http://blogs.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2005/11/major_internet_.html
Major Internet Backbone Goes Down
Cogent, which runs one of the major Internet backbone networks that handles long-haul Web traffic, is currently down after its fiber network was somehow cut in two different locations. A look at Keynote's Internet Health Report site indicates serious problems across the board for Cogent. At the moment, even Cogent's homepage appears to be down from my location in Northern Virginia, serving up nothing more than a 404 File Not Found Error.
I spoke with Tecora Washington from Cogent. She confirmed that there were two fiber cuts; one that happened in New Orleans and a separate one in Washington, D.C. "This has effectively isolated the Southeast portion of Cogent's network."
Cogent spokesman Jeff Henricksen said in an e-mail that the network outage in New Orleans started this morning at 8:25 a.m. ET. He said work crews began repairs there at 1 p.m. ET today and that the company expects service to be restored within the next several hours. The Washington, D.C., outage began at 10:44 a.m. ET "after fiber there was damaged (crushed)." Henricksen said that damage should be repaired withing the next couple of hours.
This is creating some serious regional Internet traffic problems for some Internet service providers (ISPs), especially Comcast, according to individuals I spoke with today in Minnesota and in Pennsylvania. According to a thread over at Nanog, the outage is affecting ISPs from New York to Washington, D.C., and areas in the Southeast. The Internet Storm Center also is following this development. It is not clear when this problem will be fixed.
I'm not sure how often big fiber cuts like this happen at or near the same time on the same network at two major cities. Security Fix will update this post as more information becomes available.
What about you, Security Fix readers? Experiencing some serious slowness on your local network today? Drop us a line and let us know where you are and which ISP you use.
