow, someone playing Minecraft took out the internet. :smalltongue: That thing is such a mess of code that it honestly wouldn't surprise me.

Fun fact: The fact that its name is Georgia plays havoc with me. I initially forgot about the country, and was like, "How did a cable cut in my state knock out internet for three countries but not myself?" until I read the names of the countries affected. :smallredface:

I remember getting very confused at one point in a game, where I got the mission to "Conquer Georgia". I was all like "Why? I'm playing as Great Britain, why would I want land in the Caucasus." It was only after I was fighting the entire Middle East I realized it meant Georgia U.S.A. :smalleek:

[Haruki-kun]

Do you remember where this was?

Might have read it in Cracked or something. The Wikipedia article Jimor linked mentions that anchors can disrupt the cables.

[Blisstake]

The reason she's facing jail time is because she was foraging for copper wire, which usually involves destroying things that belong to other people to get the copper out. (aka theft and destruction of property) So she probably meant to cut it, it's just that she didn't know how important it was.

For some reason I imagined her digging for copper.

Yes, that makes infinitely more sense.

[Groundhog]

For some reason I imagined her digging for copper.

Yes, that makes infinitely more sense.

I must admit that the first image that popped into my mind was an old lady scrounging through a dumpster, looking for old wire. I'd never heard of people looting unattended stuff for wire before.

[Sacrieur]

For some reason I imagined her digging for copper.

Yes, that makes infinitely more sense.

Mine was, "Really? I didn't know you could find copper. SWEET, NOTCH ADDED A NEW ORE!"

[Vonriel]

Yeah, I heard about a story in Ohio where someone did something similar. They cut into an unattended wire of some sort to steal the copper from within.. it's kind of sad that people resort to this, but I guess poverty will drive people to do anything. :smallfrown:

[grimbold]

if i lost the internet i would huddle up and die

[Asta Kask]

It's interesting. I didn't get Internet until I was 25 or something... but I've become very dependent on the technology. I do my banking on the net. I have many friends on the net. I do my research for my RPGs on the net.

It's a little frightening.

[Erloas]

I always complain when the net goes down, but I always get a lot more done too. It is both a blessing and a curse.

[Haruki-kun]

I always complain when the net goes down, but I always get a lot more done too. It is both a blessing and a curse.

I never get anything done without Internet. How do you do it? :smalleek:

[Erloas]

The internet keeps me from cleaning the house, cleaning the fish tanks, and doing all sorts of other projects I have but never get around to doing.

[Prime32]

I recall something about one country blocking Youtube... by registering a false route to it claiming to be faster. Because of the level they did this at, the route was automatically shared with all the main hubs of the Internet, resulting in Youtube being shut down across the world.

EDIT: It was Pakistan, and they had to shut down all Pakistani net access for a while to fix it.

[littlebottom]

PHEW! i paniced when i clicked on this thread because it came up "ERROR page cannot be found" and i thought my internet had gone down :smalltongue: