Cause of Centurylink Internet Failure: I have had no success finding even speculation as to the cause of the massive extended failure of the Centurylink communication system. I found...

IDguy Loc: Idaho

I have had no success finding even speculation as to the cause of the massive extended failure of the Centurylink communication system. I found one reference to a Centurylink communication person claiming it wasn’t due to hacking. And there have been no Centurylink explanations as to what caused it.

Recall that the birth of the Internet was from a governmet system designed to be impervious to system failure from a nuclear attack. That should protect it from a propogating system failure such as caused the huge power grid failures some years ago.

I’m not big on conspiracy theories but the continuing silence on this is disturbing.

Brokenland

This may not be of reference or use to you, but I've been informed by my own sources that our ISP could be "throttling" our connection just to keep data overages from ruining your monthly bill.

IDguy Loc: Idaho

Bokehen wrote:

This may not be of reference or use to you, but I've been informed by my own sources that our ISP could be "throttling" our connection just to keep data overages from ruining your monthly bill.

Not related.

But I failed to mention that the media services are now focusing on the spotty loss of 911 services (wasn’t an issue in Idaho) vs. the massive two day loss of all Internet services. The lattter had much more impact on businesses, government, and private users.

IDguy Loc: Idaho

And it isn’t really over yet: https://downdetector.com/status/centurylink

But, as you can see, mine is back up.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

I would venture to say that an average internet user has little comprehension of the vast connections that exist to link all of the various sites to all the various users. One single piece of equipment failure could obliterate connectivity to a great number of users. Just sayin'.

This is not intended to belittle or denigrate anyone. It's just a fact.
--Bob

IDguy wrote:

I have had no success finding even speculation as ... (show quote)

IDguy Loc: Idaho

rmalarz wrote:

I would venture to say that an average internet user has little comprehension of the vast connections that exist to link all of the various sites to all the various users. One single piece of equipment failure could obliterate connectivity to a great number of users. Just sayin'.

This is not intended to belittle or denigrate anyone. It's just a fact.
--Bob

No, sorry but your statement shows misunderstanding of the Internet. It was built specifically to overcome massive equipment failures from nuclear attack. No single failure can propogate because information reroutes automatically.

Unfortunately that same design feature makes it difficult to stop self propagating virus attacks (hacks): https://www.afcea.org/content/internets-vulnerabilities-are-built-its-infrastructure

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Similarly, you seem to have only a slight grip on its structure. The original ARPANET was designed so. There is also an internet that the government uses for strategic requirements, and for just such reason.

The current commercial internet is not quite to the same degree. A very simple outage cause in one location can kill connectivity for a wide area. I've seen it happen and been personally involved in diagnosing the root location of the issue. Unfortunately, it wasn't caused by any equipment owned by the company with whom I was employed. The only thing we could do was send a message to the owner company and inform them of the issue and hope for the best. The issue was eventually resolved.
--Bob

IDguy wrote:

No, sorry but your statement shows misunderstanding of the Internet. It was built specifically to overcome massive equipment failures from nuclear attack. No single failure can propogate because information reroutes automatically.

Unfortunately that same design feature makes it difficult to stop self propagating virus attacks (hacks): https://www.afcea.org/content/internets-vulnerabilities-are-built-its-infrastructure

IDguy Loc: Idaho

rmalarz wrote:

Similarly, you seem to have only a slight grip on ... (show quote)

Yes, local outages due to equipment failure are possible. But this was nationwide. Not possible due to hardware failure.

Although it did go somewhat beyond Centurylink (e.g. Verizon was out in parts of Idaho) it didn’t propogate to the entire Internet.

It is possible that Centurylink did it to themselves with a bug in a software update. I can understand why they wouldn’t want to own up to that.

quagmire Loc: Greenwood,South Carolina

When was this? My Century Link hasn't been down in a long time , unless it was at night and I didn't know.

alx Loc: NJ

Not saying this is it, but possible since it centered around one company...

IF a routing table was scrambled and then propagated within that company's routers, it could cause widespread outages. NOTE: this is speculative at best.

Such an occurrence could be accidental or deliberate. With an increased use of foreign routers, there is a greater chance of vulnerability. Once upon a time, CISCO routers were the standard in the US. The increased use of Huawei routers does pose a threat as Huawei has been shown to have ties to the Chinese government.

The use of the internet for so much of our business and banking at this point makes it a target for totally disrupting the economy. At some point it almost becomes inevitable.

IDguy Loc: Idaho

quagmire wrote:

When was this? My Century Link hasn't been down in a long time , unless it was at night and I didn't know.

Most of Thursday and Friday, and still some issues today.

kpmac Loc: Ragley, La

Where? My Centurylink has not gone down.

IDguy Loc: Idaho

kpmac wrote:

Where? My Centurylink has not gone down.

Most of the country served by Centurylink. You were somehow spared.

Note this was much more Internet than phone system. My landline phone system remained working...sorta.

Bigmike1 Loc: I am from Gaffney, S.C. but live in Utah.

I am not a fan of Centurylink. I have a q.com e-mail address that I have been unable to access for some years now. Their page for re-setting my password refuses to let me reset it. I tried calling but only get referred back to the reset password page. I did talk to some guy in India once. You can imagine how that went.

ole sarg Loc: south florida

ditto

quagmire wrote:

When was this? My Century Link hasn't been down in a long time , unless it was at night and I didn't know.