The Anchorage, Part 3

[Terre]

I cant wait its been a long term...

I hope you have a nice vacation.

 

[McGyver]

Well, they just announced it on the news, and 60,000 customers affected by an act of possible sabotage. Most still don't have service back. The outage has been going on for 22 hours, and some say it could be members of a local union on strike, though they were quoted as stating they would never do such a thing. Local businesses affected by the outage, however, don't necessarily believe them. Turns out Fiber Optic wires were cut at 4 major hubs in this county, which is one of the 2 largest of the 5 counties in NY City. ~Sheesh~

I suspect this will repeat in other areas as well.
In 2015 the same thing was done in the San Francisco Bay area at least ten times and in strategic areas.
In 2016 someone made two separate cuts at junctions or hubs in the Northeast, one connecting Philadelphia to Wilmington and another further north severing a connection to Auburn Massachusetts.
The ISPs in the New York and SF area were quick to blame disgruntled workers, but personally since several other incidents occurred at suspiciously important areas, their explanations, like most of their spin holds little value.
Perhaps it is striking workers in this case, but I don't think the others were.
Dark shenanigans may be afoot.
Studies have suggested that this wonderful world of the Internet we have so built our lives around is extremely vulnerable to physical attacks with virtually zero protection.
People who scoff at the idea, point out that it is too complicated to be taken down physically.
Which as history has repeatedly taught us is a very,very sound way of thinking.
In March of 2011, a 75 year old Georgian woman cut off virtually all internet service to neighboring Armenia by accidentally cutting through an underground FO cable while scavenging for copper.
Apparently Georgia (the nation, not the one people take midnight trains to or have on their minds), provides about 85%-90% of Armenia's internet access.
Granted Armenia is a small nation and that was a burly granny, but what inconvenient naysayers like to point out, is that if you hit the right spot, you can cause a huge problem.
The folks who know everything like to point out that it is virtually impossible to know where those points are.
But people with smaller egos and less faith in dice rolling, point out that just like the first guy to figure out acupuncture, if you keep poking, eventually you hit a nerve.
Personally, I would of been more inclined to believe the ISPs if they had just said it was Molemen or C.H.U.Ds.
For various reasons of late, ISPs have permanently lost any and all credibility in my long and convoluted book.
But who knows, maybe it was striking workers, mischievous teenagers, burly eastern european grandmothers digging for copper, disgruntled former workers turned C.H.U.D., or angry ground squirrels trying to smite the world of man.
Either way, I'm glad your internet access is back and I hope it remains so.

 

[StudioMartillo]

There are quite a few mediums for the transmission of communications data. Some are Copper Wire, Optic Fibers, Line of Site Microwave links and Satellite Links. Communications networks carry a broad range of services, so as Miss B said, a failure could affect a lot of things. There are many 'hubs' that interconnect all these networks which have things inside called 'switchers' and 'routers' just like in LANs. If a person can identify these hubs it's real easy to pick a spot that will cause havoc if you break it. Add to that the fact that the cables need to be clearly marked to prevent damage by construction crews and it's not hard to pick a good spot for sabotage. A real good spot would be satellite earth stations. They're pretty well protected, but if one got blown up that would cause major outages. Internet, TV networks, cell phones and various government and private communications. Pretty scary huh?

 

[Miss B]

4 major hubs? That sounds like sabotage all right.

It certainly does, and with a strike going on at the same time, you have to wonder if the strikers were to blame.

Either way, I'm glad your internet access is back and I hope it remains so.

Thanks. Good thing you're far enough away from the City limits to have been affected, but you're right, this can happen again anywhere.

Communications networks carry a broad range of services, so as Miss B said, a failure could affect a lot of things. Internet, TV networks, cell phones and various government and private communications. Pretty scary huh?

I know. At least this failure didn't affect cell phones. Not having ANY means of communication IS scary.

 

[Terre]

If it was indeed sabotage that will be obvious. Whether or not anyone can be brought to trial if it is depends on a lot of things. We'll just have to wait and see.

 

[Miss B]

Yes, I'll be watching the news tonight to see if there's anything further, but I suspect not. How they would even be able to figure out who did it is mind boggling. The fact they were able to determine what the problem was, and where it was caused, is mind boggling, so unless they captured someone(s) red-handed, I think determining who's responsible isn't going to be easy, or quick for that matter. We may find out a year or two from now, but that may just be wishful thinking.

 

[Satira Capriccio]

There really isn't all that much about it in the online news either. I did manage to finally find an article on Pix11.com where it mentions a fiber line cut due to vandalism as to why Spectrum Cable experienced an overnight outage in Queens, while the Ask Spectrum twitter included in the article mentions two cut fiber lines.

 

[Miss B]

Well, they didn't have anything further on the news tonight, but last night they said there were 4 hubs involved, so that to me means 4 lines, which makes more sense to me if 60,000 or more folks were affected. Queens County is very large, so I can't imagine only 2 cut lines having such an impact. There were folks who still didn't have service during the news broadcast at 11:00pm, and the announcer said service had been out for 22 hours at that point.

I must've just missed it on Sunday night, because I think I got offline around 12:30am, and if my calculations are correct, it occurred around 1:00am. In any case, I hope it doesn't happen again . . . anywhere.

 

[Satira Capriccio]

Of course, the biggest news everywhere is the Senate's healthcare bill ... which is just as mean as the House's and will result in almost as many people losing insurance as the house version.

I'm so tired of partisan politics. These people were elected to serve the people, not big business, and certainly NOT the party overloads.

 

[StudioMartillo]

Here is an illustration of how cutting two lines can affect four hubs. If each hub serves 15,000 people then 60,000 would be affected.
The red hexagons are affected hubs, green hexagons unaffected hubs. The red lines are cut lines, green lines uncut lines. All lines carry bi-directional communications so they affect the hubs on both ends.

 

[Miss B]

If that's the two lines which were cut, then I can see how two lines would affect so many households. I just don't have that kind of information, as far as how many hubs are in the area, and how they're connected, so it just seemed to me there would be more lines cut.

If this actually is sabotage against Spectrum by strikers, I'd hate to think how many more times it will happen, as Spectrum is a nation-wide organization, so who knows where it'll happen next time.

 

[Dreamer]

The problem with surprise party's is keeping them a surprise when the the person it is for decides to make other plans for the same day

Hope every ones internet woes are over and every thing is going ok.

@Rae134 I got texture transformer2 working sorta some how. Not sure what I did but it works now, other than not converting the spec maps but I can live with that

 

[Rae134]

yeah, the old one was hit and miss as to weather it wanted to do bumps/specs. If you really want them converted, I've put them in the diffuse, resaved (as different name) then converted that.

 

[Dreamer]

yeah, the old one was hit and miss as to weather it wanted to do bumps/specs. If you really want them converted, I've put them in the diffuse, resaved (as different name) then converted that.

Thanks for the tip I'll keep it in mind. Grrrrrrrrrr just went to boot it up and it wants an internet connection. Blagh that computer is not on the net for a reason!

 

[Miss B]

Of course, the biggest news everywhere is the Senate's healthcare bill ... which is just as mean as the House's and will result in almost as many people losing insurance as the house version.

I'm so tired of partisan politics. These people were elected to serve the people, not big business, and certainly NOT the party overloads.

You and me both. I just got another request today from AARP to help them fight these damn reforms the House and Senate are killing us with.

 

[quietrob]

You and me both. I just got another request today from AARP to help them fight these damn reforms the House and Senate are killing us with.

Don't get me started.

Today Trump came out and said, the News lies about him an Amazon hates him and pays no taxes. Taxes? Really? He's talking about NOT paying taxes and telling lies like making Mexico pay for the wall he isn't building?
The Congress...stop quietrob...just stop...

Don't
Get
Me
Started

 

[Miss B]

OK, I won't.

 

[Rae134]

Hi everybody, how is everyone today?

 

[Mythocentric]

Hi Rae! Sitting here at 3.15am and wondering why I'm not in bed! I blame Three Men In A Boat which I don't seem to be able to put down! Hilarious!

 

[Rae134]

Hi Myth! Its only 12.30 lunch time but I've been up since 1am (hubby snoring kept me up!). What's 3 Men in a Boat?