Massive Comcast Outage Hits the US • Hacker News Board

Re: Massive Comcast Outage Hits the US

#211

Post by eric-hu » Sat, Jun 30, 2018, 5:24 AM UTC

ajmurmann wrote: post #184

reaperducer wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>As a non-American, I find to hard to grasp how a country that places super high priority on access to choices and options can get stuck with just two major parties and just ONE ISP (in most places, that is). Distance. America has states and even counties larger than many countries. And even where there are lots of people, population density is typically less than most other nations. Distance is a killer in last-mile…

In Germany the owners of physical lines must rent to ISPs. There aren't usually multiple physical last mile lines, but you still have multiple ISPs. That's at least how it was ~10 years ago. But that would be super unamerican. Free market first, especially in areas where the free market doesn't really work and benefits large companies that make massive campaign contributions. (Disclaimer: I'm pro-free market, but gen…

> But that would be super unamerican.

I know what you mean when you say this, but there are strong differences between American ideals and American realities. When there's a conflict of interest between a large company and consumers, I think it's a safe bet to assume the company in America comes out ahead.

Re: Massive Comcast Outage Hits the US

#212

Post by Cyphase » Sat, Jun 30, 2018, 6:33 AM UTC

thebluehawk wrote: post #129

onewhonknocks wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like it was 2 cuts, which likely means it was intentional IMHO: NY| Manhattan| Communication Failure | 30 Rockefeller Plaza (Comast)| Comcast is experiencing a National outage due to 2 fiber line cuts. One between NYC & Chicago, the second between Ashburn & South Carolina. customers urged NOT TO CALL 911, no ETA on a fix, police monitor Edit: source below. Thank you dfee.

> customers urged NOT TO CALL 911 Do people really do this? I can't even comprehend this.

I _reeeally_ want to hear those 911 calls. Please, somebody.

Re: Massive Comcast Outage Hits the US

#213

Post by Cyphase » Sat, Jun 30, 2018, 6:44 AM UTC

rietta wrote: post #147

icedchai wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except we're not talking about real work, we're talking about checking a status page.

Good point. Retracted.

This may just be my personal preference, but please don't delete comments like you did above just because someone made a "good point" that convinced you you were wrong. If you want to retract it, edit it so there's a line at the top saying that you retract it. Even wrong opinions (I'm assuming it was "wrong" for the sake of discussion) can contribute to a discussion.

Re: Massive Comcast Outage Hits the US

#214

Post by Rjevski » Sat, Jun 30, 2018, 9:20 AM UTC

mcculley wrote: post #57

This is why it would be better to pay by bit consumed, like most do for electricity. This would encourage carriers to build more infrastructure. It would also create an economic incentive for the ever increasing number of Internet connected devices to be more conscientious of data usage. Of course, we can't have that in the oligopoly situation in the United States.

Technically this means limited-data mobile connections should be the best in the world, because the carrier has an incentive to build good infrastructure?

Let me check. IPv6? Nope. Public IPv4? Nope. HTTP interception proxy? Check! Peak bandwidth? Only a handful of mbps over LTE. And this is in markets like the UK and France where there is supposedly “competition”.

This model doesn’t work, the carriers will still do the bare minimum that they can get away with.

Re: Massive Comcast Outage Hits the US

#215

Post by Rjevski » Sat, Jun 30, 2018, 9:22 AM UTC

std_throwaway wrote: post #45

SpaceManNabs wrote: post #11

Seems to be caused by third party fiber cut

Good thing that the internet was built for redundancy so single cuts don't affect the connectivity.

We’re talking Comcast here so they are obviously too poor to be able to afford redundant links.

Re: Massive Comcast Outage Hits the US

#216

Post by windowsworkstoo » Sat, Jun 30, 2018, 10:00 AM UTC

GistNoesis wrote: post #174

dunham wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My dad used to do this for AT&T (mainly for train derailments if I remember right). As I understood it, he would cut/polish the ends of the glass and glue together. The process may have changed since then, it’s been about a decade.

What I don't get is how they match each individual fiber on the left with its right one, as I imagine there are probably thousands and individual fibers inside a bundle. When they installed the fiber at my home they had some laser to check the fiber correspondence. Is it just that, pick left illuminated by laser fiber, pick right illuminated by laser fiber, put in a glueing/fusing machine, and doing it n times (where…

Fibre buffer is standard colours, you just match and splice.

Service loops in the run provides slack to take up, else you just cut and splice in a short segment.

Re: Massive Comcast Outage Hits the US

#217

Post by calgoo » Sat, Jun 30, 2018, 10:23 AM UTC

troydavis wrote: post #167

tomatotomato37 wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For the infrastructure-level network admins out there, is there different lingo for an intentional and accidental fibre break, or is "fibre cut" used for both? I'm just thinking 'cut' is a pretty intentional word to use here.

“cut” is used for both. Common causes are digging/construction work, maintenance by other carriers sharing the same right-of-way, weather (mostly for aboveground runs and equipment), and occasionally stuff like animals (“squirrel chew”), hunters shooting at things, and equipment failure that doesn’t fail over to redundant gear properly. Intentional, targeted damage is really rare, even when multiple paths experience…

I have seen a lot of people digging up the fibre believing it's copper wires they can steal.

Re: Massive Comcast Outage Hits the US

#218

Post by tenken » Sat, Jun 30, 2018, 1:40 PM UTC

onewhonknocks wrote: post #105

JonathonW wrote: post #82

Comcast's confirmed the fiber cut: https://twitter.com/comcastcares/status/1012767042158510080 > One of Comcast’s large backbone network partners had a fiber cut that we believe is also impacting other providers. It is currently affecting our business and residential internet, video and voice customers. We apologize & are working to get services restored as soon as possible They seem to be at least starting to route…

Sounds like it was 2 cuts, which likely means it was intentional IMHO: NY| Manhattan| Communication Failure | 30 Rockefeller Plaza (Comast)| Comcast is experiencing a National outage due to 2 fiber line cuts. One between NYC & Chicago, the second between Ashburn & South Carolina. customers urged NOT TO CALL 911, no ETA on a fix, police monitor Edit: source below. Thank you dfee.

Intentional ... hundreds of miles apart? .... Sounds far fetched unless you like conspiracies.

Re: Massive Comcast Outage Hits the US

#219

Post by paulie_a » Sat, Jun 30, 2018, 4:43 PM UTC

na85 wrote: post #115

paulie_a wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No this is just run of the mill shotty comcast service.

Shoddy

Yeah I really don't care about spelling corrections from strangers on the internet. most people don't either, you should stop wasting your time making pointless posts like that.

Re: Massive Comcast Outage Hits the US

#220

Post by Kalium » Sat, Jun 30, 2018, 5:07 PM UTC

Bramble wrote: post #188

Kalium wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're thinking of Flint, you may wish to update your reading material. It's possible your talking points could be more up to date.

It took them the better part of 4 years to bring clean water back to Flint - they only ended their bottled water program in April of this year. Those who were there during the crisis will be living with the consequences of lead poisoning for the rest of their lives. Odd that you view something this recent, and of this magnitude, as an outdated talking point. Anyway, Flint isn't the only place in the US with water pro…

You're absolutely right! It took years to replace a huge number of pipes while keeping a water system working, and those affected will suffer lead poisoning so long as they live.

I've seen a lot of "Flint still doesn't have clean water!" talking points in the past month or so. Without passing moral judgment, the talking point is not reflective of current reality.